More 'W' Casting: Condi Rice and Tony Blair

I'll say one thing for Oliver Stone's W: it makes for some fun casting updates. Watching this movie come together has had much more novelty value than I would have thought. I guess that's what happens when you set out to make a movie about the most controversial figures in the world right now, instead of decades ago.

Anyway, here's what we have so far:

• Josh Brolin is George W. Bush
• Elizabeth Banks is Laura Bush
• James Cromwell and Ellen Burstyn are George H.W. and Barbara
• Rampant speculation about other roles

And you may now take Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair off your to-cast lists. Those roles have been filled with Thandie Newton and Ioan Gruffudd (respectively, though I think it would have been much more interesting in reverse order). Both actors are British, but this won't be the first time Newton has played an American. My worry about her isn't her accent so much as the fact that she seems too damn nice. I think they should have followed the lead of the ultraconservative 2006 TV miniseries and cast 24's Penny Johnson Jerald (a.k.a. the terrifying Sherry Palmer). That's about as on-the-nose as it gets.