Kristol Used His Column to Help McCain's Rebels

And Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin is still pretty scary: reactions

(NEWSER) - If you thought Julianne Moore's Sarah Palin was terrifying in the first Game Change teaser , wait until you see her in the full trailer, where she utters lines such as, "We have to win this thing. I so don’t want to go back to Alaska." Watch below, then read on for some reactions:

• This will clearly be "a Frankenstein-esque story about McCain’s staffers coming to regret the choice they made in bringing a little-known governor into the limelight," writes Jon Bershad at Mediaite . "The full trailer ... gives us even more famous actors getting their turn to stare in horror at the 'monster' they’ve created."

HBO debuts first teaser

(NEWSER) - For all of you who have spent the past nine months wondering how Julianne Moore’s Sarah Palin impersonation will stack up against Tina Fey’s , you finally have your answer. HBO debuted its first teaser trailer for Game Change, the film due in March that's based on the Mark Halperin-John Heilemann book about the 2008 presidential election. Neither Ed Harris as John McCain nor Woody Harrelson as top adviser Steve Schmidt sound much like their real-life counterparts, notes David Jackson in USA Today , but Moore’s Palin is spot-on: Numerous publications including People , New York , the Huffington Post , and Jezebel are fairly impressed. More»

Gail Collins hits back at the Donald

(NEWSER) - Last week it was apparent that there's no love lost between Donald Trump and New York Times columnist Gail Collins , but this week it's all-out war. Seems the Donald responded to Collins' column, which tweaked him as a loopy birther, with a letter to the editor tweaking her in turn as a no-good hack for writing "nasty and derogatory articles about me." "Actually," Trump writes, "I have great respect for Ms. Collins in that she has survived so long with so little talent. Her storytelling ability and word usage (coming from me, who has written many bestsellers), is not at a very high level." Snap! More»

Politico piece may have prompted work with NYT , ABC

(NEWSER) - Though the “lamestream media" has long been her punching bag, it appears Sarah Palin is ready to embrace it—selectively. Palin, who has largely relied on Fox News, Facebook, and Twitter to air her thoughts and grievances, is now turning to outlets her supporters have been critical of in the past, including the New York Times, ABC News, and Time. But Politico notes that the resulting interviews have been "mostly flattering features that broke little new critical ground," pointing to a segment set to air on Good Morning America tomorrow in which Robin Roberts visits Palin in Alaska. More»

Enemies say he wants to be a pundit; friends say it's personal

(NEWSER) - Steve Schmidt has taken post-campaign sour grapes to new heights with his public assault on Sarah Palin on 60 Minutes, reports Politico . What drove him to it? That depends on who you ask, Politico reports. One Palin ally theorizes that Schmidt, damaged in political circles after the inept McCain campaign, wants to launch a media career. “And there is no easier way to do that then by being a Republican who is willing to bash other Republicans.” More»