I think he might be growing up:

Conservatives love to make a piñata out of Hollywood liberal Tim Robbins, but even they may lower their bats after they see him in "The Lucky Ones."

I thought we were the piñatas, but I'll let that one pass.

Robbins, Rachel McAdams and Michael Peña play soldiers who, on a month's leave from Iraq, become accidental companions on an often-comic road trip across America.

The movie, which Roger Ebert has compared to the William Wyler classic "The Best Years of Our Lives," could have turned into a polemic on the war. But Robbins was attracted to the script, written by director Neil Burger and Dirk Wittenborn, because "it's a story about humanity where the politics are irrelevant.

"What I liked about it was the way it threw together individuals who would have no reason to be hanging out, and showed their bond," Robbins told us at a New York screening the other night.

To research the role, Robbins traveled to Fort Dix, N.J. Not everyone there threw their arms around the man who, like his partner Susan Sarandon, has been a relentless critic of the Bush administration. He recalled, "One soldier said, 'I don't agree with your politics, but I want you to know there was a guy I served with. He and I didn't see eye to eye politically on a damn thing, but I liked his character, and if there was anyone next to me in a hostile situation, it would be him.'

"I wanted to make a picture for those troops, something they could enjoy," added Robbins. "Right now, we need healing. We need to understand the experience of what it's like for the troops to come home."

Well, Tim—there are a lot of people who do understand that. But thanks for listening. Welcome aboard.

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Let's see. What are our options?

Well, there's (1) Religulous, which is apparently based on Bill Mahar making fun of people who believe in God. I mean, that guy is so funny anyway! I'll bet seeing him make fun of religion will have 'em rolling in the aisles.

That sounds like fun. Or there is W. (the site has sound enabled!), which I've been told makes G.W. Bush the anti-Christ. It certainly makes sport of the guy who's handled some of the most challenging issues of our time. Imperfectly, for sure. But the timing is interesting: I wonder if the far left is trying to draw the same connection between G.W. Bush and John McCain that they drew between Rush Limbaugh and John McCain on the topic of immigration. (Yeah—no daylight between those two there.)

So I guess I'm on the horns of a trilemma. Is there such a thing as a trilemma? There would be if you crossed a rhinoceros with an elephant. Hey! I'm a trilemma!

Anyway, here's the dishy, talented, Kevin Farley, with Myrna Sokoloff, who's been working with David Zucker for years (ever since their guerilla ads for the 2004 campaign):

I wasn't able to see the whole thing (I need to install two more gigs of memory, on this machine), so I didn't see what Farley's response was to the question about his brother. But whether that question was tasteful or not, I'd love to see people treat Kevin as his own man, rather than an echo of Chris. Unless people are going to start grilling Luke Wilson about the crisis that Owen went through, or every interview with Jim Belushi is going to include a question about John.

Of course it isn't all about prurient interest in tragedy; people are also fascinated by "mixed marriages" and "mixed sibling philosophies." Carville and Matalin are asked about this all the time, and every time I've heard Stephen Baldwin interviewed someone has had to ask him what his brother thinks about [name the political issue].

Call my brother; he'll tell you that I'm a good kid, but kind of a nut. And that my "unorthodox" politics are probably some sort of rebellion thingie. With any luck, I'll grow out of it, steady up, and get a real job.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 07:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Appeared at CLC, and I missed it.*

So I Twitter-tweeted Eric Odom, to let him know that I think Kevin Farley is much better-looking than Michael Moore, whom he plays in An American Carol. (Oh. He plays an obnoxious filmmaker named "Michael Malone." My mistake.) And that Odom should tell Farley I said so.

I got this back: "I actually showed Kevin Farley your tweet while I was on the stage with him. :-) "

Kewl.

My response: "Excellent; I haven't met him, but he seems like a sweetheart, from what I've read and heard. Much MUCH cuter than the Evil Guy."

• • •

BTW: trailers and clips for David Zucker's An American Carol, which opens October 3rd, are here. That site doesn't always seem to get along with my Mac, so I've also been getting updates at "Old Faithful," the official An American Carol site. And—gee whiz—here the trailer:

See? They try to make Farley homely, like Michael Moore, but he just isn't.

Here's more—the An American Carol "montage," which I think I've posted before:

This is the site for getting updates from Vivendi. (If you're a media person, please let me know: I'm badgering the production company directly to give new media types some access to the people involved in this film, so we can talk it up a bit. I'm reachable at miss, then a dot, then attila. Then an "at" sign. Followed by Gmail.com)

Finally, the "guerilla"/parody site for An American Carol is from a "grass roots" organization called, of all things, MooveAlong.org. Hm.

An American Carol has to succeed, because it's important to demonstrate to "the industry" that if they want to make money, they need to embrace more diverse points of view than are currently found in entertainment.

David Zucker was a left-liberal who turned classical-liberal when he was "mugged by 9/11" back in 2001. We know him from the Naked Gun movies; the Police Squad! TV series; Scary Movie 4, Airplane!, H.U.D., The Kentucky Fried Movie, Ruthless People, and some wickedly funny political spots for the 2004 election season, here, here, here, and here.

Along with Kevin P. Farley, An American Carol stars Kelsey Grammer (as George S. Patton), Serdar Kalsin (as "Ahmed"), Geoffrey Arend (as "Mohammed"), and Robert Davi (as "Aziz"), along with the wonderful Jon Voight (the ghost of George Washington), Trace Adkins (the Spirit of Christmas Future), James Woods, Chriss Anglin (as John F. Kennedy), Dennis Hopper, and Leslie Nielsen.

It should be loads of fun: go opening night!

* I did not drive out for CLC or or the BlogWorld Expo, though both are in Las Vegas this year—more or less concurrently—and I could have had two for the price of housing + two tanks of gas. Instead, I'm saving that money to go out there in late October as part of a "get out the vote" effort for the Palin-McCain campaign. [Oh. Sorry: McCain-Palin. There we go.]

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According to Uncle Joe Benson of KLOS, it's Freddie Mercury's birthday today. Benson played "Dragon Attack" in his honor (though of course it's not one of the songs Freddie wrote). Nice to hear it; it had been a while.

Sir Elton on Freddie:

He was an extraordinary man; Benson says he would have been 62 today.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 05:39 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Ann and Nancy, are you sure about this?

Because I buy music. I buy it compulsively. I buy more music than I buy premium gin.

I have several of your albums on vinyl, and one on CD, and several more tracks that I got through iTunes. I've been meaning to get Hope and Glory, and was considering picking up another album from the old days of the 1970s. I know I can listen track by track off my computer, or on the iPod, but . . . there's something about listening to an entire album all the way through that really floats my boat. Something about having a Cruiser with a sunroof, I suppose.

I saw you in concert in 1980. Really: I'm that fucking old.

You must reconsider, O My Heart-throbs. There are a lot of Libertarian rock and roll people out there; didn't Reynolds mention recently that he'd just listened to to Dreamboat Annie again, and thought "Crazy on You" was the best song ever written about oral sex? (Oh, sorry: "the best Cold War-inspired song about oral sex ever." My bad.)

Even Chris Muir has been promoting you.

* * *

Hog Beatty: "Dreamboat Annie? Now that album is great, from beginning to end." The man is a walking encyclopedia of rock and roll, dressed up as a blueprint salesman. I was actually going to ask him to dissect for me the differences between the drumwork in "Barracuda" versus "The Immigrant Song," which of course Ann Wilson covered in Hope and Glory. Both songs depend on drums and superhuman lungpower. When I was in high school I was more of a Queen chick than a Led Zepp girl; something to do with the fact that my friends played chess more than they smoked dope, I suppose. Now that I am putatively a grownup, I can listen to whatever I like.

* * *

And, um, RNC? If we're going to use the song, we should be paying the Wilson sisters something for it; fair is fair.

Can't we find whoever-it-is that negotiated the deal between Rush Limbaugh and Chrissie Hynde, and get this ironed out?

We can work it out. Can't we?

Posted by: Attila Girl at 10:39 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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I think it's Audrey Rapaport, who has apparently relocated to New York City.

I can kind of see a ballpark similarity between Audrey and Lisa, but I still think this is an Audrey production because of that distinctive curl of the lips that's much more Rapoport-esque than Nova-ish.

But I cannot be sure.

Will the real fake-Sarah, fake-Hillary stand up? (And, with all due respect for both John McCain and Sarah Palin, I do thing the first clip is hilarious. It's essentially the Republican version of that SNL skit from a few months ago in which Obama gets into the White House—but has to call up Hillary every night to ask for advice. So relax!)

I just wish I could be positive. Lisa, or Audrey?

I still think it's Audrey, because I've seen her in a few plays here in Los Angeles—and I got a good look at her up close once when she was doing improv.

Original Sunset Boulevard clip is here, for reference. Audrey (or is it Lisa?) does a wonderful job. I love Lisa (or is it Audrey?).

And, by the way, I hope the Mad TV fans are not mixing up Lisa Nova with Lisa Arch, (aka Lisa Kushell) who is, of course, also a veteran of that show.

h/t: This whole thing started off via Allah's post at Hot Air earlier in the day. I just can't look at that Palin impression and think it's anyone other than Audrey.

UPDATE: Pwned. It was Lisa, which I would have realized if I'd followed the link back to her playground on YouTube in the first place.

But the resemblance, and the knack for caricature, is uncanny.

Hm. She and Rapaport should do something together: Desperately Seeking Sarah, or something like that.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 05:08 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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