>Clint Eastwood squinted like Dirty Harry Tuesday night as he took
>aim at Michael Moore.
This was in the NY Times "gossip" column the other day, which is surely the worst gossip column on earth.
New York Times - January 11, 2004
BOLDFACE NAMES Call Us Crazy, but We See a Buddy Movie Here By JOYCE WADLER
MICHAEL MOORE did something shocking for the People's Choice Awards show in Los Angeles on Sunday night - he got himself coiffed.
We're not saying for sure that there was product in the hair; but it certainly looked as if "Queer Eye for the Filmmaker Who Wants That Academy Award Really Bad" had made an emergency house call:
The hair had been trimmed and trained in such a way as to head upward; the scruffy beard we saw only last week in New York had become one of those crisp trendy goatees; the guy was wearing a handsome dark suit and a tie. When "Fahrenheit 9/11" won the best picture award, Mr. Moore dedicated his award to parents with sons and daughters serving in Iraq.
Oh, excuse us, Instant Message from a Columbia J-School young 'un: You're certainly not suggesting that the nomination for the most prestigious award in the country would be given because of middle-of-the-road acceptability or popularity of the director? The Academy Award is given strictly of the basis of merit, is it not? Our reply: Absolutely. The only reason we cannot wait to see what happens with Mr. Moore's look on Jan. 26, the day after the Academy Award nominations are announced, is that he is such a style icon. People magazine, we hear, is naming him "Sexiest Filmmaker to Make a Documentary with the Word 'Fahrenheit' in Its Title in the Year 2004."
Another surprise: Mr. Moore and MEL GIBSON, whose "Passion of the Christ" won for motion picture drama, are fans of each other's work. Asked if he had seen Mr. Gibson's film, Mr. Moore lighted up.
"I saw it twice," Mr. Moore said. "It's a very powerful film. I'm a practicing Catholic. My film might have been called 'The Compassion of the Christ,' though. The great thing about this country is the diversity of voices. When we limit the voices, we cease being a free society."
When Mr. Gibson walked to the press room lectern, he and Mr. Moore seemed delighted to meet each other.
"I feel a strange kinship with Michael," Mr. Gibson said. "They're trying to pit us against each other in the press, but it's a hologram. They really have got nothing to do with one another. It's just some kind of device, some left-right. He makes some salient points. There was some very expert, elliptical editing going on. However, what the hell are we doing in Iraq? No one can explain to me in a reasonable manner that I can accept why we're there, why we went there, and why we're still there."