Hollywood Reader

Democrats on the lookout for their own Karl Rove may have found one in the unlikely person of George Lakoff . Lakoff is the Berkeley cognitive scientist and linguist who was profiled in a recent New York Timesmagazine cover story for his 144-page political tract Don't Think of an Elephant!: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate—The Essential Guide for Progressives. (Lakoff argues that Republicans persuade people to vote against the public's interests by "framing" the debate in a misleading way—so legislation that lowers pollution standards, for example, gets branded the Clean Skies Act.) Though published just last year, the book has sold a staggering 227,000 copies for Vermont's tiny Chelsea Green Publishing. Now, in one of the more unusual film deals, Fellini collaborator Aldo Vidali plans to bring the book to the screen as a documentary entitled Deflating the Elephant and says he's in discussions with top Hollywood talent. (He won't say who, but if this doesn't have lefty actors Sean Penn , Warren Beatty or Alec Baldwin written all over it, what does?) Though the documentary will get a theatrical release, Vidali first intends to release a "framing tutorial" online. He hopes to have the film in theaters before the 2006 elections.

The U.K.'s Film Four is reportedly in discussion for film rights to On Beauty (Penguin Press), the just published third novel from Zadie Smith . Allison Owen will produce. Smith is the talented (and photogenic) author whose 2000 novel, White Teeth (Random), had critics reaching for the E.M. Forster comparisons. In Beauty, Smith embraces Forster whole hog by moving the plot and characters of Howards End to a 21st-century America struggling with issues of race and religion. White Teeth was made into a well-received U.K. miniseries in 2002 (and aired in the U.S. on PBS). AP Watt's Georgia Garrett reps Smith for lit. AP Watt's Nick Harris and CAA's Sally Willcox reps her for film.

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