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Oh, sure, Van Morrison. Right.

October 3, 1999

LIBERTIES / By MAUREEN DOWD

Cultural Drifter

WASHINGTON -- Here are some things you might not know about George W. Bush:

He hasn't gone out to see a movie in the last five years.

He likes Van Morrison.

The last actress who made his heart race was Julie Christie in "Doctor Zhivago."

He doesn't identify with any literary heroes, but is drawn to Paul Newman's defiance in "Cool Hand Luke" and Jack Nicholson's irreverence.

He loved "Cats."

In an interview about culture, W. gamely concedes there are yawning gaps. Baseball, he says, is his favorite "cultural experience." (Like his father, he views cultural questions as some kind of psychoanalysis.)

We're in a van on the way to Reagan airport after his speech to the Christian Coalition.

He has one word for opera: "No." He likes "nice, quiet jazz on the radio." He went to one ballet "and was amazed by the athleticism."

Although some of the Bushes are musical -- his uncle Jonathan was in a Bronx revival of "Oklahoma" in 1958 and his uncle Bucky plays the guitar and sings -- W. is not.

"I loved 'Cats,' " he says brightly.

He said he doesn't watch TV series, just news and sports. "Culturally adrift," he says, making a funny face. "Occasionally, I'll cruise into an A&E biography. The last one I saw was about me."

He avoids cable chat. "Now that I'm the subject, there's no telling what you'll hear about yourself. So I've just chosen not to listen."

He says he's usually asleep by Leno and Letterman, but adds: "They're actually very funny. Even at my own expense."

I asked if he and his wife, Laura, ever fight over the clicker. He says he's mostly doing work stuff or falling asleep. "We're both usually reading instead of battling over flickers."

He did not try to impress his librarian wife when they were dating by reading more. "Our first date was to go play putt-putt golf," he says.

As to literary preferences, he said: "I've always liked John La Care, Le Carrier, or however you pronounce his name. I'm mainly a history person." He's just finished "Isaac's Storm," a history of the Galveston hurricane of 1900, and reads Robert Parker's detective-for-hire stories.

Asked if he likes movies, he says: "Not too much. I like 'em O.K. I haven't been to a movie theater since I've been Governor. We occasionally rent movies. We've got a Blockbuster card the girls use more than Laura and me. The last movie I saw I really liked was 'Saving Private Ryan.'

"But prior to getting elected I did go to movies. Laura and I were talking the other day about the last time we'd gone to a movie. I think it was the day Ann Richards called me a jerk. It was 'Forrest Gump.' "

Has he ever censored his twin 17-year-old daughters' movie picks? "I can't think of anything. Uh oh, a giant hole in the net of censorship."

In an interview with GQ, the 53-year-old Governor said that when he was at Yale in the 60's, he did not share the musical tastes of the counterculture. He said he liked the Beatles before their "weird, psychedelic period."

I asked who was his favorite Beatle. "The first drummer," he joked. "As you know I was a fraternity man at Yale. I had parties. We had a lot of groups come in. I just was not, I mean, I like music. But I'm not a great aficionado of music."

Asked if he would set a cultural tone in the White House closer to Jackie's Pablo Casals or Bill's Kenny G, W. replied: "I imagine it would be eclectic. You know we've had Lyle Lovett come to the mansion to play. I probably won't be spending a lot of time making the list up. I'll delegate."

W. sometimes waggles his hips when he's on a stage. Does he like to dance?

"No," he said. "It's not a religious thing. I just don't dance. At the last inauguration, I did the box step for about 25 seconds and declared my dancing over for the year.

. . . I don't go to dances and I don't socialize very much."

Asked about Warren Beatty's Presidential flirting, W. asks something that probably hasn't even dawned on the Hollywood star: "The question is, Can he survive the Iowa caucuses?"

The Governor's perfect day would include running, fishing and watching sports on TV, followed by dinner with friends with Van Morrison playing in the background. Then, bed by 10.

Is this a great country or what?