Release of the DVD version of Michael Moore'scontroversial Oscar-nominated documentary Bowling for Columbine, originally scheduled for next month, has been "postponed indefinitely."
News of the postponement was announced quietly late last week by MGM in the United States. Given that Bowling is a condemnation of, in Moore's words, "America's trigger-happy gun culture" and that it's circulating at a time when 250,000 U.S. troops have their guns aimed at Iraq, rumours naturally circulated that the DVD had been pulled for political reasons.
Moore, who, it's true, is vehemently against war against Iraq, wasn't answering queries along this line this week. However, both Michael Donovan,CEO for Salter Street Films, the Halifax-based co-producers of Bowling, and Carmite Cohen,director of home video for Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Distribution in Toronto, suggest a less sinister reason for the DVD's delay: Bowling for Columbine continues to be a huge hit in theatres around the world, having grossed more than $35-million (U.S.) since its release five months ago.
Moreover, interest in the film has been heightened both by its Oscar nomination as best feature-length documentary last month (the Oscars ceremony is March 23) and its relevance to the current tension-fraught international situation.
"Why put out the DVD if it's working in theatres?" was Donovan's take on it yesterday. "An Oscar win," he told Globe and Mail critic Liam Lacey, "could potentially double its earnings."
Cohen agreed. Furthermore, the success of the movie has made Michael Moore a very busy man, meaning he's not had time to give his attention to "the final elements of the DVD bonus material," she explained. "We had put this title in [DVD]production long before the Oscar nomination but because of its success, we were essentially bumped." Meanwhile, U.S. President George Bush probably has other things to ponder than whether a made-for-TV movie on his life in the immediate wake of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, should be shot somewhere in the republic he governs, or here in Canada.
As it stands, DC: 9/11 is scheduled to start principal photography in Toronto this spring, with Timothy Bottoms ( White Dawn; The Paper Chase) starring as Dubya and Penny Johnson as his faithful sidekick/National Security adviser Condi Rice. Also on board for the runaway production is George Takei ( Star Trek), playing Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta.
Bush reportedly allowed the movie's scriptwriter, Canadian-born Lionel Chetwynd,to interview him last year about his presidential activities and thoughts in the 10 days following 9/11.
Would he have co-operated had he known Canada was likely going to stand in for Camp David and the District of Columbia, thereby "robbing" dozens of jobs from Hollywood film workers? (Chetwynd, whose credits include Hanoi Hilton and The Heroes of Desert Storm, is a long-time Republican and a member of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.)
Another Canuck native, veteran director Dan Petrie Sr. ( Kissinger and Nixon; The Betsy; Lifeguard), originally was pegged to helm the shoot.
Now, apparently, Showtime U.S.A. wants a director of impeccable liberal credentials to neutralize the taint of Chetwynd's conservatism. The Rolling Stones should have no trouble accommodating the demand by the government of the People's Republic of China that they not perform four songs at their upcoming concerts there.
Contrary to their bad-boy image, the Stones have always been a pliant group, especially where money or beneficial exposure is concerned.
Take the group's appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on Jan. 15, 1967: Mick and the boys were told they couldn't perform Let's Spend the Night Together unless the lyric was changed.
Mick agreed -- although reports to this day vary as to whether he sang "let's spend some time together" or "let's spend the mumble together."
Still, as Keith Richards once observed, "it's only selling out if they haven't paid you enough," and it's an ethos the group has hewed to religiously over the decades.
Contrast Mick's behaviour with that of Jim Morrison nine months later when the Doors appeared on the same show. The Doors' lead singer apparently agreed before the program -- which also featured Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Sweden's Skating Bredos and Flip Wilson -- to alter the lyric "Girl, we couldn't get much higher" from Light My Fire. However, when the actual performance occurred, Morrison stuck with the original. Sullivan was apoplectic, with the result that the Doors never again showed their faces again on the Sunday-night staple.
Amusingly, Let's Spend the Night Together is one of the four songs Communist authorities don't want to hear when the Stones play Hong Kong on March 28 and 29; in Shanghai, April 1 and Beijing, April 4 (the last at the hilariously named Arena of the Proletariat). Given the size of the Chinese market, the top ticket price the Stones are charging ($265.75) and the trial run of The Ed Sullivan Show 36 years ago, the Stones should pass through this crucible without incident. Heritage Minister Sheila Copps has officially told the CBC that the Mother of All Crown Corporations will be receiving an additional $60-million in revenue in 2003-2004, just as it did in 2002-2003 and 2001-2002. As a result, CBC's total allocation from Canadian taxpayers will be $1.06-billion. It's the second consecutive year the public broadcaster has broken past the $1-billion mark after six consecutive sub-billion dollar parliamentary outlays.
In the weeks following the Liberals' Feb. 18 budget, there was some confusion as to just what the CBC could expect: $962-million? $997-million? $1.58-billion? $1.0575-billion? Having received the word, CBC president Robert Rabinovitch thanked Copps from the podium at the convention of the Association of Progressive Muslims of Canada, which they recently attended in Ottawa. With the next Gulf War seemingly just days away, surely it's not too much to expect Leslie Townes Hope (a.k.a. Bob Hope) to put on some sort of show for U.S. and British troops in the region. After all, this is the 60th anniversary of Hope's first combat zone USO tour (which the famous British-born "Ambassador of Good Will" made to North Africa and Sicily. Starting in 1964, U.S. troops in Vietnam received an amazing nine visits from "the Great Morale-booster").
True, Hope turns 100 in May, but he's reportedly fully recovered from the pneumonia that felled him in 2001, and is an avid watcher of CNN and Fox News from the comfort of his North Hollywood home.
While sidekicks Jerry Colonna and Martha Raye are very much deceased, former troupers Ursula Andress, Raquel Welch and Joey Heatherington are, at 66, 63 and 58, respectively, very much alive. Surely if Hope gave the word, they could be coaxed into their go-go boots again to form a coalition of frugging aboard U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln?