A fascinating report has surfaced on the forthcoming remake of The Manchurian Candidate, starring Meryl Streep. The utterly leftish but supremely talented actress portrays a United States Senator, maneuvering to get her son the Vice Presidential nomination, for the ultimate purpose of making the brainwashed pawn into the President, via assassination. The original film version, starring Laurence Harvey and Angela Lansbury, deviated from the Richard Condon novel on which it was based, while the remake is apparently closer to the original novel's plot.

What is utterly shocking is that the devious Senator portrayed by Streep is apparently modeled on Hillary Clinton, from hand gestures to hair style and fashion.

Unless Meryl Streep has turned over an entirely new post—9/11 ideological leaf, ala Dennis Miller, Roger L. Simon, and Christopher Hitchens, it seems unlikely that she is the source of the Hillary resemblance to her character. Which raises a few interesting questions.

The studio behind the movie is Paramount, no bastion of conservatives. Unless there is a rogue producer/director at team at work, or unless coincidences or unconscious processes are at work, this could well be a commercial calculation. Have the Hollywood elite decided that there is a big market for anti—Hillary films?

The past decade certainly demonstrated that a substantial market for anti—Hillary books exists. And Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ demonstrated that the under—served Christian market could propel a film's box office into the stratosphere.

Perhaps the studio bigs have finally realized that there's money to be made catering to conservatives. If so, what further film delights can we look forward to? Here are a few suggestions:

Tom and Linda A soft—spoken short guy finds love and riches marrying a beauty queen (the second time around), by having her lobby regulated industries dependent on legislation he can influence;

Chappaquidick Following an R—rated party, tragedy strikes a beautiful girl who had sought her fortune in the nation's capital. An extended dream sequence follows the immersion of the Oldsmobile in which she was riding. We get to see the life she hoped for, only to awaken to the image of large figure swimming away from the car as her terror—stricken face realizes that it isn't a dream after all.

Teresa!  A musical romp following a madcap white girl from Africa, as she goes from European boarding school student to Senator's wife to widow to Senator's wife again, but this time with a half billion dollars at her fingertips. The music and dance numbers, drawing on her African roots, will be a crossover dream, and the lavish sets of her five homes will draw oohs and ahhs from audiences. Since her second Senator/husband can only speak in one tone, his numbers will be rap riffs, further extending the African motif.

hat tip to Drudge

Posted by Thomas  06 14 04