For James Brolin, The Right Role -

correction

In the July 21 TV Column, a deletion in a sentence about Ronald Reagan changed the intended meaning. The revision made it sound as though the columnist was characterizing Reagan as idealistic, when she was not. (Published 7/22/03)

HOLLYWOOD, July 20 -- Mr. Barbra Streisand, aka James Brolin, will play the former president in a CBS miniseries about the "passionate love affair" between Ronald and Nancy Reagan.

"The Reagans" is scheduled to air in November, not long after cable network Showtime airs its movie about the passionate love affair between the Bush administration and producer Lionel Chetwynd, otherwise known as "DC 9/11." Both networks are owned by Viacom, which it appears is trying to have a passionate love affair with the Republican Party.

Anyway, it may explain why CBS executive VP Gil Schwartz introduced network CEO Leslie Moonves at the press tour today as "the one man who could potentially challenge Arnold Schwarzenegger in his bid for governor of California." Or why Moonves made a crack that CBS "hasn't asked Barbra Streisand what she thinks about James Brolin playing Ronald Reagan, but we'll have to live with that."

That was being a bit disingenuous; "Reagans" producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron are this tight with Streisand, having worked with her Barwood Films on the NBC movie "Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story," about an Army colonel who was kicked out of the service for acknowledging she was a lesbian, and on the Lifetime flick "What Makes a Family," about a lesbian who has to fight to get custody of a baby born to her artificially inseminated partner when said partner dies after giving birth. Storyline and Barwood also are trying to develop a remake of the musical "Mame" that would star Cher.

So we're betting that Meron and Zadan cleared this bit of casting with Streisand before signing on the dotted line, although we were unable to reach them by press time.

Judy Davis had already been cast to play Nancy in "The Reagans," which CBS says will begin when "a fading actor named Ronald Reagan encounters a young starlet named Nancy Davis on a movie set in 1949" and "the history of the world is forever changed." Can't you just feel the love?

"As one of the most celebrated unions of our time, Ronnie and Nancy journey from the glamorous soundstages of Hollywood to the rocky political terrain of Washington trying, sometimes in vain, to keep their blended family intact," CBS continues.

"Ultimately . . . this is the story of an enduring and passionate love affair -- a love spanning four decades that was so encompassing that it often excluded everything around them."

Years ago, or maybe it was only last Tuesday night, at ABC's press tour party, Zadan and Meron had declined to tell the TV Column whom they'd cast to play Reagan, but assured us that when it was announced, the choice would stop us dead for a minute and then make perfect sense.

And, by jingo, they were absolutely right. For not only is Brolin, like Reagan, a handsome, tall B actor who is totally ruled by his wife, but, it turns out, they have had practically parallel careers.

Did you know, for instance, that while Brolin was playing his best-known role, that of idealistic physician Steven Kiley on the ABC medical drama "Marcus Welby, M.D.," from 1969 to 1976, Ronald Reagan was playing the role of idealistic governor of the state of California?

And that from 1983 to 1988, while Brolin was catering to the wealthy as the dashing manager of a swanky resort on the drama series "Hotel," Ronald Reagan was catering to the wealthy as the dashing president of the United States -- his best known role.

CBS may possibly have been just the teensiest bit wrong when it had a news division exec pitch book and movie deals in a letter seeking an interview with rescued soldier Jessica Lynch, Les Moonves said today.

"Maybe that went over the line," Moonves conceded. "That was not respecting, possibly, the sanctity of CBS News."

Pfc. Jessica Lynch has yet to talk publicly about her capture in southern Iraq or the circumstances of her exit from an Iraqi hospital; CBS News is among the operations that have been pursuing an interview with 20-year-old Lynch, who according to the Associated Press is scheduled to be released from Walter Reed Army Medical Center on Tuesday.

In the letter to Lynch's family requesting an interview, CBS News senior vice president Betsy West also pitched a Lynch documentary and ticked off other opportunities awaiting the Lynch family, including a possible book deal with Viacom-owned Simon & Schuster, a CBS Sunday movie and a music concert on Viacom-owned MTV that would be held in their home town.

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"As these companies become more and more vertically integrated, sometimes you do go over the line," Moonves said, stating the obvious.

But, he noted in CBS's defense, it's not the only network erasing the line between the news division and entertainment. He noted that Pat O'Brien, co-host of NBC's syndicated "Access Hollywood," recently conducted an interview with Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck that aired on the NBC News show "Dateline."

"They did entice them with 'You'll be on "Access Hollywood" all week, you'll be on the "Today" show and we'll give you a primetime special,' " Moonves said.

CBS is no longer pursuing the rights to Lynch's story for a TV movie, he continued, because NBC is plowing ahead with a Lynch movie it's producing without any rights.

"We're not going to do 'The Amy Fisher Story,' where there are three [TV movies] on."

As so often happens at the television press tour, the subject of genital warts came up.

This time it occurred during the Q&A session with Moonves, when a reporter noted that for the first time ever, sex was had in the house of CBS's reality series "Big Brother."

"Big Brother," for the uninitiated, is a reality competition series in which a bunch of exhibitionists agree to live together in a house on a studio lot, drink a lot and fight with each other, and every week a house member gets voted out until only one remains, who wins a cash prize. Then they all move to Hollywood and try unsuccessfully to launch movie careers.

This particular reporter attending Summer TV Press Tour 2003 was outraged that anyone willing to shell out the mucho bucks to get CBS's 24/7 webcast from inside the "Big Brother" house got to see the historic sex act, but that lower-income households that cannot afford to buy the webcast were denied any mention of the newsmaking act during the live Wednesday night "Big Brother" broadcast, hosted by sometime CBS News anchor Julie Chen.

The reporter went on to complain to Moonves that Chen had also failed to note during her interviews with contestants that one of their own had been booted from the house because he had genital warts, word of which had greatly disturbed the other houseguests.

"You didn't show that at all," the reporter complained. "Why even air the show if you're not going to let it be what it can truly be?

"It's supposed to be a salacious show," the reporter told Moonves, in case he didn't already know.

Moonves, who is no dummy, turned the question over to CBS Entertainment President Nancy Tellem, whom he had brought up on stage with him for just this kind of situation.

Tellem began to talk very fast. "Obviously we have certain obligations," she said. "Frankly I'm surprised that this kind of thing didn't occur earlier," she added, throwing in a "You have to balance as far as what your obligation is to your viewers" and a "There's taste and appropriateness" for good measure.

Moonves, who saw she had left out one important point, jumped in.

"I'd like to clarify something," he said.

"He wasn't thrown out because of the warts; he was thrown out because he was violent. He was throwing chairs around the house and people were afraid for their safety."

The reporter, unimpressed, pointed out that another contestant had begun scrubbing the toilets vigorously after learning about her housemate's genital warts.

But Tellem insisted the warts and the toilet-scrubbing were unrelated. At which point Moonves might have realized that genital warts is not on the list of approved topics for the one man who could potentially challenge Arnold Schwarzenegger in his bid for governor.

"I can't believe," he said, "we're talking about this at the press tour! We'll talk about this on the side, okay?"

Barbra Streisand's husband James Brolin will play Ronald Reagan in a miniseries.

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