RATINGS ABUSE
After the Motion Picture Association of America slapped
Michael Moore’s film Fahrenheit 911 with
an “R” rating late last week, and it became clear that the MPAA
would not budge, Moore and his distributors hired one man they
think can change the MPAA’s mind: former New York governor
Mario Cuomo.
According to an MPAA staffer in Washington, Cuomo is being paid
a five figure fee to make appeals all the way to the top of MPAA.
That would mean former Lyndon Johnson staffer Jack
Valenti.
On Wednesday, on the “Today” show, Moore revealed that the
scenes of abuse that appear in his film had been in his possession
last year but that he told no one about the abuse, out of fear that
“mainstream media” would not use his evidence properly. Moore
apparently also didn’t share any of his footage with Democrats on
Capitol Hill or with influential friends in Hollywood and New York.
It is the footage of abuse in part that is responsible for the “R”
rating, which insures that anyone under the age of 16 cannot get
into the theater without being accompanied by an adult. An “R”
rating will mean not only less exposure — but a smaller gate.
“We were surprised when we heard that Cuomo was going to bat for
this thing,” says the MPAA staffer. “We usually don’t have someone
of this stature lobbying on behalf of a movie, especially one this
controversial.”
VEEP MEETS
In between meetings with his union overlords and other supporters,
presumptive so and so John Kerry has been spending
time in Washington going over the vetting reports on several of his
advisers’ nominees for vice president. According to a Kerry
campaign staffer, Kerry met late Wednesday with Iowa Gov.
Tom Vilsack, who was in Washington for a press
conference at the National Press Club and meetings with fellow
Democratic governors. Other campaign sources contacted Wednesday
evening could not confirm the meeting, but said it appeared Kerry
had been keeping his schedule open for private meetings on
Wednesday, Thursday, and possibly Friday.
Gen. Wesley Clark was believed to be in
Washington late Wednesday and possibly Thursday, while Sen.
John Edwards was to be in New York and Washington
for fundraising events on those days. Both men have been vetted,
but neither is thought to have met extensively with Kerry one on
one.
“We hear that Kerry and Edwards talk on occasion,” says a Kerry
campaign staffer. “But we don’t hear very much beyond that. Kerry
has former Edwards people here, and at the least they seem to be
hearing things.”
The buzz on Edwards, at least in Washington, has been noticeably
higher in the last two weeks, although that appears to be more the
result of his own supporters’ efforts on his behalf and less a
clear indication that Kerry is any closer to making a final
decision.
For several days it had appeared that Kerry had moved away from
Rep. Dick Gephardt as a veep choice. That illusion
was shattered Wednesday when the two were spotted meeting in
Kerry’s small private office space on Capitol Hill for almost two
hours.
“You hear all the union guys saying it’s a slam dunk, but the
people who worked for him and who are now in the field working for
Kerry don’t seem hopeful,” says the Kerry staffer.
Edwards, though, continues to act like a man campaigning for the
bottom of the ticket. In New York on Wednesday, at a fundraiser
held by a liberal think tank called the Drum Major Institute,
Edwards was glad-handing and acting very much like a man running
for re-election. Given that he’s not running for the Senate again,
he must be running for something else.
(This item was updated at 10:23 a.m on
6/17/04)
