Fair Game, the film about the Valerie Plame-Wilson/CIA-agent-outing is currently filming. Sean Penn is playing former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, Plame’s husband, and Naomi Watts stars as Plame. The film is being directed by Doug Liman (Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Jumper) and the script is adapted from Plame’s book. Naomi Watts is a good choice for Plame, but I wasn’t (and I’m still not) sure about Sean Penn in this role. His politics… well, let’s just say this story is very politically sensitive, and Sean isn’t.

Several actors have been cast as some of Washington’s most famous power-players, pundits and whack-jobs. But several of those Washington people may end up playing themselves in the film. This is what Sean Penn wanted – to cast Ann Coulter as herself. Somehow, Sean thought he could convince Ann to appear in the film and scream at Sean’s character, Joe Wilson. Ann said no… which might have been a smart move on her part.

Ann Coulter is too smart to be lured into a movie where she’d be made to look foolish.

The leggy conservative has turned down an offer from director Doug Liman to appear in “Fair Game,” his left-leaning film about the Valerie Plame affair starring Naomi Watts as the CIA agent whose cover was blown by columnist Robert Novak.

Sean Penn, who plays Plame’s underemployed husband Joseph Wilson, was pushing to have Coulter in a scene where she’d be screaming invectives at him. But Coulter said no.

[From NY Post “Page Six”]

I never know if Coulter’s whole thing is an act, or if she really is that rabid. I’ve read a few profiles of her that have come to the conclusion that it is an act, and one that Coulter has perfected. Other times, I kind of think that Ann might actually believe what she’s saying.

In either case, why wouldn’t Ann want to do a cameo in the film? She would get to scream at Sean Penn, whom she hates, and the representation of Joe Wilson, whom she hates. If she believes what she’s always said, why not go on film and say the same stuff? Perhaps Ann said no because she didn’t want to appear in a film that had such “liberal” leanings. Or she hates Sean Penn so much, she couldn’t even be in the same room with him? Oh, well. Another brilliant casting move bites the dust.

Ann Coulter is doing the talk show circuit to promote her new book, Guilty. The face of unyielding warped conservatism has been alienating more people than usual, maybe because she’s just been invited more places. She had a somewhat hostile self-important exchange with Matt Lauer on “The Today Show” last week and her latest argument was with the ladies on “The View” on Monday. Ann couldn’t really deal with legitimate questions about her very polarizing political stance that single mothers are the root of the world’s problems and incite youngsters into a life of crime. She kept yelling and trying to make her point throughout the interview and pretty much alienated everyone.

Ann personally insulted Whoopi Goldberg and Sherri Shepherd, both single moms, by going off about how single mothers are lauded by the media as victims when she thinks they’re the root of society’s problems. Whoopi asked Ann if she had children or was married, to which Ann haughtily responded that she wasn’t and it wouldn’t change the facts of her argument. Whoopi countered that if Ann did have children she would know more about what she was talking about. Even token conservative Elisabeth Hasselbeck seemed to disagree with Coulter’s extreme stance, and asked her why she wasn’t complaining about the fathers who had abandoned their children.

Around 6:00 minutes into the video above, Coulter starts to get very animated and upset, saying “Can we just talk about how you attacked me when I wasn’t here?”

Whoopi countered “We are not attacking you, you wrote something provocative.”

Coulter added “You read my book aloud like you were reading Mein Kampf [Hitler's autobiography] and you just did [attack me].”

Barbara Walters offered to read a passage from Guilty and Coulter sneered “Read it like you’re reading Mein Kampf again.”

Sherri chimed in after Walters read the passage, “Nobody is attacking you, I just don’t appreciate the way you’re talking to her.”

Whoopi said at the end “Nobody was putting you down or attacking you,” and Coulter kept talking over her at the end making some point about Halle Berry. Whoopi got the last word in, with “you can dish it out, but you can’t take it can you?”

Controversy sells and that’s why this woman is getting press for her outrageous claims. She jumps to unwarranted conclusions from flawed statistics that fit her political agenda. Maybe less talk show hosts will be willing to talk to her after the way she’s been behaving. When she generates ratings, though, it’s hard to ignore the hate.

Doesn’t it seem like Hitler always gets brought up when people don’t have a valid argument? What’s up with that?

My God, Ann Coulter is the portrait of insanity. I don’t know how she can be anything less than absolutely horrified at the sound of her own voice. It makes me want to crawl inside myself and die. Not to be overdramatic about it. Ann was reportedly banned from NBC over her new book “Guilty: Liberal ‘Victims’ and Their Assault on America.” Unfortunately it turns out that wasn’t true, or NBC caved, because after being pushed from the show on Tuesday, they let her come on yesterday. Coulter – never one to be gracious when she can avoid it – talked all about the supposed banning and insisted it was true. She heaped praise on the Drudge Report, who first circulated the story. And then enjoyed attacking Matt Lauer and generally being a complete snot whenever possible.

Lauer told Coulter that the reason her segment was dropped Tuesday was to make way for a live report from Israel on the conflict in Gaza by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Coulter countered that TODAY could have given her a different time slot. Lauer accused her of saying, “The mainstream media hates conservatives.”

“I didn’t say that,” Coulter said. She admitted that she agrees with the sentiment, “but I have much more colorful language.”

“We switched you for Tony Blair,” Lauer explained.

“The point is, I was canceled twice,” Coulter rejoined, referring to a second scheduled appearance on Tuesday with Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford in the show’s fourth hour that was also dropped. (On Wednesday, Coulter did make a second TODAY appearance with Kotb and Gifford, using the time to expand on her earlier discussion with Lauer.)

“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean you don’t have enemies,” Lauer quipped with a smile.

[From MSNBC]

That’s just a snippet, but the tone of the exchange is really hostile, despite how MSNBC tries to town it down in their article. Coulter went on to continuously refer to Barack Obama as “B. Hussein,” and went off on a diatribe about how there is this terrible “exaltation of single motherhood” in the media, and actually said, “Almost any societal problem is a problem of single motherhood.” She also claimed it wasn’t outrageous, it was a fact. The woman is an absolute sociopath. I am all for free speech, but if there’s any one person I could choose to metaphorically kick in the mouth, it’d be Ann Coulter. I do not understand how someone can be so ridiculously misguided and stupid. She’s so extreme that the hate she teaches really is dangerous. I’m disappointed she’s not banned from NBC. Maybe by her next book she will be.

Here’s Ann’s shocking interview. Try not to throw your shoe at your computer like I did.

A new printed parody of staple business newspaper The Wall Street Journal has executives at the paper embarrassed and upset. At least we can assume they have a problem with it since a WSJ employee has been trying to buy up copies on news stands, using different excuses. The parody, called “My Wall St. Journal” looks realistically like the actual paper, with the same font and inset illustration style. The articles are funny riffs on the conservative stance of new WSJ owner, tycoon Rupert Murdoch, in the tradition of similar fake news like The Onion.

The tabloid-format satire, “My Wall Street Journal,” mostly sets out to skewer The Journal’s new owner, the News Corporation, and its chairman, Rupert Murdoch, with swipes at News properties like Fox News, The New York Post and The Journal itself. It takes aim at other targets, too, including Wall Street firms and traders, and assorted politicians and pundits.

It was not supposed to go on sale until this week, but some newsstands began selling it early. Last Thursday, Alexander Laurence was working at one such stand in Los Angeles, chatting with a customer, David Metz, when, both of them say, a man in a shirt with a Journal logo asked if anyone had seen a paper that looked sort of like The Journal.

“This guy comes by all the time to bring promotional stuff for The Wall Street Journal — bags, coin trays, stickers,” Mr. Laurence said.

Sure enough, they found what he was looking for. “He grabbed them all, said, ‘I need to buy all of these,’ ” Mr. Laurence said. “He had been going around to different stands, buying them.”

The man paid with a corporate American Express card. “At first he’s saying they have to make a correction or it’s not supposed to be out yet,” Mr. Metz said. “But then he said these are not published by The Wall Street Journal.”

[From NY Times via Huffington Post]

The My Wall St. Journal creators also have a YouTube video of a Rupert Murdoch lookalike getting pissed off in a board meeting about their paper. They have a website, wsjparody.com, but it’s mostly an advertisement for their print version, which is also available on Amazon.com if your local newsstand doesn’t have a copy once the WSJ suits buy them all up. As a blogger, I can’t help but think they’re missing an opportunity by not providing their content online. WSJ.com requires a subscription to view full articles, and they’re missing a money-making opportunity by not copying their online format too.