[A.West]

SHOW: Topic A with Tina Brown 8:00 AM EST CNBC
October 3, 2004 Sunday
"Ms. ANGELINA JOLIE: What am I reading? I've been very into Ayn Rand, so I've read "The Fountainhead" and then "Atlas Shrugged." I just think she has a very interesting philosophy. You re-evaluate your own life and what's important to you."

I'm not sure that having Ms. Jolie like Ayn Rand's novels is an entirely good thing, given her past erratic behavior. I hope this is a new beginning for her.

[erik]

If I wasn't married......I'd probably still stand no chance.

[AwakeAndFree]

Dear Ms. Jolie, if you're serious about that - please contact me ASAP.

[Nate_S]

In a recent Interview I read (I can’t quite place which magazine it was specifically) Rob Lowe cited Ayn Rand as the woman he would most want to meet. He went on to say how fascinated he was with Atlas Shrugged.

Hollywood trend?

[oldsalt]

Nate_S, on Oct 6 2004, 05:21 PM, said:

In a recent Interview I read (I can’t quite place which magazine it was specifically) Rob Lowe cited Ayn Rand as the woman he would most want to meet. He went on to say how fascinated he was with Atlas Shrugged.

Hollywood trend?
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I can't imagine Hollywood going Objectivist, but I can fervently wish it to be so.

Tom Selleck tried to get Atlas Shrugged done as a mini-series. He very much wanted to play Hank Reardon. Obviously it came to nought, but he went up in my estimation just for trying.

Hell, I'd be satisfied if Hollywood just showed some common sense. Dreamer that I am.

[A.West]

oldsalt, on Oct 6 2004, 10:56 PM, said:

I can't imagine Hollywood going Objectivist, but I can fervently wish it to be so. 

Tom Selleck tried to get Atlas Shrugged done as a mini-series.  He very much wanted to play Hank Reardon.  Obviously it came to nought, but he went up in my estimation just for trying.

Hell, I'd be satisfied if Hollywood just showed some common sense.  Dreamer that I am.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Maybe the Atlas Shrugged potential movie has spurred some of the actors to read it, deciding whether they wanted to do a part? This sounds also like a good sign for the movie geting done in my lifetime.

I could accept a movie with Jolie as Dagny, Selleck as Rearden, and Rob Lowe as Francisco. You could do a lot worse than that for actors, and enthusiasm helps, perhaps the acting and the budget.

I googled Rob Lowe and Atlas Shrugged, and sure enough, he says it's his favorite along with "East of Eden" (which I recently read may have had some Ayn Rand influences to go along with the Biblical ones.)

Maybe seemingly dissolute actors like Jolie and Lowe reach a mid-life crisis and decide they're ready for real values.

[coirecfox]

I could most certainly not see Rob Lowe as Francisco. And I always thought of Dagny as more...delicate, frame-wise. Selleck maybe if he shaved his moustache(I have no idea how to spell that).

[argive99]

A.West, on Oct 6 2004, 10:23 PM, said:

I googled Rob Lowe and Atlas Shrugged, and sure enough, he says it's his favorite along with "East of Eden" (which I recently read may have had some Ayn Rand influences to go along with the Biblical ones.)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How the hell can you combine Ayn Rand with John Steinbeck? The two are antithetical in every way possible. This just shows that these actors have no clue as to what they are reading when the read Rand. There are many levels to appreciate Atlas Shrugged. When someone like Jolie says "I just think she has a very interesting philosophy. You re-evaluate your own life and what's important to you" it makes me think that she sees AS as nothing more than "a cute little train story."

I think it just may be fashionable for these popularity seeking celebs to cite someone they think is 'hip'.

And by the way, Jolie is a big time UN supporting liberal. They gave her some type of award for her help with starving African children. I'd bet the ranch that she won't be supporting laisez fairre any time soon.

[A.West]

argive99, on Oct 7 2004, 08:21 AM, said:

How the hell can you combine Ayn Rand with John Steinbeck? The two are antithetical in every way possible. This just shows that these actors have no clue as to what they are reading when the read Rand. There are many levels to appreciate Atlas Shrugged. When someone like Jolie says "I just think she has a very interesting philosophy. You re-evaluate your own life and what's important to you" it makes me think that she sees AS as nothing more than "a cute little train story."

I think it just may be fashionable for these popularity seeking celebs to cite someone they think is 'hip'.

And by the way, Jolie is a big time UN supporting liberal. They gave her some type of award for her help with starving African children. I'd bet the ranch that she won't be supporting laisez fairre any time soon.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, Hollywood actors probably understand Atlas Shrugged even less than TOC. I think it would be a good thing if Hollywood actors started thinking Ayn Rand is "hip". No matter how you slice it, it's free advertising for books that can sell themselves to rational people, regardless of the means of the introduction. Even negative publicity is better than no publicity when it comes to Atlas Shrugged, most likely.

I'd guess that Jolie can relate to certain aspects of Dominique's personality, but that's a bit of groundless speculation. Given a brief look at her history, she looks like the type to become obsessed with a subject, for a short time at least. People like that can go from being a Marxist to a capitalist in a month (Like me in junior high school). If she can read and complete both novels and say something nice about them, she still gets a star. Maybe she can use it to help put her erratic life on a better track, that would be a nice data point. Given the money she makes, maybe ARI could send a donation mailer to her before she moves on to Kabbalah.

If I recall correctly, Dr. Binswanger found and pointed out a passage in East of Eden that sounded very Ayn Rand-novel-like.

[erik]

Just because you got an award for helping children in Africa from the UN doesn't mean you support the UN. Besides, I think all of us were confused before reading AR. Now that she has read the material she may not support the UN. Either way its good press for the books like someone else said. As to her playing Dagny, she was blonde in a movie and pulled it off quite well. She is actually quite petite in real life too. The Lara Croft image is camerawork and not quite the real deal. I think she would make a great Dagny personally.

[Lord Poppycock]

I agree that “(e)ven negative publicity is better than no publicity.“ If reading Rand’s novels becomes a fad; I can imagine at least a few people picking up her fiction as a trend, becoming interested in Objectivism, moving on to the non-fiction and finally grasping and excepting the philosophy.

[Thoyd Loki]

coirecfox, on Oct 7 2004, 06:47 AM, said:

I could most certainly not see Rob Lowe as Francisco. And I always thought of Dagny as more...delicate, frame-wise.  Selleck maybe if he shaved his moustache(I have no idea how to spell that).
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, I don't recall Dagny being described as having a set of beef-liver lips on her face.

[Oakes]

Thoyd Loki said:

Yeah, I don't recall Dagny being described as having a set of beef-liver lips on her face.

[bbrown]

erik, on Oct 7 2004, 10:58 AM, said:

Now that she has read the material she may not support the UN.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, at least she'll have a plane to remember her pre-Objectivist days. :-)

[Dagny]

ohmygosh...angelina jolie is exactly who I pictured playing Dagny when I read the book! I also pictured Jim Caviezel playing Francisco ...just because I thought he could look the part of a spanish aristocrat...but hell will probably freeze over before he picks up Ayn Rand. (pardon my expression)

~Isabel

[Lord Poppycock]

If someone made Atlas Shrugged into a movie they’d probably cast Ashton Kutcher as Galt and find a way to advocate altruism.

[realitycheck44]

I talked about this with my mom a while ago and we thought that the best way for the movie to be made would be to cast unknown actors. That way the actor's political viewpoints or roles in other movies would not influence the people who have not read the book. I don't especially like Angelina Jolie. She doesn't come across as a very strong or intelligent woman. She is also extremely sexual, and I imagined Dagny as a more plain and basic, I guess.

Angelina just doesn't do it for me, neither intellectually nor physically. Denzel Washington might make a good background prime mover, like Wyatt or Mulligan; Sean Connery might be good as Dr Aktson, but I still thing the best way would be to get unknown actors.

[Patrick N.]

Lord Poppycock, on Oct 29 2004, 09:56 PM, said:

If someone made Atlas Shrugged into a movie they’d probably cast Ashton Kutcher as Galt and find a way to advocate altruism.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ashton Kutcher? What the hell?

[coirecfox]

I could most certainly see Denzel as Mulligan and Connery as Akston, given their previous movie roles. I always saw Dagny as very implicitly sexual, as in she never did anything to be sexual, she just always was by her extreme femininity.

[Charles]

I think Julie Delpie (Three Colours White) would have to be the perfect Dominique.