Waiting For The Movie...

So there is going to be a movie about Joe and Valerie Wilson?  Don't kill me now - I want to feel the stake in my heart at the moment the film is announced as the winner of "Best Picture".

I assume that the verdicts and appeals in the current trial won't affect this movie, or Hollywood's "understanding" of the Wilson case - after all, if Libby is acquited, that will just prove how clever the cover-up was.  And if no one can say whether she was covert as per the IIPA, well, that just proves how deeply covert she was.

Oh, well - I can't wait to see how the screenplay treats all those reporters who misunderstood and misreported on the wisdom of Our Man Joe.  Wait, what am I saying?  Of course I can wait.

But enough about me - if this project leaves the ground and Jane Hamsher is not with it, she'll regret it... maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of her natural born life.

IN WHICH I RETHINK "KILL ME NOW": "Maybe the jury should start a blog…"

NOTE:  Re "I assume that the verdicts and appeals in the current trial won't affect this movie" - yes, I also assume that a verdict will precede the movie.  But what with parent-teacher conferences, PTA bake sales, and the grind of daily life, who can tell?

BUT SERIOUSLY:  This article on group facilitators and group problem solving techniques seems like a plausible guess as to what the jury may be up to.  Let me highlight the Post-it notes, since the jury has been running out of them:

Here are a few techniques for helping groups define problems:

...

Relationship Diagrams: Write a short statement of an issue     or problem on a card (or large post-it) and stick it on a blank wall. Give     everyone cards and ask them to identify the factors that affect the issue     or problem, writing one idea per card (big enough so that they are easy to     read). Move the cards around so that the factors that are related to each     other are located together. Analyze the relationships. Use colored tape or     strings to show cause-effect relationship Those cards that are most often     seen as being a cause (have the most tape or strings attached) are more likely     to be the root cause of your problem.

Whatever.  My official editorial position is that Libby has nothing to fear from a thoughtful jury - the more scenarios the jurors conjugate and contemplate, the more obvious it should become that reasonable doubt permeates this case.

   

Comments

[TexasToast]

Looks like Marcy et al are getting a bit high on their 15 minutes of fame - who wouldn't?

[clarice]

Now why would EW hope that the person in the jury deliberations she assumes is setting the narrative be more like Hamsher than like Tom?

[Tom Maguire]

Now why would EW hope that the person in the jury deliberations she assumes is setting the narrative be more like Hamsher than like Tom?

I think it is time we all admit that Tom is insane.

Oh, wait...

[jwest]

The movie needs a little “creative license” taken just to increase the box office.

Maybe Val could be played by Whitney Houston. Scooter and Cheney could wear white hoods while hatching their plot against her.

It might not be historically accurate, but it would convey the true sentiment of film.

[JohnH]

Jack Black as Karl Rove

Alec Baldwin as Fitz

Barbra Streisand furious when she is refused the role of Valerie

And for Joe Wilson...Brad Pitt or Sean Penn?

[hit and run]

Oh boy, can't wait to see the scene from Plameses 3rd or 4th date...

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

If Walter is correct about the MIT economist, this methodical deliberation might be his/her fault. The evidence is being tortured until it confesses.

Unfortunately for the FDLers, the confession will be, 'not guilty', if that's what's happening in the jury room. And Fitz's disingenuous and emotional close won't work.

[topsecretk9]

Oh for pete's sakes...I going to go throw up now.

[Sue]

And Fitz's disingenuous and emotional close won't work.

We have misunderstood, mischaracterized, and misquoted Fitz. Or so they tell me over at the swamp.

[goldwater]

Hollywood casting call:

Valerie Plame - Courtney Love
Joe Wilson - Jim Belushi

[PeterUK]

Only two people could do justice to the parts,Elizabeth Taylor and Roddy MacDowell.

[theo]

Doea anyone actually KNOW anything about the jury deliberations? (Other than that they are taking an enormously long time?)

It seems to me that in the absence of information people fill in the void with their hopes or their fears.

I still think that if this was a BDS infected jury there would have been a verdict by now -- guilty of course. The longer the slow and painstaking process takes the better for the defendant. If you think about anything long enough and hard enough, doubts begin to arise. Whether those doubts are "reasonable" is in the eye of the beholder of course but a long process pretty much precludes unanimous metaphysical certainty.

[Tom Maguire]

And Fitz's disingenuous and emotional close won't work.

Under "Bitter Recriminations" (i.e., if we get acquitals), that close ranks up with playing the full Libby tapes, including the waterboarding.

*Either* the jury gets swept along with the moment and convicts Libby, or that close sets BS detectors flashing - when the judge is telling you to disregard the prosecutor, just what impact does that have?

A week later, it does not look like the jury was swept away. So maybe they are wondering, why did the prosecutor tell us about all those people who died at the end - if that was for real, why not introduce it as evidence? Or, if it was not real, why is he BSing, and what else did he BS us about?

Oh, well. Maybe that is just wishful thinking.

[clarice]

PUK--I wish you and H & R and Soylent were doing the script..Hmmm..that gives me an idea.......*finger to lip*

[clarice]

If it's "wishful thinking" TM, two of us are angaged in it. Put another way, does a dishonest, emotional appeal full of b.s. lose it's impact on the bedpost over weeks?

[Sue]

Who gets to play Tom? I am trying to remember what he looked like in the brief appearance I saw on CNN.

[clarice]

**Engaged***Sorry too many threads of interest today.

[Other Tom]

See the thing about Mars getting warmer too? Think Martians are selling any of those offsets? Could be an interplanetary market...

[Ralph L.]

Sue, How Rude! Just name the sexiest actor you can think of.

[Ralph L.]

"Does your BS lose its flavor, on the bedposts overnight?" Euuh, I'll stick to gum.

[Alcibiades]

The swamp quotes Schanberg in the Observer. Interesting because it's paradigmatic of liberal logic in general:

Whether or not Mr. Fitzgerald gets a conviction, he has established a trial record that will establish the administration’s guilt. Sprinkled throughout are the names of most of the neoconservatives who had been planning the current Iraq War ever since the 1991 Gulf War ended with Saddam Hussein still in power.

Ah hah. The Administration had neoconservatives planning the war ever since 1991. Therefore they are guilty. Of being neoconservatives above all elese.

Did you all know that this was what Fitz set out to prove?

[secarr]

Good point, Theo.

[PMII]

Joe Wilson - Jackie Gleason
Valerie Plame - The lady who played Mary, women of Scots w/ the white make-up

[sbw]

Joe Wilson -- Will Farrell playing it as inthe Producers: Franz Liebkind-like.

[dorf]

John Paul Stevens can play Joe.

[BumperStickerist]

Were I casting this movie:

Tea Leone plays Valerie
Her husband David Duchovny plays Joe Wilson

The part of Dick Cheney will be played by cellos and basses - sort of like the shark's theme from 'Jaws' - only scarier, because he's Dick Cheney:

Cool facts about Dick Cheney

[maryrose]

PMII:
That would be Glenda Jackson whom I believe is dead.

[Ralph L.]

BStickerist, at the last State Opening of Brit. parliament, the band played Darth Vader's leitmotif for the arrival of Tony Blair.

[Ralph L.]

So's Jackie Gleason. That's the point.
Sorry about Glenda.

[Missy]

I think Chris Matthews should borrow one of Olberman's hairpieces for the role of Joe Wilson and Andrea Mitchell should play Val.

Could you find any others who would put as much heart into the performance?

I wish to thank all who contribute to this blog for providing so much wit, humor, and insight throughout this trial, I've been addicted to all of it.

[hit and run]

sbw - I like Will Farrell as Joe!

I was thinking Michael Richards...but now...

I'm stuck on Val.

Molly Shannon (as in Mary Katherine Gallagher)?

[PMII]

Ralph L.

Thanks!

[Jeff Z]

Not very imaginitive casting...How about:

Joe Wilson: Jon Lovitz
Valerie Plame: Darryl Hannah
Nick Kristof: Jason Alexander
Judith Miller: Jennifer Coolidge
Walter Pincus: David Spade
Bob Fitgerald: Michael Richards
Bob Woodward: Steve Martin
Richard Armitrage: Refrigerator Perry
Robert Novak: Dan Ackroyd
Andrea Mitchell: Sean Young
David Korn: MacCaulay Culkin
Karl Rove: Bill Murray
Scooter Libby: Larry David
Judge Walton: Eugene Levy

It's a start, anyway.

[clarice]

HEH! And who will play TM, wiseguy?

[boris]

Tom Hanks maybe/

[Alcibiades]

Glenda Jackson whom I believe is dead.

Glenda Jackson isn't dead. She's a British Labour MP, anti-war.

Besides you mean Vanessa Redgrave.

Glenda Jackson played Elizabeth in both the mini-series and movie, not Mary.

[hit and run]

Fitzgerald - Michael Richard....there! That's it. Perfect casting.

I would pay good money to see a Michael Richards performance of the rebuttal....

"Madness! Madness!"

Jeff Z. grrrreat job...though, I might favor Larry David as Joe, just to spite the important hair. But I'm petty.

[Greta Van Sustern]

Forget whose gonna play Joe and Val. Who's gonna play me?? Angelina Jolie, perhaps?

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

Here's an intriguing subplot:

'This weekend those [cable news] channels gave thorough coverage to one of the great mysteries of our time: Who is the father of the late Anna Nicole Smith’s baby? The issue may ultimately have to be settled by the Florida supreme court. (The child does not yet appear to have implants.)

'But we can’t rule out the possibility that the same man is the father of Mary Cheney’s baby. Everything seems to point to Scooter Libby, unless he’s being made the fall guy again. The vice president has called Libby “one of the finest individuals I have ever known.” That’s a fall guy, all right. Most people don’t call their friends “individuals.” When the Cheneys need something done, they turn to Scooter.'

[PeterUK]

The flickering candle light glinted on the the fine crystal of their champagne flutes,they looked into each others eyes with longing.Tentatively he placed a hand on her smooth silk clad thigh,she ran her fingers through the golden mane of hair fluttering her long luxurious lashes.
Suddenly his hand encountered some thing hard and cold,"I'm terribly sorry my Dear I had no idea you had a prosthetic".

The magic was broken abruptly by a three round burst of 7.62 rounds ripping through the polished wood floor to whine around the concrete garage below.
"Don't be so silly Darling", she trilled,"I'm covert"...."Sorry I was so excited I forgot to put the safety on"

[COld ham]

Missy-

Speaking of Olberman...Does anyone know when he is gonna quit wearing that fake nose/eyeglass/mustache get-up on the air????

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

'Valerie Plame: Darryl Hannah'

I caught Darryl debating Ann Coulter a few nights ago over Global Warming. Ann kept asking her where she thinks those solar panels on her house come from (i.e. a factory running on fossil fuels).

[Charlie (Colorado)]

does a dishonest, emotional appeal full of b.s. lose it's impact on the bedpost over weeks?

... or its flavor overnight?

[Carol Herman]

FROM CAROL HERMAN

All I saw was the DRUDGE knows how to feed the beast! He's not talking about Libby's trial at all. But he throws a bone to Warner Bros.

A load of BS. Since by the time any movie comes out, this jury will have either discovered, when they come out fully dressed on Monday, that the audience DISAPPEARED.

Or? They'll become BUTTS of jokes. Like in "how did they arrive at that conclusion?"

There's enough holes in this case for WELLS to RACE to the DC CIRCUIT. Not actually "far away on Pluto," if you get my drift.

And, once he gets the paperwork TO the APPEALS "people" ... you'll be in for another ride. Sort of like discovering your old man bought a bottle of Viagra.

The only way interest really cancels out is if this jury acquits.

If there's gonna be a movie? It won't see lines as long as movies had in the past.

As to Tom Hanks "opening anything" ... all you'll see is BOMB. Just like Jennifer Anison. So, maybe, she can play plame?

Whose gonna play wife #2?

As to my habits, where I listen to DRUDGE every Sunday night, trying not to miss a beat; I heard last Sunday, while the "most forgettable Oscar's in 72 years played out; that ALL the movies, now, done by hollyweird is done for the FOREIGN OFFICE. Where the films garner more cash than here.

AH HA! Said I. So Chirac gets to pluck at American movie profits! No wonder there is so little cash left over for the rest of the industry.

If you think, by the way, that I am wrong? Go ahead. Call your broker. Buy some Warner Brothers stock.

Meanwhile? George Soros just plunked down a few million on Halliburton. Which tells me we've turned a corner in Iraq. And, soon enough, the BUILDING and the re-building of Iraq BEGINS. Call your broker. Not quite getting in on the ground floor. But the stock's not near it's high's this year, either.

Hey. In the movie, whose gonna play Clarice? What hollywood dame has big enough boobs?

[Syl]

I've got it! I've got it! er, rather my SO got it!

Valery Plame = Jane Fonda
Fitz = Al Gore

[Not Ron Jeremy]

Since the working title is Fair Game. Can the porno ripoff be Fairly Gamey?

[hit and run]

John Heder to play David Shuster?

[PMII]

PUK,

Stop, I f'ing wet my pants

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Hey. In the movie, whose gonna play Clarice? What hollywood dame has big enough boobs?

There are plenty of really immense boobs in Hollywood.

Tim Robbins, for example.

[roanoke]

Britney shave her head because she lost the part of Valerie Plame to David Spade.