On the wires late in the week –

Sony Takes on 'Enemies' for Clarke Book
Fri Apr 9, 2004 08:07 PM ET

 

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Sony Pictures has optioned film rights to counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke's controversial best seller "Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror."

 

Really.  Honest.  The link will take you to the whole story. 

I was skeptical that this was movie material.  But then I read this amazing review…. 

Clarke’s Hot Book Best Beach Reading Since Ludlum, Proust
Robert Sam Anson, The New York Observer

 

Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror, by Richard A.  Clarke.  Free Press, 304 pages, $27. 

If you’re reading these words, you could probably use a hobby. 

What’s left to say, after all, about Richard Clarke’s book?  Anyone not living in a cave the last few weeks knows the headlines (Condi unconscious; Dubya dopey; Rummy and his neocon pals Saddam-obsessed).  And everyone knows how the story turns out, not least the principal villain—an actual cave-dweller. 

So, unless Architectural Digest is about to drop by and the designer bookshelf needs filling, why give another boost to Barnes and Noble’s bottom line? 

Here are 10 good reasons, none of which have anything to do with what you’ve seen on the tube and read in the papers. 

 

A great review, and by the way, here's one of the good reasons -

 

5.  Reveals thousands wasted hiring Naomi Wolf. 

Apart from the Supreme Court, the principal reason Al Gore isn’t President today is George W.  Bush’s successful portrayal of him as a wuss.  Naomi Wolf, you’ll recall, was recruited to counter that image by clothing the then Vice-President in earth tones, the better to make him seem an "Alpha Male." Turns out, Mr.  Gore already was; Florida voters just didn’t know it.  History might have been infinitely cheerier had they been privy to the following 1993 Oval Office meeting. 

To the horror of White House counsel Lloyd Cutler, Mr.  Clarke was recommending to the President an "extraordinary rendition"—spook-talk for snatching a terrorist without benefit of legal nicety—and Mr.  Clinton was still chewing his fingernails, when Mr.  Gore, fresh off a plane from South Africa, walked in:

"Clinton recapped the arguments on both sides for Gore: Lloyd says this.  Dick says that.  Gore laughed and said, ‘That’s a no-brainer.  Of course it’s a violation of international law, that’s why it’s a covert action.  The guy is a terrorist.  Go grab his ass.’"

They tried.  Not for the last time, they failed. 

 

True?  Who knows?  Go read the review. 

 

But the Gore scene would make a great scene in a movie….

 

You think the news and Hollywood don't mix?  Really?

 

I was running some errands Wendesday and came home by way of Hollywood Boulevard, and yes, there was a big crowd in front of the Hollywood Roosevelt.

Now I know what that was about.

Media Mogul To Receive Star On Walk Of Fame  - NBC - POSTED: 8:04 am PDT April 7, 2004 UPDATED: 9:50 am PDT April 7, 2004

LOS ANGELES -- Ted Turner, who inaugurated CNN in 1980, will receive a star Wednesday on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Actor Jeff Daniels will speak at the ceremony in front of the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel. Actresses Betty Garrett, Margaret O'Brien and Ann Rutherford are also expected to be on hand.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Nov. 19, 1938, and raised in Savannah, Ga., from the age of 9, Turner graduated from Brown University, where he was vice president of the Debating Union and commodore of the Yacht Club. ...

Yeah, yeah.  It really screwed up traffic.

And it's all entertainment now.