Courtesy of CNN and their shitty embed code, here’s a new clip from W, Oliver Stone’s George W. Bush biopic which no one will see. In it, a youngish Dubya (Josh Brolin) meets sexy chimney Laura Welch (Elizabeth Banks) at a Texas barbecue. He asks her what she does and she classily replies “I smoke”. Which gives Dubya an opening to say, “Must be cuz ur so hot!” and sock her in the shoulder, but he of course misses it. What a crappy president.

Today Empire Magazine has a new picture of Josh Brolin and Elizabeth Banks as George W. and Elizabeth Banks in Oliver Stone’s W. It shows George W. Bush as an attractive cowboy, because everyone knows our weaselly, prep-school-attending, Yale-cheerleader president is an attractive cowboy. Stone tells Empire:

“Obviously, in making the film, we discovered dimensions of humanity, and that was important,” says Stone of Dubya. “There was empathy, like Nixon. But, unlike Nixon [a previous subject of an Oliver Stone biopic], he’s more of a circular character; even now he harkens back to who he was in 2000. His speeches are the same. There doesn’t seem to be a growth. There’s a fundamental inability in the man, a King Lear kind of hubris, where he can’t admit to any fault, whereas Nixon seems to have been genuinely haunted by doubt and uncertainty.

“As a result, this is a very different type of movie. While Nixon was a very rich meal, this is more of a soufflé. And with a soufflé, you never quite know until it bakes.”

I thought I had a King Lear hubris once. I tried to squeeze it out but I ended up crapping myself. Anyway, I think what Sir Douchebag is trying to say here is that if you see this, you should get really baked first.

[via Empire, who has another new picture that I'll make you go over there to see]

George W. Bush biographers (who I’m sure are the life of every party) have reviewed early drafts of the screenplay for Oliver Stone’s upcoming biopic.  Surprisingly, they found that it wasn’t the most even-handed piece of cinematic journalism.

"It leaves you with the impression that the White House is run as a fraternity house with no reverence for hierarchy, the office itself or for the implications of policy," said Robert Draper, author of "Dead Certain: The Presidency of George Bush." "Everybody calling everybody else nicknames and chatting about whether to go to war as if they were chatting about how to bet on a football game really misses the mark of how many White Houses, including this one, are run."

Jacob Weisberg ("The Bush Tragedy") was skeptical about Stone’s claim that he wants to make "a fair, true portrait" of Bush. "His saying he is going to be fair to Bush is like Donald Trump saying he is going to be modest," Weisberg quipped.

“Bully quip, old chap!” said the other biographers in unison, tapping the tips of their canes together. Weisberg blushed, and gulped his mint julep.

"The problem here is it goes to this notion of Bush as being the passive receiver of policy and the White House being run by Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove and others," Draper said. "Bush’s adversaries have been ill-served by this belief that Bush is an observer to his own presidency. This notion that his schedule is driven by what’s on ESPN is ludicrous."

A guy whose NFL movie included a scene in which a player gets his eye pulled out of its socket made a movie about Bush, and it seems embellished?  Why, I’m as surprised as you are, retarded deaf kid on a see-saw.

The biographers were split on the accuracy of some eye-popping details in the screenplay, including scenes in which Bush nearly crashes a plane while under the influence of alcohol and another in which he tells wife Laura he wishes his father had not been elected president.

Stone declined comment for this report. Screenwriter Stanley Weiser, who wrote "W" and also co-wrote Stone’s "Wall Street," said, "I have no comment other than the fact that I have read 17 books on Bush."

Stone hopes to release the movie while Bush is still in office, which seems ridiculous considering they still don’t have a distribution deal. 

All four Bush biographers cast doubt on one scene in which a wave crashes on a rocky promontory as Bush reveals, "There’s this darkness that follows me . . ."

"He doesn’t think or talk like that," Weisberg said. "The darkness sounds like they’ve been listening to too much Springsteen. It doesn’t ring psychologically true to me."

It sounds true to me, but I think it’s obvious that Bush was referring to Condoleeza during the scene in question..  Anyway, there are plenty of other claims made by the movie whose accuracy is debatable, so check out the source article if you’re into hearing a group of people who choose to spend their lives writing about one person debate that kind of stuff with each other.  It’s fascinating stuff, like a naked lesbian mud fight on acid, truly.  

[Reuters/Yahoo]

In case you missed American Gangster, No Country for Old Men, Grindhouse, or In the Valley of Elah, Oliver Stone wants to make sure you got the memo that Josh Brolin is in every movie now by casting him as the lead in his George W. Bush biopic. 

Oh yeah, did I mention that?  Oliver Stone is doing a GWB biopic.  Ha, more like a bioprick! Put that in your pipe and smoke it, election stealer!  UA pulled the plug on Stone’s Ma Lai massacre film Pinkville after the writer’s strike, which Stone believed was just an excuse – the real reason being the failure of another war-themed UA project, Lions for Lambs.  But since the GWB pic, tentatively titled POTUS or Misunderestimated has a completed script (from Wall Street writer Stanley Weiser), Stone was free to pursue it. 

"It’s a behind-the-scenes approach, similar to ‘Nixon,’ to give a sense of what it’s like to be in his skin," Stone told Daily Variety. "But if ‘Nixon’ was a symphony, this is more like a chamber piece, and not as dark in tone. People have turned my political ideas into a cliche, but that is superficial. I’m a dramatist who is interested in people, and I have empathy for Bush as a human being, much the same as I did for Castro, Nixon, Jim Morrison, Jim Garrison and Alexander the Great." [Variety]

Wait, what? Jim Garrison? Is that the guy from South Park? And psst, Mr. Stone? You probably shouldn’t mention Alexander. 

"Here, I’m the referee, and I want a fair, true portrait of the man. How did Bush go from an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world? It’s like Frank Capra territory on one hand, but I’ll also cover the demons in his private life, his bouts with his dad and his conversion to Christianity, which explains a lot of where he is coming from. It includes his belief that God personally chose him to be president of the United States, and his coming into his own with the stunning, preemptive attack on Iraq. It will contain surprises for Bush supporters and his detractors."

Oh boy, a political movie from the man who famously remarked, “All n!ggers love Scarface,”  Dr. King would be proud.  

I love it when jackass celebrities get involved in politics*, because when I discuss topical issues at the fancy New York dinner parties I’m always attending, I like to pepper my statements with phrases like “Well, if you’ll remember what Barbra Streisand said…” and “I was watching Oprah the other day…” because it just makes me sound that much smarter, you know?  Thank God I have famous people to articulate my points for me.

*Clooney gets a pass – Clooney always gets a pass.