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Speaking of reprobates and one the foreign leaders endorsing Kerry, from Page Six:

OLIVER Stone's flattering documentary on Fidel Castro will finally hit U.S. television on April 14, but "Looking for Fidel" is quite different from the first version he tried to foist on the American public last year, "Commandante."
That project was shelved by HBO after Castro executed three men who tried to hijack their way to freedom and jailed 75 others as political prisoners. Stone went back to Cuba and got more footage to try to balance the documentary. But he didn't succeed.

Stone, who directed the conspiracy-fantasy "JFK," swallows Castro's propaganda without protest, even when the tyrant repeatedly calls would-be emigrants "terrorists."

"If the situation arose again, I would do the same," Castro swears. "Until the very end they held guns to two tourists' heads . . . These people were marginal and [killing them] was the only way to deter them."

As for the quickie seven-day trial and execution without letting the men speak to their familes, Castro sneers, "How many visits have those people in Guantanamo Bay had? And they have been there two years."

Perhaps the most upsetting scene is when Stone "interviews" eight men - in front of Castro - who were charged with plotting a hijacking. All eight have the same answers to questions, noting their only reason for emigrating was "economic," they have all "been treated well in prison," and acknowledging the "seriousness" of their crimes. Castro is impressed and says he hopes the judges will give them lenient sentences.

Castro rants about President Bush, claiming he was "handed the [2000] election by Batista supporters in Florida." Finally, he hooks himself up to heart monitor to prove he is "as healthy as a 30-year-old."

Sadly, the best scenes from the original "Commandante" have been deleted from "Looking" - where Stone continually asks Castro if he has ever seen a psychiatrist, and Castro, to Stone's disbelief, repeatedly answers no. Also lost is a segment where Stone tries to get Castro talking about Viagra.

The film has not impressed many journalists so far. After a screening Monday night, former New York Times editor Abe Rosenthal told Variety the "documentary" was hardly a good piece of journalism and that nothing Castro said was to be believed.