HBO movie "Game Change" premiere has been moved up to March 10. I can hardly wait!

I am VERY pleased that the premiere is so soon, as I am quite interested in how they will portray the choosing of Palin, as well as how she conducted herself on the campaign trail.

Here is what Julianne Moore, who portrays the Grizzled Mama in the film, has to say about her preparation:

"I did a tremendous amount of research," Moore told an audience of reporters at the Television Critics' Associations gathering on Friday. "The first thing I did was hire a vocal coach. For me, she has an incredibly idiosyncratic way of speaking. We looked at hours and hours of her speaking, I read her book, I read 'Game Change,' [I read] her assistant's book. Absolutely everything I could get my hands on." 

Moore is taking the lead in the March-scheduled TV movie, which is based on the 2008 campaign book "Game Change" by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. Ed Harris plays John McCain, while Woody Harrelson plays adviser Steve Schmidt. 

Moore praised Palin's "adorable" parenting, which she studied while watching the reality show "Sarah Palin's Alaska." She did not, however, rave about her preparedness to be a vice presidential candidate. 

"We have her displaying moments of sheer brilliance – I mean, she was unbelievably charismatic," she said. "Suddenly here was this working class mother who popped out and seemed to be able to command the world, but of course upon further inspection, she was clearly not prepared. She didn't necessarily have the experience necessary to lead our country, and that’s what we were attempting to characterize."

If Moore REALLY believes that Palin's parenting style is "adorable" that must mean she did NOT read "The Rogue" by Joe McGinniss, or have any real heart to heart conversations with the people who worked with her on the campaign.  (I also find it hard to believe she carefully read Frank Bailey's book either.) And if her sole source for making that determination is based on the heavily edited Palin mythology which vomited forth from SPA that is a little troubling.

However all is not lost, according to this review in the New York Daily News, it looks like they may very well have captured the essence of Sister Sarah after all:

At several points in HBO’s new movie “Game Change,” Julianne Moore’s Sarah Palin gets a look in her eye that you see in horror flicks just before the adorable 12-year-old chops her whole family into bite-size pieces. 

Maybe in this case it’s not quite that homicidal. But it very clearly says that what Lola wants, Lola gets. 

Oh yeah, that's the Sarah Palin we all know and loathe. I except I wouldn't be so quick to classify that look as "not quite that homicidal."

And it gets even better.


The McCain team tries to give Palin at least a quick Wikipedia course in politics, geography and government, only to have her pout and sulk like an 8-year-old when she can’t absorb it all. Her inner beauty pageant competitor also becomes convinced she looks fat and goes on a crash no-carb diet that sends into periodic stupors. 

She snaps back for her vice presidential debate with Joe Biden, however, when Schmidt decides that instead of learning the issues, she should just memorize all-purpose answers to 25 questions. 

This works so well that everyone thinks they’ve dodged the bullet — until they realize Palin now thinks she’s bulletproof. 

She starts refusing campaign appearances in situations that could help McCain, but might damage what she’s already seeing as her own political future. 

She tells Schmidt he only “gets in my way” and since these crowds are coming to see her, not John McCain, she will do what she wants. 

Schmidt asks McCain to talk to her. He refuses, saying, “She might turn against me, too.” 

Like I said in the headline, I can hardly wait!