Outspoken Liberal Julianne Moore to Play Sarah Palin in HBO Film 'Game Change'

Submitted by Nancy Smith on March 10, 2011 - 12:53pm

Who is the best actress to play the frenetic Mama Grizzly?

You were going to say Tina Fey, weren't you? But no. The "Saturday Night Live" comedian who sometimes did a better Sarah Palin than Sarah Palin during the 2008 presidential campaign, was royally dissed.

Instead, HBO Films went for a real shocker Wednesday when its casting crew chose Julianne Moore. Ask anybody about Moore. She isn't related to director Michael Moore, but she's the same kind of raging, can't-keep-her-mouth-shut liberal and a major Barack Obama supporter.

Happily, she's also a brilliant actress.

Taking on the role of the former governor of Alaska in the HBO adaptation of the 2008 book about Palin, "Game Change," may be the trickiest challenge of her career so far.

If "Game Change" HBO-style stays true to the book, it will spill dirt aplenty about the relationships at the time between Obama and Bill and Hillary Clinton, and between Palin herself and her running mate, Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

The Huffington Post quotes one story from the book -- and I'll bet it makes it to the film script: "McCain adviser Steve Schmidt was quoted as telling Palin's foreign policy advisers that, after testing the candidate before a debate, 'You guys have a lot of work to do. She doesn't know anything.'"

The parts of Obama, the Clintons and McCain still haven't been decided, according to HBO.

One thing is sure. The film is going to have a strong Florida connection. It is directed by Jay Roach and written by Danny Strong. Remember those two? They collaborated on HBO's Emmy Award-winning film "Recount," about the 2000 presidential election that Democrats to this day claim was stolen from them by George W. Bush. The film regales the story of the close vote and bitter after-election fight in Florida.

Roach and Strong know politics and they know how to turn a political event into a whale of a yarn.

HBO gave no indication of when the film is likely to air.

Will Palin and Moore trade claw swipes during the filming? Probably not. But it's fun to think about.

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