In a week and a half, HBO is airing a TV movie called Recount, about the 2000 Florida recount. Sounds interesting enough, although some people are criticizing the movie for portraying Gore team member (and former Secretary of State) Warren Christopher as too much of a wimp.
Even more intriguing: the writer of the screenplay happens to be Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Danny Strong, a.k.a. Jonathan Levinson.
Aww. I always loved Jonathan. :)
Funny as the notion of Christopher vs. Danny Strong [best known for his groundbreaking acting turns in “Gilmore Girls” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”]may be, the story that ran in the NYT establishes that Strong was prepared to do anything to trade his SAG card for a WGA card. His chosen route was a docudrama that is all drama and no document. After deciding on the story he wanted to tell–that the Dems, apart from one valiant warrior–were wimps and got steamrolled–involved trashing the reputations of Warren Christopher and Bill Daley. But what the hell, this is the age of truthiness. So Danny consults closely with the characters he wants to feature–Baker and Klain–giving them script review, veto and a look at the rough cut–while giving the finger to Christopher and Daley. For example, he admits in the NYT story that he waited to contact Christopher until the the day the scenes involving his character were shot. And while Strong had the time to hire Christopher’s tailor to make a suit for the character, undoubtedly to insure authenticity. he was so bent on avoiding a Christopher interview that he didn’t even call to make sure he got Christopher’s measurements right. AS a result, maybe the suit wil fit as loosely on the Christopher character as the facts. Strong is out of his depth. ( But that may have been true when he was a Buffy regular, too.)