When Josh Brolin takes a night off from playing a young George W. Bush to get arrested in a bar, the jokes practically write themselves. (Method acting, anyone?) That's what happened in the wee hours of Saturday morning in Shreveport, La., as Brolin, co-star Jeffrey Wright (who plays Colin Powell), and five crew members from Oliver Stone's biopic W. were arrested at the Stray Cat bar and taken down to the big house.

The Associated Press's account is sparse, so we turn to Shreveport's KSLA News 12 for more details (and thanks to Jeffrey Wells for the link). Seems it was closin' time at the ol' Stray Cat, and Brolin and his pals wouldn't leave, despite bein' asked twice, and they were bein' rowdy. So the bar staff called the police, who arrived just after 2 a.m., whereupon there was a bit of a scuffle, and a fellow named Eric Felland got arresting for remaining in the bar, public drunkenness, and resisting arrest. Brolin, Wright, and the other W.-affiliated folks reportedly interfered with the arrest, so they got arrested for that misdemeanor.

The Shreveport Times reports that Brolin posted a $334 bond and was free to go. Wright and the other four arrest-resisters had the same price on their heads. The guy who was being arrested in the first place, Felland, who is a lighting technician on the film, had a $752 bond. It's unclear from the early news reports how long it took everyone to get out of the clink, but one assumes they didn't have to fester in jail too long. I like what one of the commenters at Hollywood Elsewhere said, that it would have been great if James Cromwell, who plays George Bush Sr., had had to come bail everyone out.

If you read any part of that draft of W., Oliver Stone's Bush biopic, which hit the net a few months back, you might think it ludicrous for the film to be likened to Shakespeare. But Stone himself has done so, as part of an L.A. Times set visit interview. Lumped in with a quote in which Stone also contrasts the project to the work of Michael Moore, the Oscar-winning director's statement is in response to the film's level of seriousness: "W. isn't an overly serious movie, but it is a serious subject. It's a Shakespearean story. . . . I see it as the strange unfolding of American democracy as I have lived it."

The Times piece, which reports from Shreveport, Louisiana, where Independence Bowl stadium fills in for the Texas Rangers' Arlington Stadium, is very filling for anyone with an appetite for more W. updates. Included are a description of and dialogue from a scene between George W. Bush (Josh Brolin) and George H.W. Bush (James Cromwell), details on a "baseball-oriented fantasy" sequence, Brolin stating that he's not out to do a SNL-style caricature and admitting his initial hesitance to take on the role, a general overview of the project's coming together, and, best of all, a picture (seen, cropped, above) of Brolin as the future Commander in Chief looking like he's just had the crap beaten out of him. Also a fact I'd somehow never known prior to reading the article: Stone was "briefly a Yale classmate of Bush."

Dum, dum, dum. The moment we've all been waiting for. While most of the cast is in place for Oliver Stone's upcoming biopic W, from Dubya himself to Tony Blair, Condoleezza, and the rest, Dick Cheney has remained just out of reach -- a wild hunter, a political Wile E. Coyote.* But not anymore. Now that the film is a week into production, we've got our Cheney -- almost.

The Hollywood Reporter posts that Richard Dreyfuss is in final negotiations to play Dick in the upcoming film, which is the last major role that needed to be filled. Playing Cheney is not quite the same as getting to play President Alphonse Simms in Moon Over Parador, a task that pulled him out of the Public Theater in New York and threw him into a dictatorship, but I'll take it.

Dreyfuss is also a decent match to Cheney, although it's been a while since I've seen him without his signature facial hair. This is not, however, the first time he's taken on the world of Dubya on the big screen. In 2004 he played Chuck Raven in John Sayles' Silver City -- a political film that might have been about the Pilager family, but was very obviously based on the Bushes.

*Originally intended to be "wily coyote," but misspelled, so I'm using the main animated dude instead.

There's been a lot of buzz as Oliver Stone's W goes Speedy Gonzalez towards its impending October release. I'd say that it's mainly due to the kickass cast -- maybe not for being the perfect representations of today's political heads, but for being a collection of really great actors.

But still, the project makes me think back to other Dubyas in the entertainment ether. Brolin is certainly not the first. This might not be as old as some Stars in Rewind posts, but I couldn't resist adding a little Will Ferrell presidential fare to this sunny Tuesday. You know, sun and "so-called global warmings" go together. This happens to be one of my favorite blips by Ferrell, and I hope you enjoy it!

Really, who cares about a place where penguins can have an orgy? Nature needs to listen to us!

Bit by bit, we get closer to the soon-to-be-sped-through biopic on George W. Bush, W -- remember, although it hasn't been completely cast, and is just one day into production, it will hit theaters this October. We've got Josh Brolin as Dubya, Elizabeth Banks as Laura, Rob Corddry as Ari Fleischer, James Cromwell as George Sr., Ellen Burstyn as Barbara, Thandie Newton as Condoleeza, Ioan Gruffudd as Tony Blair, and Jeffrey Wright as Colin Powell.

And now, Empire reports that Scott Glenn is going to play former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. It's a fair likeness, and not half as surprising as Brolin being Bush. It's also a fair casting move considering Glenn's previous work, from his CIA director in The Bourne Ultimatum, to his Jack Crawford in Silence of the Lambs, to his Lieutenant Richard M. Colby in Apocalypse Now.

But really, even with potential script issues and questionable likenesses, I'm completely charmed by this cast and hoping that it won't be one of those huge ensemble stinkers. I'm not even particularly interested in more Dubya, but I can't resist a film that has both Burstyn and Wright.

But who in the hell is going to play Cheney?!

So far, there are only a few actors officially attached to Oliver Stone's W., the epic biopic about our current commander-in-chief. Josh Brolin was cast as President George W. Bush back in January, then recently Elizabeth Banks was chosen as his wife, First Lady Laura Bush, and last week James Cromwell and Ellen Burstyn were locked into the roles of former President George H.W. Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush, respectively. Unofficial casting bites, though, include a lot of other big name actors. Jeffrey Wright is reportedly in negotiations to play Colin Powell, Tommy Lee Jones is supposedly being sought for Donald Rumsfeld, Robert Duvall has been rumored to be the choice for Vice President Dick Cheney and now both Paul Giamatti and Toby Jones are being named as potentials for the part of Karl Rove (who Giamatti may have already channeled for his character in Shoot 'Em Up).