“Why can’t he learn how to give a better speech?” With the State of the Union address looming next month, Joe Biden’s Hollywood critics and supporters increasingly ask that question as they see his approval ratings tank even as his policies gain favor.
Talk with Michael Douglas, Robert Redford, Warren Beatty and others who have portrayed U.S. presidents and political climbers during their careers and they all describe their intense self-training in presidential cadence and elocution. Even Ronald Reagan habitually consulted coach Michael Deaver (and wife Nancy), while Lyndon Johnson demanded the presence of director Franklin Schaffner. They worked hard at it.
“A presidential speech today is like seeing a Marvel movie with no action,” observes filmmaker Barry Levinson. In his hilarious 1997 movie Wag the Dog, a desperate president hires political hustlers, played by Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro, to drum up a fake political crisis...
Talk with Michael Douglas, Robert Redford, Warren Beatty and others who have portrayed U.S. presidents and political climbers during their careers and they all describe their intense self-training in presidential cadence and elocution. Even Ronald Reagan habitually consulted coach Michael Deaver (and wife Nancy), while Lyndon Johnson demanded the presence of director Franklin Schaffner. They worked hard at it.
“A presidential speech today is like seeing a Marvel movie with no action,” observes filmmaker Barry Levinson. In his hilarious 1997 movie Wag the Dog, a desperate president hires political hustlers, played by Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro, to drum up a fake political crisis...
- 2/3/2022
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
NBC revealed a first look at Celina Smith as Annie in “Annie Live!,” which airs on Dec. 2 at 8 p.m.
The image sees Smith wearing the titular orphan’s famous white-collared red dress, “holding hands” with the dog who will play Sandy in the production. Smith, who is 12 years old, was cast after NBC’s nationwide search for a “future star” to take the iconic role. She’s most recently been seen as Rebecca in “Tyler Perry’s Young Dylan” on Nickelodeon and has also played Young Nala in the touring company of “The Lion King.”
“Annie Live!” also stars Harry Connick Jr. as Daddy Warbucks, Taraji P. Henson as Miss Hannigan, Nicole Scherzinger as Grace Farrell, Tituss Burgess as Rooster Hannigan and Jane Krakowski as Lily St. Regis. Executive producers include Robert Greenblatt, Neil Meron and Alex Rudzinsky, with Lear deBessonet and Alex Rudzinski directing. Choreography will be led by Sergio Trujillo.
The image sees Smith wearing the titular orphan’s famous white-collared red dress, “holding hands” with the dog who will play Sandy in the production. Smith, who is 12 years old, was cast after NBC’s nationwide search for a “future star” to take the iconic role. She’s most recently been seen as Rebecca in “Tyler Perry’s Young Dylan” on Nickelodeon and has also played Young Nala in the touring company of “The Lion King.”
“Annie Live!” also stars Harry Connick Jr. as Daddy Warbucks, Taraji P. Henson as Miss Hannigan, Nicole Scherzinger as Grace Farrell, Tituss Burgess as Rooster Hannigan and Jane Krakowski as Lily St. Regis. Executive producers include Robert Greenblatt, Neil Meron and Alex Rudzinsky, with Lear deBessonet and Alex Rudzinski directing. Choreography will be led by Sergio Trujillo.
- 10/22/2021
- by Selome Hailu
- Variety Film + TV
Between the launch of Stranger Things 3 on Netflix tomorrow and Donald Trump’s military hardware-heavy celebration, Fourth of July 2019 is going to feel a lot like a throwback to the closing years of the Cold War.
However, unlike those now seemingly almost balmy days of the Reagan Era, it’s the U.S. President going full Politburo parade on the National Mall, and the return of the Duffer Brothers’ Upside Down has loaded up its own narrative DeLorean with more plutonium than Dr. Emmett Brown was ever able to get from the Libyans in Back to the Future.
With that, unless you want to read a bunch of filler, there isn’t really much more I can say about Stranger Things 3 except that it’s back bigger than ever, though is has lost some of the charm of the original premise and premiere back in July 2016.
Now, not to say...
However, unlike those now seemingly almost balmy days of the Reagan Era, it’s the U.S. President going full Politburo parade on the National Mall, and the return of the Duffer Brothers’ Upside Down has loaded up its own narrative DeLorean with more plutonium than Dr. Emmett Brown was ever able to get from the Libyans in Back to the Future.
With that, unless you want to read a bunch of filler, there isn’t really much more I can say about Stranger Things 3 except that it’s back bigger than ever, though is has lost some of the charm of the original premise and premiere back in July 2016.
Now, not to say...
- 7/3/2019
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
From the “social strategy” by which Nancy Reagan conquered the Georgetown elite to her role in Ronald Reagan’s daring “fireside chat” with Mikhail Gorbachev, part two of this intimate chronicle of the Reagans reveals her as perhaps the most influential First Lady in recent history. Margaret Thatcher, Michael Deaver, Richard Helms, and Nancy herself, among others, share memories of the secret lunches with Katharine Graham, the power struggle between Reagan’s California “Kitchen Cabinet” and the Washington establishment, and the trauma of the assassination attempt, for a portrait of the marriage that shaped a presidency—and an era.
- 5/29/2009
- Vanity Fair
George Clooney's new TV project K Street had a helping hand from America's former First Lady Hillary Clinton. The movie hunk and production company partner Steven Soderbergh pitched the idea for their documentary/drama, all about what really goes on in the corridors of power on Washington's Capitol Hill, before they knew whether they could make a series. Their idea was to team real politicians up with actors to reveal what really goes on in American politics - but they only realized what an ambitious venture it was when cable channel HBO picked it up. Clooney reveals, "We did a TV pilot to get picked up by HBO, but before we did it that we were like, 'Let's see if we can actually do this. Can we actually put this together in this time?' Fortunately, Hilary helped us out with the test episode. It won't be shown, however." The show's consultant is Ronald Reagan's former aide Michael Deaver.
- 9/16/2003
- WENN
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