Strathairn by the truckload

Did anybody else besides me pitch a heterosexual admiration tent in their pants
solely from David Strathairn’s performance in Good Night, and Good
Luck? I didn’t know Edward R. Murrow personally, but after watching
that movie I felt like he became a part of me. That older part that smokes on
live television and accuses senators of instilling fear into the nation. God bless
America.

Strathairn has quite a few projects on his plate. He’s signed on to the
thriller Fracture, written by Daniel Pyne (Pacific
Heights, Doc Hollywood) and Glenn Gers (Mad Money)
which will be directed by Gregory Hoblit (Primal Fear). Ryan
Gosling (The Notebook) plays an assistant district attorney
who wants revenge on Anthony Hopkins (The World’s Fastest Indian)
who killed his wife but is freed on a technicality. The film also co-stars Rosamund
Pike (Pride & Prejudice).

He will also next be seen in The Sensation of Sight, in which
he will play Finn, an English teacher suffering a mid-life crisis spurred by
a recent tragedy, who then goes on to sell encyclopedias to the town locals.
The film, written and directed by newcomer Aaron J. Wiederspahn, will co-star
Daniel Gillies (Spider-Man 2) and Jane Adams (Happiness).

Another project sees him alongside Rachel Leigh Cook (Josie and the
Pussycats), and Joseph Mazzello (Simon Birch) who
is also writing and directing (you might actually remember him from Jurassic
Park, that little brat who was afraid to jump from the electric fence).
This film will be about three siblings who must cope with the unexpected death
of their parents.

Saving the best for last, Strathairn will next be seen in the much-anticipated
The Notorious Bettie Page, in which he plays Estes Kefauver,
the man who crusaded against Chris Bauer’s (Broken Flowers)
character, fetish photographer Irving Klaw, with Lily Taylor (I Shot
Andy Warhol) as his sister Paula Klaw, and Gretchen Mol (Sweet
and Lowdown) in the title role. The film will center on the famous
1950’s pin-up model and the Senate investigation that followed due to
her bondage pictures. Hot dog! Oddly enough, Strathairn’s character was
a colleague of Senator Joseph McCarthy, and during McCarthy’s witch hunts
he succeeded in having horror comic books such as Tales from the Crypt
banned because he believed they corrupted the nation’s youth. Explains
why I turned into such a grade-A sissy-boy from reading all those romance comics.

End note: Did anyone else hear about how that the cast and
crew of Good Night, and Good Luck actually travelled back
through time to the early 1950’s, kidnapped Edward R. Murrow, Fred
Friendly et al., and subsequently replaced them in actual history, in-cog-neat-o?
I mean, how else do you explain the retro hairstyles and the black &
white? Weren’t black & white movies that way because the world
itself was black & white? Isn’t it common knowledge that color
only appeared in our world in 1953? If television has thought me anything, that
would be it. I now call for a public outcry, demanding that George Clooney unveil
his time-travelling machine for all to enjoy and profit from, especially if
it’s a stylish Delorean (and not a goddamn toaster). Honestly, is there
anything Clooney can’t do?