James Brolin (husband of Barbra Streisand) cast as Ronald Reagan in TV movie

Associated Press | July 20, 2003

[HAL9000]

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Democratic Party stalwart Barbara Streisand will be welcoming a Republican president home.

Her husband, James Brolin, has been cast as Ronald Reagan in a four-hour CBS miniseries, "The Reagans," set to air during the November sweeps period.

The network hasn't asked Streisand her opinion of the casting "but we'll have to live with that," CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves joked Sunday in remarks to the Television Critics Association.

Brolin, who starred in the TV series "Marcus Welby, M.D.," "Hotel" and "Pensacola: Wings of Gold," will play Reagan as he moves from his film career to California governor to president.

Australian actress Judy Davis will play Nancy Reagan.

Asked about Brolin's casting, Moonves said he is relying on the track record of veteran producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron ("Chicago," TV's "Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows.").

"It took us a minute to digest it," Moonves said, but "they were convinced that he was the right guy for it, and we back them."

Last September, Streisand headlined a Hollywood gala that raised about $6 million for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

[HAL9000]

Democratic Party stalwart Barbara Streisand will be welcoming a Republican president home.

Will Barbra sue A.P. for misspelling her name?

[Paul Atreides]

Let me guess, James Streisand, as Reagan, will debate Walter Mondull and, at the end, will conclude that Mondull is the better candidate to be President.

[strela]

My irony meter just exploded. The whole back of my house is gone, and there's a 300-foot wide crater in the back yard from the detonation. Thanks heaps.

[rvoitier]

Well, there they go again...

[Lexington Green]

Reagan will be portrayed as a fascist, philandering, racist, sexist, bumbling, duplicitous, closet homo, etc. This will be a slime job.

[Theresawithanh]

Fer sure, Hollywierd will doctor things up. This cracks me up, though! Hope it makes Babs wake up nights screaming, dreaming she's actually married to the Gipper!

[Paul Atreides]

At the end of the movie, they will have Reagan going by in his limo, and a hungry homeless child looking on. Or, it will probably have Reagan finding out that he has Alzheimer's from a homosexual doctor.

[Sunnyvale CA Eng.]

Let me guess, James Streisand, as Reagan, will debate Walter Mondull and, at the end, will conclude that Mondull is the better candidate to be President.

You know that's coming - at minimum. Reagan will be made to look disconnected, out of the loop, not too bright,..etc. The left never passes on an opportunity to rewrite history. By the time it's over the average uninformed viewer will be thinking "So Reagan = Clinton, oh well, back to the sports and porn".

[visualops]

That's the best they could come up with??

[proxy_user]

Say what you will about the intellectual abilities of actors, they are adept at their chosen profession.

Acting is probably the most competitive field in America, where thousands vie for one opening. If you get to the top, you are good.

You also must devote yourself to mastering a set of skills that is the antithesis of logic thinking.

I can just imagine how bad a play or film you would get if you hired filed the performing roles with conservative intellectuals...

[Paul Atreides]

I can imagine that they will portray Nancy as the power behind the throne. President Reagan will be a dimbulb in the hands of his svengali wife. And, somehow, he will have duped the American people into voting him in by a landslide.

[Bullish]

I'm sick to death of these people.

[Paul Atreides]

What is interesting is how leftist Hollywood sneers at Reagan, the actor who became President, at the same time they are whining to be taken seriously.

[randog]

You guys are thinking too small. The Soviet Union will be portrayed as a gentle paradise, a Utopian model for the rest of the world, and Reagan pissed on the whole thing.

[Paul Atreides]

Oh man! I can just imagine how saintly they will portray Gorby.

[Paul Atreides]

And, Reagan had no influence on the fall of the Berlin Wall, they were going to do that anyway and Reagan somehow bought them off if they waited to do it after his speech.

[dts32041]

Judy Davis, terrorist extrodianire in the Final Option, what kind of nancy reagan will she be.

[Paul Atreides]

Well, you have to consider that Hollywood thinks that Sharon Stone is the ideal choice to portray Hillary Clinton.

[Paul Atreides]

I wanna know who will portray doddering ol' Dan Rather! They need to pull some old has-been out of mothballs.

[Atlas Sneezed]

I must be out of touch. I have never seen or heard of Judy Davis: