Showbiz411

Mitt Romney maybe should get a clue. He tells Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan next week on his taped segment with them who sees playing him in the movies: though Romney is 65, he imagines Gene Hackman, 84 and a half, retired, curmudgeonly, half Jewish, voice of hardware store ads, to play him on film. Okay? And Ann Romney? Mitt sees Michelle Pfeiffer. I see dead people. The Romneys taped their interview today for a show called “Live!” and it airs on Tuesday. There’s nothing worse on “Live!” than a canned interview, except for a canned ham. It’s interesting who people see themselves as on film and in fiction. I always thought my late friend Ron Silver was playing me, and he was several years older–but not 20.

Roger Friedman

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.