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In a 12.2 posting titled “Chris Wallace Defends Nixon Against Mean Ron Howard,” Gawker quotes the Fox News anchor as refuting analogies between Richard Nixon and George W. Bush during a recent Frost-Nixon screening q & a in Washington, D.C.

During the post-screening discussion, Howard said “he was sad that America was all ‘never again’ about Nixon and then Bush happened,” the story says. The other two panelists — Frost/Nixon screenwriter Peter Morgan and journalist James Reston, Jr. — also compared Bush to Nixon, at which point Wallace “stood up and, as James Pinketon puts it, ‘threw a fair-and-balanced apple of discord into the middle of the festivities’),” reports Gawker.

“Richard Nixon’s crimes were committed purely in the interest of his own political gain,” Wallace told Howard. “I think to compare what Nixon did, and the abuses of power for pure political self preservation, to George W. Bush trying to protect this country — even if you disagree with rendition or waterboarding — it seems to me is both a gross misreading of history both then and now.”

But of course, Bush didn’t invade Iraq to protect his country. He did it, I believe, partly to give the country an emotional revenge outlet over 9/11, partly to rectify (in ’43’s mind) his father’s mistake in deciding against invading Baghdad during the ’91 Gulf War, and partly to nail Saddam Hussein, in part because he’d threatened Bush ’41’s life.

I’m also scratching my head over Howard having admitted during the discussion that he voted for Nixon. Howard voted against George McGovern? Good God. Maybe he was referring to the ’68 election.

Choosing to ignore Tina Brown‘s flat-out brilliant suggestion to hire Rachel Maddow as the host of Meet The Press, NBC honchos have reportedly decided to tap the primally annoying, simian-featured MSNBC news-show host David Gregory instead.

This is a bland, equivocating, corporate-minded decision by old men with no balls — men who don’t realize what a turn-off Gregory is for a certain segment of the viewing public (i.e., those who think like me) and who have no problem at all with a Meet The Press host having danced on-stage during a Karl Rove roasting.

“NBC News has settled on Gregory as its choice to be the successor to Tim Russert in the role of moderator of its longtime Sunday discussion program Meet the Press,” a N.Y. Times/Bill Carter story reads. “But the network has not finalized the deal, NBC executives said Tuesday.

“Gregory is in negotiations with NBC to secure the position, however, and one reason he may get the job is his value to NBC’s most dominant property, the Today show. He has long been regarded as the network’s choice to one day succeed Matt Lauer as a Today host.

“NBC executives said on Tuesday that the leaks of Mr. Gregory’s selection could be a potential impediment to concluding the deal,” Carter has reported. Please!

Two and a half months from now the path may finally be cleared for the exiled Roman Polanski to return to the U.S. without fear of incarceration, and finally be free to direct U.S. projects on U.S. soil, if he so chooses.

Yesterday Polanski’s attorneys filed a complaint with the Los Angeles Superior Court seeking to have Polanski’s 31-year-old sexual misconduct charges dismissed. And the catalyst, it was stated, was Marina Zenovich‘s Academy-dissed (i.e., not Oscar-nominated) documentary, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired.

Polanski’s attorneys cited “extraordinary new evidence” contained in Zenovich’s doc as reason to reopen the case.

Variety‘s Diane Garrett has reported that “the complaint zeroes in on interviews in which then-deputy district attorney David Wells admits discussing the case with Judge Lawrence Rittenband during legal proceedings from the 1970s and further charges the current District Attorney’s Office with misconduct in statements made upon the doc’s June release.

Polanski, the complaint charges, “was and continues to be the victim of repeated, unlawful and unethical misconduct on the part of the L.A. District Attorney’s Office and L.A. Superior Court.” A hearing has been set for 1.21.09.

I was first told about the development by Zenovich at last night’s Gotham Awards. I later showed her this Michael Cieply story about it in my iPhone. The story contained a quote from Zenovich, who’d spoken to Cieply only an hour or so earlier, saying that she was glad that her film had helped to affect things, that she considered it a validation and that the development has mollified her disappointment over her film not being short-listed for Best Feature Doc. The quote has since disappeared from the Cieply story.

I asked a Barack Obama question of some people at last night’s Gotham Awards, and I’m asking it of the readership now. If you were Obama’s most trusted adviser, would you urge that his middle name be spoken during the 1.20.09 swearing-in ceremony (which I personally believe would be an essential transformative thing), or follow the precedent set by Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan and not speak his full name when he repeats the oath of office?

For Obama (as well as Chief Justice John Roberts) to not say the word “Hussein” would be, of course, a total capitulation to the right-wing yahoo rurals, who will almost certainly flinch and cross themselves when they hear it spoken.

Some side-stepped the question last night. Us magazine critic Thelma Adams said (or so I recall) it would probably be best to not gild the lily. Rachel Getting Married director Jonathan Demme told me he’s 100% behind the middle name speak-out. But what about the rednecks in Kentucky?, I asked him. They’ll have a fit. “Fuck ’em!,” said the smiling, laughing and high-spirited Demme, who was standing close to Rachel Getting Married screenwriter Jenny Lumet.

Frozen River‘s Melissa Leo was handed the Breakthrough Actor trophy at last night’s Gotham Independent Film Awards, and River itself won the Best Feature award. With Leo also looking like a front-runner for a Best Actress Spirit Award, it is now up to the Academy to recognize reality (both artistic and political) and hand Leo a Best Actress nomination as well.

Gotham Awards at two-thirds mark, Cipriani Wall Street — Tuesday, 12.12, 9:10 pm.

The breakthrough director prize went to Ballast helmer Lance Hammer. Zeitgeist Films’ Trouble the Water — the King Kong of hand-held video jiggle-nausea docs — won for documentary. And the unpronouncable, barely spellable Synecdoche, New York won for ensemble performance.

Tribute awards were given to Penelope Cruz, HBO ‘s Sheila Nevins (who asked me during the pre-party to please stop gesturing sharply with my hands, as one of my karate chops came very close to her head), and directors Gus Van Sant and Melvin Van Peebles.

The organization behind the east coast Gothams is the Independent Feature Project (IFP). The west coast Spirit Awards, which are handed out in February just before the Oscars, are run and fortified by Film Independent (FIND). IFP and FIND used to be the same outfit, but they divorced in 2006 over some issue involving organizational ego and bluster and territoriality.

Pre-party at the Museum of American Finance — Wednesday, 12.2.08, 7:05 pm

I attended the Gothams at Cipriani Wall Street as well as the pre-party at the Museum of American Finance, which are right across the street from each other. (Wall Street is quite narrow, like a driveway.) I ran into several familiar faces — Richard Jenkins, Bob Berney, Melissa Leo, Fox Searchlight’s Peter Rice, Marina Zenovich, Roger Friedman, Michael London, Susan Norget, Jonathan Demme, Jeff Goldblum, Rosemarie DeWitt, Gus Van Sant, the Ballast guys, etc.

I actually arrived a bit early, which isn’t my style. I wore my black suit, tapered medium blue dress shirt, a plaid-y checkered blue-gray tie and a pair of deeply uncomfortable, Chinese foot-binding Aldo loafers that I’m thinking of giving away. The pork chop hors d’eouvres at the pre-party, served with a tangy mustard sauce, were luscious. Ditto a very flavorful sea-foody omelette that was served as an opening appetizer at Cipriani Wall Street.

“If Gran Torino does prove to be Clint Eastwood‘s acting swan song, he couldn’t have picked a better way to go out,” writes Pete Hammond in his latest “Notes on a Season” column. “As a grizzled, racist, foul-mouthed ex-Marine refusing to move from an old neighborhood now populated with Asians and overrun by gangs, Eastwood summons up memories from his past roles. Indeed, he’s channeled his whole screen persona.

“As his character stands in front of his house pointing his gun at a group of young toughs and utters lines like ‘Get off of my lawn’ — John McCain! — “or ‘Did you ever think you would be [expletive] with the wrong guy,’ you could almost see what Harry Callahan would be like when he hit retirement age.

“Gran Torino‘s Walt Kowalski is a proud man who squints and grunts and, like a descendant of some reluctant Western sheriff, takes a town now bullied by ‘outlaw’ Latino, Asian and black gangs and tears them a new one. Giving real dimension to what could have been an unlikeable Archie Bunker-style bigot, not to mention heart and a 21st century enlightenment that we all have to live together, Eastwood has taken Dirty Harry to a new place and delivered the ultimate valedictory.

“When he croaks the lyrics of the title song (co-written by son Kyle) over the end credits, audiences will be applauding not just a fine performance but also a remarkable screen career.”

I have to quit to get dressed and make my way down to the Gotham Awards event, which starts around 6:30 pm with a cocktail thing at the Museum of American Finance, followed by the full-on dinner and awards ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street, starting at 7:30 pm.

N.Y. Times reporter Michael Cieply reported this morning that Clint Eastwood “growls his way” through Gran Torino and that a “a sweet,labbie looking mutt” in the film is more personable than Eastwood’s grumpy war vet Walt Kowalski. And David Poland says in song verse (a) “hang yourself if you had money on this film for the win,” (b) “I don’t know just what went wrong,” and (c) “Mister, we could use a film like Unforgiven again.”

“First, let’s all just agree that The Dark Knight is the best picture of the year,” says the Dark Campaign‘s mission statement. “An unparalled and extraordinary achievement of filmmaking that only happens on rare occasions when lightning strikes. Audiences and critics were blown away by the riveting drama, the compelling performances, the amazing cinematography, and the startling way the film redefined cinematic storytelling in an epic crime drama about justice, society, and the nature of evil. Films like this only come along once in a lifetime.

“And yet it has an uphill battle ahead of it for Academy Awards nomination chances.

“Remember 1999? Some great groundbreaking films like Iron Giant, Fight Club, Magnolia, Election, Being John Malkovich, Talented Mr. Ripley, Man on the Moon, Run Lola Run, Three Kings. Well, guess what? Not a single one of them was nominated for Best Picture.

“So what this campaign aims to do is help turn the tide on those long odds. If people get out there and spread the word, on film sites, movie newspapers, oscar blogs, and forums all over the Internet, that the Dark Knight deserves Best Picture, then it’s bound to have an influence on Academy Voters (yes even they use the Internet). Even mainstream media might pickup the story, anything’s possible.

“So get out there and spread the word and don’t let a chance at making history for The Dark Knight pass by.”

David Poland says “some strong pushback” has been manifesting against Australia, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Doubt and Revolutionary Road in the Best Picture talking wars. But for pushback to happen a film it has to have made generated big expectations to begin with, no? In this sense Australia was absolutely never in the game. You could feel this weeks before it opened. And then it was shown and a fair number of people lost their minds.

The Button pushback is real. It was instantly detectable starting with those closely-watched-and-reported-on L.A. and N.Y. screenings. It’s a Best Picture nominee, for sure, but beyond that…

There is nothing but favoring wind right now for Slumdog Millionaire and Milk, it seems, and for whatever reason no one seems to be picking away at Frost/Nixon — it’s the older-viewer default choice. I was struck the other day by the precision of a sentence in a Frost/Nixon review by New Yorker critic David Denby — “I can’t escape the feeling that it carries about it an aura of momentousness that isn’t warranted by the events.” But there are no nip-nip-nippers out there saying this.

But whatever pushback may be out there against Revolutionary Road is so fundamentally lame, childish and bordering on pathetic — “It’s too gloomy” — that I feel sullied by the mere mention of it. A friend actually said that “people don’t want to watch a movie like this because of the economy”…God! I’ve seen Revolutionary Road three times and felt enveloped by a feeling of unusual poignancy with each sit. Sam Mendes gives it such poise, drawing each scene to such a fine point. And that Thomas Newman score keeps giving me the willies in a good way. RR may be the strongest deep-down penetration of the year for me.

Who exactly constitutes the alleged pushback against Doubt? Based on what lingering disappointments, exactly? Based on what unsatisfying element? This Glenn Kenny review pushes back against the pushbackers quite nicely

Lance Hammer‘s Ballast, Jonathan Demme‘s Rachel Getting Married and Courtney Hunt’s Frozen River each scored six nominations among the 2009 Film Independent’s Spirit Award noms, announced this morning.

HE winner picks are as follows.

HE’s Un-Nominated Best Feature Choice: The Visitor HE Runners-up: Frozen River, Rachel Getting Married, The Wrestler, Wendy and Lucy and Ballast.

HE’s Best Director Award: Tom McCarthy, The Visitor. Runners-Up: Jonathan Demme, Rachel Getting Married; Courtney Hunt, Frozen River; Ramin Bahrani, Chop Shop; Lance Hammer, Ballast.

No call on Best First Feature as I haven’t seen all of these : Afterschool (Antonio Campos, Sean Durkin, Josh Mond); Medicine for Melancholy (Barry Jenkins, Justin Barber); Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman, Anthony Bregman, Spike Jonze, Sidney Kimmel); Sleep Dealer (Alex Rivera, Anthony Bregman); and Sangre De Mi Sangre (Christopher Zalla, Per Melita, Benjamin Odell). Charlie Kaufman deserves respect for throwing caution to the wind and reaching for the sky.

HE’s John Cassavettes Award winner: In Search of a Midnight Kiss (Alex Holdridge, Seth Caplan, Scoot McNairy). Runner-ups: Prince of Broadway (Sean Baker, Darren Dean); Take Out (Sean Baker, Shih-Ching Tsou); The Signal (David Bruckner, Dan Bush, Jacob Gentry, Alexander Motlagh); Turn the River (Chris Eigeman, Ami Armstrong).

HE’s Best Screenplay Award: tie between Charlie Kaufman (Synecdoche, New York) and Woody Allen (Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Runners-up: Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck (Sugar); Howard A. Rodman (Savage Grace); Christopher Zalla, (Sangre De Mi Sangre)

HE’s Best First Screenplay Award: Dustin Lance Black (Milk). Runners-up: Jenny Lumet, Rachel Getting Married; Lance Hammer (Ballast); Courtney Hunt (Frozen River); Jonathan Levine (The Wackness).

HE’s Best Best Female Lead: Melissa Leo, Frozen River. Runners-Up: Summer Bishil, Towelhead; Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married; Tarra Riggs, Ballast; Michelle Williams, Wendy and Lucy.

HE’s Best Best Male Lead: Richard Jenkins, The Visitor. Special Surprise Merit Badge: Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker. Runners-up: Javier Bardem, Vicky Cristina Barcelona; Sean Penn, Milk; Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler.

HE’s Best Best Supporting Female Lead: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Runners-up: Rosemarie DeWitt, Rachel Getting Married; Rosie Perez, The Take; Misty Upham, Frozen River; Debra Winger, Rachel Getting Married.

HE’s Best Best Supporting Male Lead: tie between James Franco, Milk, and Anthony Mackie, The Hurt Locker. Runners-up: Charlie McDermott, Frozen River; JimMyron Ross, Ballast; Haaz Sleiman, The Visitor.

HE’s Best Cinematography Award: Harris Savides, Milk. Runners-up: Maryse Alberti, The Wrestler; Lol Crawley, Ballast; James Laxton, Medicine for Melancholy; Michael Simmonds, Chop Shop.

HE’s Best Documentary Award: Man on Wire, James Marsh. Runners-up: The Order of Myths, Margaret Brown; Up the Yangtze, Yung Chang; Encounters at the End of the World

Werner Herzog; The Betrayal, Ellen Kuras & Thavisouk Phrasavath

HE’s Foreign Film Award: Gomorra, Matteo Garrone. Runners-up: The Class, Laurent Cantet; Secret of the Grain; Abdellatif Kechiche; Hunger, Steve McQueen; Silent Light, Carlos Reygadas.

I can’t do anymore…that’s it.