Hollywood Too Conservative for Stone

Not too long ago, Political Machine had a Hollywood moment, featuring an early preview of Oliver Stone's 'W' script and an analysis on why the director is rushing to get the film done before the November vote.

At the time, details about the film were scant. We knew Josh Brolin would be playing the President, Elizabeth Banks would be playing the First Lady and that Ellen Burstyn would be taking on the Barbara Bush role, but little else.

Now, thanks to Entertainment Weekly, we have a few more details on the movie, which is still in the pre-production stage (location scouting, casting, procuring Fiji water). However, among the many interesting things we've learned, we now know that Stone has had a hard time getting big-time actors to sign-on to play the Bush Administration's heavy hitters (Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld).

''You'd be amazed how many male stars of a certain age in Hollywood are Republicans,'' says Bill Block, CEO of QED, one of the producers for 'W'. ''I'm not going to name names, but a lot of them just didn't want to have anything to do with it.''

So, how did Oliver Stone convince rising star Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men) to take on such a controversial role? He appealed to the actor's intelligence, naturally. ''When Oliver approached me about George Bush my initial reaction was 'Why would I want to do that?' But Oliver pointed out certain simi¬larities I had with the character. We both have well-known fathers. We both grew up in the country. We both have strong mothers.''

If that wasn't bad enough, Brolin is driving his wife "crazy" trying to imitate Dubya's Texas/Connecticut drawl. ''I'm talking to myself all day long,'' Brolin says.

B. Brandon Barker is the author of the novel Operation EMU.