white house Tagged Articles at Cinematical

President Obama watched his first Academy Awards from the White House last night. Following in the footsteps of last week's well-received liveblogging of the President's first foreign trip, a White House New Media intern was invited to liveblog the event from the First Family's private quarters. The post was quickly pulled, but Cinematical obtained a partial transcript.

8:33 p.m.: First Family arrives, takes the best seats. Unidentified staffer: "Great to see a gay man hosting the Oscars." POTUS kindly corrects: "That's Hugh Jack-man, not gay man."

8:47 p.m.: Penelope Cruz wins for Best Supporting Actress. POTUS calls Spain's President Zapatero to express congratulations.

9:07 p.m.: As expected, WALL-E wins Best Animated Feature. POTUS dozes off.

9:25 p.m.: First Daughters begin giggling when vampire from Twilight appears.

9:32 p.m.: Ben Stiller's appearance concerns POTUS. "When did the Night at the Museum guy become Orthodox?"

9:43 p.m.: POTUS and First Lady confer about sending girls to bed during James Franco / Seth Rogen stoner skit.

9:51 p.m.: Hugh Jackman begins another musical number.

9:52 p.m.: POTUS sneaks into kitchen, where the staff is watching the Cleveland Cavaliers crush the Detroit Pistons. Go LeBron!

10:21 p.m.: Final: Cavs 99, Pistons 78.

10:32 p.m.: POTUS amused by Will Smith.

10:46 p.m.: Surprised and delighted by Jerry Lewis' brevity; POTUS figures Congress could learn a thing or two.

10:50 p.m.: POTUS asks, "Where's Springsteen?" Upon being notified that he was not nominated this year, POTUS heads to kitchen to watch SportsCenter during presentation of music awards, returns in time to tap his toes to "Jai Ho."

Yesterday's New York Post contained a gossip item in Page Six taken from the book party for James Rosen's The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate in New York, where attendee Tony Danza expressed an interest in playing Richard Nixon aide H.R. Halderman -- maybe in a movie version of Rosen's book. Halderman, who died in 1993, worked for Nixon as White House Chief of Staff until the Watergate scandal landed him eighteen months in prison in 1973. His story, partially recounted in The Strong Man, involved a longstanding relationship with Nixon going back to the 1950s and the tense moments immediately before and after the president's resignation. In between, he was involved in a botched attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro and other tumultuous events dutifully recorded in Halderman's diary, which became available to the public years later.

Many political scandals often revolve around a single corrupt individual, but it's the right hand man whose story can be most revealing. (Roy Cohen's personal drama has way more twists than that of Joseph McCarthy, for example.) There's little doubt that Halderman's experiences would work well on the big screen, but this wouldn't be the first time: IMDb lists no less than five actors who have portrayed Halderman, including James Downing in The Pentagon Papers, as recently as 2003. Would Danza make sense in this role? And will any film have a chance at getting people interested in this story after Frost/Nixon nabs the spotlight later this year?

Jon Voight and Nicolas Cage were caught waiting outside the White House for a tour! Well, not exactly, although I wouldn't be surprised if they were allowed in for a private look around at the presidential quarters. What exactly were Voight and Cage doing pandering in front of the black iron gates? They were in the middle of filming National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Just Jared captured a sequence of photographs that show a variety of comfortable cast members lolly gagging as they waited for their next shot. National Treasure: Book of Secrets returns with almost the entire cast from the original, including Diane Kruger and Harvey Kietel. This time, instead of going after a treasure, Cage is seeking resolution over President Abraham Lincoln's death.

The search is for the missing pages in John Wilkes Booth's diary that may reveal the reason for his actions. Hence the necessity for the White House to be a part of the plot. I have to admit it sounds interesting and whether there truly is a legend about missing pages from Booth's diary I'm not sure, but a story that dives into the man behind Lincoln's death could be utterly fascinating. The first National Treasure made nearly $350 million dollars in box office sales worldwide in 2004 and held the number one spot for three weeks in a row; for those who haven't seen it, the Jerry Bruckheimer production is about a treasure hunter (Cage) who sought after a historical fortune that his fellow employer had his eyes set on too -- see the conflict? We have another nine months until we see if National Treasure: Book of Secrets matches the success of its predecessor but for now, there are always production stills to enjoy. National Treasure: Book of Secrets reaches theatres on December 21 of this year.