A rather silly political statement written by Harvey Weinstein was read last night by Olivia Wilde at the TIFF premiere screening of Butter (Weinstein Co., 10.21) . It spoke of a linkage between Jennifer Garner ‘s uptight racist harridan and Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann. Just a mild goof, but one that might up the interest factor in Jim Field Smith‘s cultural comedy, which premiered at Telluride to somewhat mixed reviews.

“I would like to take this moment to formally invite Republican Congresswoman from Minnesota and Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann to co-host with me the big premiere of Butter in Iowa in a few [weeks] from now,” Weinstein wrote. “I know Michele will already be in Iowa for the caucus, so we can save some money on airfare and travel.

“I would of course be more than happy to fly in the other leading members of the Tea Party movement to make an entire day of it. We could take some math classes in the morning to help balance the budget, brush up on the Constitution in the afternoon, play some ping-pong and then maybe some verbal ping-pong on gay rights and women’s rights. Especially the right to choose.

“But at night we can all go hand-in-hand to the premiere of Butter, a fun and important film where we’ll share some popcorn and laughs. These are the kind of bipartisan effort that makes America great. I look forward to hearing from Michele and I’m particularly looking forward to those classes on the Constitution.”

This is somewhat analagous to Orson Welles or RKO publicity inviting Marion Davies to the premiere of Citizen Kane.