Will Levi Bring Porn Award : "Bottled Up" Sarah Palin

I don't typically watch Oprah. But I won't miss Monday's interview with Sarah Palin. The appearance is supposed to be about Ms. Palin's new memoir, but a lot more will be riding on the encounter than book sales.

After last year's brutal presidential campaign, Ms. Palin is now reintroducing herself to the American public. Nothing less than her future in American politics—and a possible run for the White House in 2012—hangs in the balance.

Ms. Palin has two problems. The first is that she's become one of the most polarizing figures in the country. The second is that voters continue to worry about her qualifications for the presidency, a concern that her abrupt resignation from office last July intensified.

Lucky for her, both problems are solvable. Since Ms. Palin appeared on the national stage, the left has unfairly demonized her. Blockbuster interviews and book tours will humanize her.

More important than these public appearances is Ms. Palin's message. She needs to adopt a market-friendly populist agenda to strengthen her policy credentials and make her seem less partisan to independent voters. A bipartisan, center-right approach should come easily to her. That's how she won her race for governor in 2006.

It took advanced excerpts of her upcoming interview with Oprah, plus the AP and now Drudge getting their hands on her new book, to move Palin-palooza from next week’s story to today’s. According to the AP, Palin criticizes CBS’ Katie Couric over the infamous Couric-Palin interview; she takes issue with ABC’s Charlie Gibson; and she settles old scores with the McCain campaign. Yet the last thing the Republican Party needs right now is a look back at the tumult and drama of 2008. Just when the party is enjoying its first good news in five years, here comes Sarah Palin. The next week is going to be about her and how she views the world. And it's not the image some in the Republican Party would like to broadcast, especially now when it appears they have an opportunity to slowly win back the trust of swing voters. At a minimum, Palin is a distraction for the GOP as it attempts to build on Election 2009 success. Worst case, she sets back efforts the party is making to appeal to swing voters again.

In introducing Mr. Johnston, Bond said the young fellow was being celebrated "for taking control of his image and letting us all enjoy it."

Johnston was a man of not many words—just 36 words, to be exact. "I'm honored to be here," he said in part, before ending with, "Make sure y'all go get the new Playgirl magazine next week."

If only Oprah had a copy to show Sarah.

Roman Polanski "big-time movie director" is Being Held in Switzerland

Roman Polanski "big-time movie director"

Roman Polanski should not get special treatment because he is a "big-time movie director", California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has said.
The French-Polish director is being held in Switzerland on a US arrest warrant over his 1977 conviction for unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl.
Asked if he would pardon 76-year-old Polanski, Mr Schwarzenegger told CNN he would treat the case like any other.
Film-makers and French officials have spoken out against his arrest.
Mr Schwarzenegger said: "It doesn't matter if you are a big-time movie actor or a big-time movie director or producer."I think that he is a very respected person and I am a big admirer of his work.
It was barely a blip at the box office, with only about $59,000 in ticket sales last year, and not the biggest event when it was broadcast on HBO. But Marina Zenovich’s documentary “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” has turned into a rare blockbuster in at least one forum — the courtroom — and emerged as a lens through which the Polanski case has come to be viewed.
Any woman who has to report a rape fears that she won’t be believed — with good reason. Conviction rates are low, and many cases don’t even get to court. Now, in a twist that even the most imaginative novelist would have been pushed to devise, the arrest of the film director Roman Polanski has prompted a fierce debate about what constitutes rape. Polanski fled to Europe to avoid jail more than three decades ago, and his celebrity supporters are jostling for a place on the airwaves to explain that what he did wasn’t “really” rape.
Foremost among them is the actor Whoopi Goldberg, who has introduced a whole new concept — “rape-rape” — into the debate: “I know it wasn’t rape-rape. It was something else, but I don’t believe it was rape-rape.” It would be nice to think that she is alone in making this ludicrous distinction, but she isn’t. Others might not put it so crudely, but plenty of people are willing to excuse a sex attacker because what he did wasn’t “really” rape.
Having set off a legal fight over accusations of judicial and prosecutorial misconduct in the handling of Mr. Polanski’s conviction on a sex charge involving a 13-year-old girl three decades ago, the 2008 documentary re-emerged on Wednesday when one of its subjects, the retired prosecutor David Wells, suddenly said he had fabricated his detailed on-camera account of coaching a judge in the original case.
Ms. Zenovich said on Thursday that she was stunned by Mr. Wells’s attempt to recant statements he made during an hourlong taped session at the Malibu courthouse more than four years ago. Ms. Zenovich was in Zurich, where she was working on a new film about Mr. Polanski, 76, who was arrested last week for possible extradition to the United States.