Free Republic

Tonight, Poliwood, a documentary essay about the intersection of politics and celebrity, premieres on Showtime. Tomorrow night, By The People: The Election of Barack Obama, a celebratory look at Obama’s campaign, premieres on HBO. Together, they provide a look at the "buoyant optimism" that swept Obama into the White House, while making you wonder about the effect of TV on the political process. Poliwood follows a group of well-known faces associated with the Creative Coalition, a bipartisan group of celebrities who are shown making an earnest effort to learn more about the issues and to grapple with how to use...

POLIWOOD: D Tonight at 7:30 on Showtime. Director Barry Levinson’s 90-minute “Poliwood” is billed as a film essay. That’s like calling the back of a cereal box a novel. Say what you will about Michael Moore, but at least he knows how to spin a story. Levinson (“Rain Man”) aims to explore the crash of politics, celebrity and media. He’s fascinated as to why performers are greeted with hostility when they become politically active. He trails famous members of the Creative Coalition, Hollywood’s nonprofit, nonpartisan lobbying group for arts funding, through the 2008 Democratic and Republican presidential conventions. The coalition’s...