‘Poliwood’ links celebrities, politics

BY JAY BOBBIN Comments 0
Published: October 31, 2009

While many celebrities followed politicians at last year’s conventions, they were being followed by an Oscar-winning filmmaker.

"Rain Man,” "Diner” and "Good Morning, Vietnam” director Barry Levinson foresaw the pre-election Democratic and Republican gatherings as target-rich environments for making a documentary about the modern connection between Hollywood and politics. Titled "Poliwood,” the 90-minute result has its Showtime debut at 6:30 p.m. Monday.

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"I assumed it was not going to be easy,” Levinson says of working amid such typically hectic events, "but we sort of naively went along and saw what we could do. We ended up having enormous access as we followed a group through the two conventions, then up to Inauguration Weekend. What this evolved into is what I look at as the intersection of politics, celebrity and media.”

In preparing "Poliwood,” Levinson consulted the Creative Coalition, an entertainment-industry organization whose partial purpose is nonpartisan political advocacy. One of its two current presidents, "Private Practice” co-star Tim Daly, is a producer of "Poliwood”; he also appears in the documentary, as does his co-president, actress Dana Delany ("Desperate Housewives”).

So, do Susan Sarandon, Anne Hathaway, Sting, Fergie, Annette Bening, Danny Glover, Hayden Panettiere ("Heroes”), Alfre Woodard, Ellen Burstyn, Spike Lee, Zooey Deschanel, Elvis Costello, David Crosby, Maura Tierney, Alan Cumming, will.i.am, and Matthew Modine, among many other familiar faces.

"It’s a bit of a circus,” Levinson allows of filming at a convention. "In some ways, you just kind of go with the flow. We wandered in and out of a number of things, met people along the way, and just kept filming.”

Also an executive producer of the acclaimed series "Homicide: Life on the Street” and "Oz,” Levinson has enjoyed a varied career encompassing such other movies as "The Natural,” "Bugsy” and "Disclosure.”

"We had talked about theatrical distribution,” Levinson said, "but with the nature of the film business right now, it probably would be hard for it to be seen. So many documentaries come out and just disappear, it seemed beneficial to have Showtime behind this.”