Jewish World Review July 28, 2004 / 10 Menachem-Av, 5764

Lloyd Grove

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Hall of mirrors; clothes declare the candidate; more


http://www.jewishworldreview.com | BOSTON — Just how news-starved and self-absorbed are the journalists covering the Democratic National Convention?


Tuesday morning, nearly a dozen television, radio and print reporters (me included) had nothing better to do than swarm over a train track near the FleetCenter, where Robert Altman was filming a scene from the mockumentary "Tanner on Tanner."


The premise of the Sundance Channel-backed production is that Alex Tanner, the thirtysomething daughter of former presidential candidate Jack Tanner (whose losing campaign was chronicled in "Tanner '88") is making a documentary about her politician-dad.


Here at the Democrats' four-day political commercial — where the "Tanner" troupe is shooting all week — real politicians and real media types mingle on camera with the fake ones while, off camera, real media types watch and take notes on the fakes, who then give interviews to the real journalists during down-time, and so on and so forth . . .


"I was at a party last night with a bunch of politicians, and people thought I looked familiar, but they thought I was a politician, too," said actor Michael Murphy — Tanner in the original and the sequel. "I went around introducing myself, 'Hi, Jack Tanner.' It's like I'm one of them. I'm 66, but I don't look it. . . . But Gary Hart" — the model for the original Tanner — "looks a little funny now, doesn't he?"


"Doonesbury" cartoonist Garry Trudeau, the screenwriter of both "Tanners," chatted as director Robert Altman set up the scene on the train track — in which Alex Tanner (played by Cynthia Nixon) tries to persuade "Air America" host Al Franken to do an interview while Franken blows her off and bounces jokes off Janeane Garofalo.


"It's a hall of mirrors," Trudeau told me. "On Monday, we were all packed into a skybox and shot a scene in which Alex Tanner is supposed to be filming an interview with Ron Reagan. She also has someone trailing her with a camera — because they're making a documentary about Alex Tanner making a documentary about her father. And Ron Reagan has a camera crew from MSNBC, and there's also another crew from the 'NewsHour.'


"But then the real Alex Kerry shows up at the same time, because she also has an interview with Ron Reagan. She's making a documentary about her father. So there's confusion because both are named Alex, and they're both the daughters of presidential candidates and documentary filmmakers."


Hilarity ensues?


"She's really a very good actress. I mean Alex Kerry," Trudeau said. "We could have used her performance from any of the three takes we shot."

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CLOTHES DECLARE THE CANDIDATE


Everybody else is doing it around here, so why can't P. Diddy "butler" Farnsworth Bentley try his hand at political punditry?


"Neither candidate wears a pocket square! They ain't dressed! At least Ronald Reagan wore a pocket square," Bentley lamented at the Roxy nightclub, where he offered free advice to John Kerry Monday night. "What if Kerry's wife spills something on her blouse? Or what if right before he walks out to do a speech, he spills something on his beautiful, expensive Hermes tie?"


Bentley spared understudy John Edwards. "Edwards lately has been lookin' real young boy hot, real sophisticated, and a lotta old world charm — old world charm — has been comin' out of his closet."


But isn't a term like "old world charm" a little too Republican-sounding? "It is not conservative to be absolutely well dressed and spend money on your clothing," Bentley answered. "The hip-hop stars — the gentlemen in hip-hop — are better dressed than these politicians."


THE BRIEFING


NYAH-NYAH!: Fox News terror Bill O'Reilly turned Tuesday's oh-so-serious Creative Coalition panel discussion on the future of arts funding into open-mike day. Before the proceedings got underway at the Sports Club-L.A., O'Reilly leaned into fellow panelist Rep. Harold Ford, D-Tenn., who hosted Monday's big bash at the Roxy, and muttered: "Congressman, I heard you were pretty wild at your party last night." Ford shot back: "If your staff hadn't stayed so late, we could have ended it earlier."


HOW ABOUT FRANCE?: Where have all the A-list celebs gone? The pickings are pretty slim this week for the Hollywood-friendly Democrats. "The convention's not the best place to use your celebrity might — there's other ways you can do it," Scottish actor Alan Cumming told this column. "In a way, here you're preaching to the choir." For Cumming, who's been living in the U.S trying to get his citizenship, the stakes in November are especially high: "I'm going to wait and see who wins. If Bush gets back in, I'm totally getting out of this country. I'm not going to want to be a citizen of this place."



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