"It seems that opening a movie in LA is rather difficult when you have a title like 'Michael Moore Hates America,'" he said. ?Surely the quality of the movie has nothing to do with it. ?Wilson, though agreeable at first, has since failed to respond to dTheatre's requests for a screening copy of the film. ?Maybe it was the moonlighting as a Backstreet Boy impersonator comment.

"When Victor Elizalde called (he's a Sony Executive on leave to run for Congress... as a Republican) and said he'd like to do a fundraiser in conjuction with the film, I said 'Hell no.'" ?Wilson is a militant independent, it seems, and he won't be duped into being a political hand puppet for a partisan campaign in a state where he doesn't live. ?Or will he?

"But then I talked about it with some of the other folks on the team. They asked me what my commitment to the Big American Conversation was. They told me to open it up to Victor's opponent, the incumbent Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman. We've invited Congressman Waxman to the premiere, but have heard nothing. I hope he'll accept."

Wilson's team (the accountants, perhaps?) convinced him that it would be okay to hold a fundraiser, as long as he also invited the competition. ?Sort of like when you're going to have a huge party but you don't want to piss off your neighbors so you invite them, too.

Wilson continued, "Despite what I say, there are people out there who believe this is an indication that I am a Republican operative... a player in the vast, right-wing conspiracy." ?Well, when he puts it that way it does seem rather silly. ?On the other hand, naming his movie "Michael Moore Hates America" sounds like a move right out of the Bush/Cheney "dissenters-be-damned" play book, which may or may not be part of a "vast, right-wing conspiracy."

"Let the conspirators spin away... I know what's going on," he said, "and when you see the film, you'll know what's going on." ?If we see the film, Mr. Wilson. ?If.

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