Call Us Crazy, but We See a Buddy Movie Here (Moore/Gibson)

MICHAEL MOORE did something shocking for the People's Choice Awards show in Los Angeles on Sunday night - he got himself coiffed.

We're not saying for sure that there was product in the hair; but it certainly looked as if "Queer Eye for the Filmmaker Who Wants That Academy Award Really Bad" had made an emergency house call:

The hair had been trimmed and trained in such a way as to head upward; the scruffy beard we saw only last week in New York had become one of those crisp trendy goatees; the guy was wearing a handsome dark suit and a tie. When "Fahrenheit 9/11" won the best picture award, Mr. Moore dedicated his award to parents with sons and daughters serving in Iraq.

Oh, excuse us, Instant Message from a Columbia J-School young 'un: You're certainly not suggesting that the nomination for the most prestigious award in the country would be given because of middle-of-the-road acceptability or popularity of the director? The Academy Award is given strictly of the basis of merit, is it not? Our reply: Absolutely. The only reason we cannot wait to see what happens with Mr. Moore's look on Jan. 26, the day after the Academy Award nominations are announced, is that he is such a style icon. People magazine, we hear, is naming him "Sexiest Filmmaker to Make a Documentary with the Word 'Fahrenheit' in Its Title in the Year 2004."

Another surprise: Mr. Moore and MEL GIBSON, whose "Passion of the Christ" won for motion picture drama, are fans of each other's work. Asked if he had seen Mr. Gibson's film, Mr. Moore lighted up.

"I saw it twice," Mr. Moore said. "It's a very powerful film. I'm a practicing Catholic. My film might have been called 'The Compassion of the Christ,' though. The great thing about this country is the diversity of voices. When we limit the voices, we cease being a free society."

When Mr. Gibson walked to the press room lectern, he and Mr. Moore seemed delighted to meet each other.

"I feel a strange kinship with Michael," Mr. Gibson said. "They're trying to pit us against each other in the press, but it's a hologram. They really have got nothing to do with one another. It's just some kind of device, some left-right. He makes some salient points. There was some very expert, elliptical editing going on. However, what the hell are we doing in Iraq? No one can explain to me in a reasonable manner that I can accept why we're there, why we went there, and why we're still there."

The new television season is so disappointing that tomorrow, as a public service, we will be starting up BFtv, the Boldface Television Network, in this very space. Being but a nascent network, we will not be transmitting in video, nor will we necessarily have audio. On the other hand, if we're still broadcasting when summer comes, you can use BFtv to kill the flies.

Our Boldface correspondent was saddened not to see PETRA NEMCOVA - the Sports Illustrated cover girl who is recovering from injuries suffered during the tsunami - at the Muscular Dystrophy Association Muscle Team Gala at Chelsea Piers the other day. Last year, Ms. Nemcova raised $22,000 for the organization by auctioning herself as dinner date. She also, we might as well tell you, was a big believer in the three-kiss hello, which she insisted was an old Czech tradition.

(Yes, we agree it's inappropriate for models to manhandle journalists this way, but truly there's no way to pull them off; they're enormous.)

We did, however, run into DOROTHY HAMILL. She had been flogging the arthritis and pain medication Vioxx until its maker, Merck, took it off the market last fall because a new study found it doubled patients' risk of heart attack and strokes.

"I have to say, for me Vioxx was an incredible medication," Ms. Hamill said. "I felt very badly for the people that it affected in a negative way. I would ask Merck all the time: 'Is this safe? Is this safe?' And they assured me it was because I would never take a drug that I thought was bad. It's really a shame. It was F.D.A.-approved. It was like a vitamin pill for me. I took it every day. Fortunately, I was on a very low dose. And I had a great response with it."

Buh-bye, Mel. You and your movie crap are off my watch list.

Is there anything left on your movie watch list, aside from It's a Wonderful Life and The Green Berets?

I agree about the cosing up. Mel states, "I like it", "He makes salient points", "What the hell are we doing in Iraq?". If we assume that he is as uninformed about Iraq as he is about Moore's intentions of bring down the president through deceitful means, we are looking at a stupid man. Or at a man that torn between Hollywood (money making) and morality. A poster already mentioned that money is his bottom line and I would agree. Those souvenir nails he was selling and his flirtation with Bono (U2) in "Million Dollar Hotel" nailed it for me.

The rich man Mel will never fit though the eye of a needle anymore than Moore will fit though the eye of a camera. Both are known for their excess.

It's just that over the past few years, its seems as if some conservatives have added so many actors, producers, companies, TV networks, and directors to their boycott lists, there's nothing left for them to watch.

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