Michael Moore's Donkey Party Prediction

Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Michael Moore's Donkey Party Prediction
2. Jessica Alba's 'Kissing for Dummies'
3. Brad Pitt's Reflections on Fame
4. Barack Obama Scores Big at 'Hollywood North'
5. '24' Goes to Law School
 

1. Michael Moore's Donkey Party Prediction

It looks like Michael Moore has decided to become a political analyst . . . at least that's what it sounded like at the Toronto International Film Festival when the “Sicko” filmmaker put on his pundit hat.

Moore is predicting that Rudy Giuliani will be the likely GOP nominee because of what he calls the former New York mayor's “trumped up, phony-baloney record on 9/11.”

The ill-tempered prognosticator also believes that in the Dem presidential primaries, Hillary Clinton's pro vote on the Iraq war will hurt her but will help Barack Obama.

Of course, Moore sees a big victory in the end for the Dems.

“The potential for a [Democrat] landslide is enormous. People do not want to vote for the Republicans,” he yammered.

With that said, though, Moore broadsided the donkey party.

He stated that “nothing is in the bag” and, in an apparent attempt to motivate folks, blithely pointed out that “the Democrats are professionals at screwing things up.”

2. Jessica Alba's 'Kissing for Dummies'

She's one of the hottest female stars and he's one of the hottest stand-up comics.

Jessica Alba and Dane Cook appear together in the Lions Gate film “Good Luck Chuck,” which is about a guy who discovers that every girl he gets involved with marries the next man she dates.

In the movie, Alba plays the role of a woman that Cook's character himself would like to marry.

In real life, Alba actually handed Cook some new comedy material on a silver platter when she was asked about the love scenes that she did with the comedian.

“Kissing? Well . . . ,” Alba tells Fox News, “I don't really remember. It was like kissing a dummy.”

Puppet puckering aside, Alba is a romantic when it comes to the way stories are told in movies.

“The films I do always have a happy ending,” she says, adding that she hopes “it reflects back to real life.”

3. Brad Pitt's Reflections on Fame

In his latest movie, “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” Brad Pitt plays famed outlaw Jesse James.

While out promoting the western at the Venice Film Festival, where in addition he snagged the Volpi Cup award for Best Actor, Pitt compared his own celebrity status with that of the lawbreaking icon.

“People have asked me today about the celebrity angle, and certainly that's one aspect of the film,” Pitt explained to The Associated Press, suggesting that the fame phenom was “not the main focus of the film.”

Still, he noted that James was one of the nation's biggest celebrities at the time. Pitt said, “The funny thing to me is that it doesn't seem that different today as it was then.”

The actor went on to draw some parallels between the stories about the old West and today's tabloid tales, pointing out that “a lot of it was manufactured, a lot of it was sensationalized, very little of it was based on truth . . . even after his [James] death.”

Pitt also bemoaned the media's excessive coverage “like we just saw with Anna Nicole Smith, the melee that ensues from it.”

He concludes that being a celebrity is “really quite similar, there's just more of it today.”

4. Barack Obama Scores Big at 'Hollywood North'

Barack Obama's Left Coast fundraising has hit a new high; he has raised more money in California than in any other state.

April through June saw Barack take in $4.2 million in the Golden State.

He had already acquired the high-powered support of Hollywood figures like David Geffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and George Clooney.

But recently, Oprah Winfrey, the most powerful woman in show biz, raised an estimated $3 million for Obama's campaign in just one evening.

At her palatial estate a ways north of Hollywood near Santa Barbara, 1,500 people shelled out the maximum contribution allowed by law, $2,300 each, for the Illinois senator and presidential hopeful.

Interestingly, the media were not invited.

Along with Oprah, Barack and wife Michelle who posed for individual pictures, the celebrity guest list included Sidney Poitier, Forest Whitaker, Chris Rock, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evans, Lou Gossett Jr., Cicely Tyson, Ellen Pompeo and Stevie Wonder, who also performed.

Word has it that Stevie's sweet crooning was loud enough to drown out the shrieks from Chappaqua.

5. '24' Goes to Law School

In the 2008 spring semester, some students at Georgetown University Law School will be hard at work analyzing the counter-terrorism tactics of Fox TV network's Jack Bauer.

A course titled “The Law of '24'” will be offered at the higher institute of learning and part-time professor Lt. Gen. Walter Sharp, staff director for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will be teaching the course.

It is a for-real class that grants law students two credits as they acquire, according to the description in the catalog, “a detailed understanding of a very wide range of U.S. domestic and international legal issues . . . in the context of the utilitarian and sometimes desperate responses to terrorism raised by the plot of '24.'”

The class meets on Tuesday nights so events of the most recent Monday night episode will be fresh on students' minds.

Rumor has it that Johns Hopkins plans to offer “The Medicine of 'Grey's Anatomy,'” Harvard “The Business Administration of 'The Office,'” and UCLA “The Developmental Psychology of 'Supernanny.'”