Actress Rachael Leigh Cook entered the lion’s den in the summer of ‘08 – the Republican National Convention in her home town of Minneapolis. For a dyed in the wool liberal, that took some effort. But she’s a member of the nonpartisan Creative Coalition, and she figured it was only right to visit the RNC after making a stop in Denver for the Democratic National Convention.

“A lot of people didn’t even wanna go,” Cook says of her fellow coalition members. “I was really curious to go.”

Rachael Leigh Cook

Director Barry Levinson covered Cook’s visit to both political conventions as part of Poliwood,” his film essay on actors who speak out on the issues of the day. Leigh, who chatted with me earlier this week along with fellow coalition member Richard Schiff (“The West Wing”), says she learned more in an hour at the RNC than her entire time at the DNC. 

“These are people who are generally small business owners,” she says of the GOP convention visitors she met during her visit.

“Poliwood” follows coalition members as they visit the two conventions. The actors discuss why they speak out on political issues, share their hardscrabble roots and, at one point, debate Republican pollster Frank Luntz on how they express themselves in public. (more…)

Did you know celebrities have a right to speak their minds about politics courtesy of The First Amendment? Or that the 1960 Kennedy/Nixon televised debate changed the way we saw politicians forever? “Poliwood,” a new film “essay” from director Barry Levinson, uncovers those nuggets and much, much more.

The film, set to bow at the Starz Denver Film Festival this weekend and already airing on Showtime, does offer more than just those recycled themes. It’s an occasionally fascinating look into the modern actor’s mindset as well as the anger the general public feels when they hear celebrities pontificating on events of the day.

Director Barry Levinson

We’re also given a peek at the passions driving some celebrities to speak out on the issues. Yet the film is emblematic of Hollywood productions which strain to achieve balance but come up mostly empty.

The bulk of the film features liberal celebrities from the Creative Coalition, a nonpartisan group, maneuvering around last year’s Democratic National Convention in Denver. (more…)