By Dope Peddler

Just asking…

What well-spoken conservative Republican senator who is often mentioned as a possible replacement for Vice-President Dick Cheney—should Cheney’s health decline further—is, as they used to say, a “confirmed bachelor”? Doubtless fearful of the attitudes of the red state he hails from, the senator publicly opposes gay marriage, even as he dreads the possibility that he himself will be outed.  

Not so good shepherdess

A Dope Peddler source working on location on the highly anticipated Matt Damon-CIA movie The Good Shepherd says that the film is struggling with the huge error of casting actress Angelina Jolie in the part of Damon’s wife. Set in part in the 1950s, the film asks us to accept that Jolie’s character is a homemaker of the era. Our mole reports: “Forget the Oscar that she won. She isn’t all that much of an actress, and this was just way too much of a stretch.” The producers are hoping they can solve the problem in the editing room.

Books do furnish a room

Workmen and designers collaborating on the new apartment being shared by Titanic actress Kate Winslet and American Beauty director Sam Mendes were greatly struck by Mendes’ decision to cover up a floor-to-ceiling window with a large bookcase. This was an idea that most of them had simply never heard of before. Maybe this is why Mendes was able to distinguish himself directing Chekhov and Shakespeare before he started directing movies, and they were moving ladders and studying the couple’s floorplans. 

Good thing it was Diamond—cut

Dope Peddler recently happened to be chatting with one of the producers of that instant classic among recent films, Swingers. It turns out that the film’s makers had been interested in—and met with—actor Lou Diamond Phillips about the possibility of his playing the Jon Favreau role in the film. Thankfully, of course, it didn’t happen. So now it goes into the file with other famous and welcome Hollywood non-casting decisions like Ronald Reagan as the almost-star of Casablanca and Robert Redford as the almost-star of The Graduate.