Preview: Director of HBO's Bush-Gore 'Recount' Talks About It in Sunday's 'NYT'

We know you can't wait for the upcoming HBO film on the 2000 Bush-Gore finish, aptly titled Recount, but here's a preview - coming in The New York Times Magazine this Sunday.

Director Jay Roach (previously known for Meet the Parents and Austin Powers films) says Democrats who hear about the film "always" ask him, "Can't you change the ending?"

Despite his prankish film background, he says Recount is "not a comedy at all" and does not feature any new catch-phrases such as "yeah, baby, yeah."

As far as he knows, Al Gore has not seen the film yet but one of the key characters, Ron Klain, a lawyer for the Democrats has, and he "likes it," even though it's "kind of painful for the real people to relive it," Roach observes.

Deborah Solomon, the interviewer, claims that the film is "very fair, except, perhaps" in its casting. The Dems are more appealing than the Republicans, she asserts, but Roach challenges her by saying that Tom Wilkinson, who plays James Baker, "is a very handsome man."

Laura Dern gets the plum part - playing Florida "decider" Katherine Harris, smothered in makeup. Roach explains: "There was a rumor that someone told Harris that when you're on TV, your makeup washes out so don't be shy with those eyelashes and with that lip color."

On the chad front, the "dimpled" ones get more face time but Roach assures us, the "hanging ones get a few close-ups too."
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Greg Mitchell is author of the new book, So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq. He is editor of Editor & Publisher.