November 1, 2003
Went over to Brad and Carole Radina’s last night for a trick or treat fest. Sat out in driveway in a semi-circle, drank beers and tripped kids as they came by in the dark. Brad dressed like a woman and housewives from blocks away came to leer at him (one mother said, and this is a quote: “My husband said I needed to come look at you because you had the big guns and everything.” I assume she meant bosoms since Brad wasn’t heeled). Betty Radina was dressed like a Joe Arpaio sherrif’s deputy and the irony is that she really is a Joe Arpaio sherrif’s deputy and it’s her uniform, complet with cap and boots. Funny. I reprised my aerobics instructor and Kathy went as Janet Napalitano. She wore the Wonderful Russ Arizona state flag pants I had made for the tv show, “The Zane Brothers” which never got off the ground. Had pizza and buffalo wings. Lots of fun. Got home at 9:30.

The dirt on The Alamo getting pushed back to April is this: the test screenings weren’t going well, the movie clocks in at three hours and test audiences were having a hard time figuring out who to root for. The movie is very PC and as one of my Alamo friends put it, “You need to portray Santa Anna as Osama bin Laden. That’s the only way it works. If you’re showing the Mexican side, and that the Americans had slaves why should you care that the Americans are getting killed fighting for slavery? The short answer is, you don’t.”

Disney has $80 million at stake and after watching “Project Greenlight,” I wonder if they’re demanding that the director, John Lee Hancock, recut it as a comedy? Probably not, but I’ll bet it’s a bundle of laughs in that editing room, right about now.

Speaking of movies, got an E-mail from John Fusco, who has almost single-handedly kept the Western genre alive through the nineties. Here’s what he’s up to:

“I am currently at work on an early 20th century western about Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. The screenplay will be based on the Gene Shelton book, "Manhunter: the life and times of Frank Hamer." I also have a mini-series airing this December 28th and 29th on ABC. "Dreamkeeper" is the biggest Native American network event ever, a 4-hour mini-series based on Indian myths and legends. Lots of Old West in it. Think you'll like the Kiowa legend of "Tejan, the red headed warrior." And, as you know, "Hidalgo" opens nationally on March 5th.”

John did Thunderheart and both Young Guns movies.

”It is a secret, both in nature and state, that it is safer to change many things than one.”
—Francis Bacon