Thoughts in a Haystack: Makeup!

Friday, November 17, 2006

Makeup!

Paramount Pictures has hired Ron Nyswaner to pen the screenplay for "Dover," based on the landmark 2005 trial that stopped a Pennsylvania school board from teaching "intelligent design" -- i.e., creationism -- over evolution.

Actually, it is their second screenwriter, but the ways of Hollywood are unknown to me. Anyway, in a bit of irony (or, perhaps, foreshadowing), Nyswaner's most famous credit would probably be "Philadelphia," the movie that earned Tom Hanks his first Oscar. The Discovery Institute has tried to imply that Judge Jones is an egomaniac besotted with the possibility of fame. To that end, they have taken to citing Jones' statement that, if a movie of the trial is made, he'd like Tom Hanks to play him. Perfectly apart from the fact that any middle-aged male with a lick of sense would want Hanks to play him, let's look at the context:

I will note that I had a choice to make in the beginning of the case as to whether or not I wanted to make myself available at all to the press, and some judges do and some judges don't. I decided that I would do that so long as I didn't discuss the merits of the case. And so I allowed certain reporters at times to interview me in chambers. This worked out well, save for some over-the-top questions, Oprah-like questions, if you will, that I got, such as "What's your favorite sports team? How many times a week do you work out?" And my favorite: "Who do you want to play you in the movie version?" For the record, that's the Philadelphia Eagles, six times a week, and Tom Hanks.

Humor is not a well known commodity in parts of Seattle but I suspect the DI is fully aware that the Judge's tongue was firmly in cheek when he said that. But there is nothing they will not distort in furtherance of their dishonest agenda.

Besides, who else in Hollywood could convincingly portray a judge with the patience of a saint sufficient to sit through the outright lies of a William Buckingham and the smarmy disingenuousness of a Michael Behe without exploding?

Link - Posted by John Pieret @ 6:41 AM