Sarah Palin may not be thrilled as ‘Game Change’ wins Emmys
Sarah Palin will likely have more complaints to lodge about the biographical drama based on her vice presidential run, but the Hollywood community rendered its verdict Sunday night with multiple Emmy awards for “Game Change.”
The HBO film won television’s top award for miniseries or movie, as well as awards for writer Danny Strong, director Jay Roach and actress Julianne Moore, who portrayed the one-time Alaska governor.
“I feel so validated because Sarah Palin gave me a big thumbs down,” Moore told the audience after receiving her best actress statuette at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.
Palin’s rebuttal to the TV movie has been going on for at least half a year. She has even used the film — based on a book by journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann — to raise money for her political action committee.
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“Fight back against HBO and their liberal fiction ‘Game Change’ by donating to SarahPAC today,” says an appeal on Palin’s website. It also includes a video in which commentators offer praise for Palin and the work she did as Sen. John McCain’s 2008 running mate.
The film, on the other hand, portrays the one-time Alaska governor and reality TV star as overwhelmed by her star turn. It shows a Palin performing at times but crumbling under pressure and becoming virtually unresponsive to the McCain operatives as the campaign started to go south.
The film received the endorsement of Steve Schmidt, the McCain campaign’s top strategist, and of Nicolle Wallace, a McCain campaign aide who was assigned to help Palin navigate her first national campaign.
The Hollywood filmmakers said they did not intend “Game Change” to be an endorsement of one party so much as they hoped it would get voters to pay closer attention to the candidates and how messages are crafted during a political race. But it was pretty clear that the television industry had no trouble accepting a portrait of Palin as dangerously out of touch.
It remains to be seen if Palin will respond to the film again, as she did when it aired on HBO last spring. Earlier in the Emmy telecast Sunday, Jimmy Kimmel asked how many in the crowd at the Nokia Theatre supported Republican nominee Mitt Romney.
After a smattering of applause, the comedian said: “See, there are 40 Republicans and the rest godless, liberal homosexuals.”
james.rainey@latimes.com
Twitter: @latimesrainey
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