The White House is taking yet another stab at bolstering President Bush’s image — with the help of Hollywood.


Last spring, Showtime cable network began filming a two-hour TV movie re-creating the scene in the White House after 9/11. We find Bush on Air Force One demanding that the pilot head back to Washington over the protestations of Secret Service agents.


You can thank the White House for such award-winning lines as: “If some tinhorn terrorist wants me, tell him to come and get me! I’ll be at home, waiting for the bastard!”


According to the Globe and Mail, Bush’s top adviser Karl Rove met with Jack Valenti and other Hollywood big shots from the Motion Picture Association of America just weeks after the attacks to discuss boosting White House ratings.


The film stars Timothy Bottoms of 1973’s The Paper Chase as Bush, 24’s Penny Johnson Jerald as National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Star Trek’s George Takei as Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta.


Writer/producer Lionel Chetwynd, a well-known Hollywood conservative, had access to the top dogs, including Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, top aide Andrew Card and Rove. No stranger to Bush, he was appointed by him to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities in 2001. Look for the film sometime this fall.


Chetwynd’s access is in sharp contrast to the roadblocks Bush has put up against the joint congressional inquiry to investigate 9/11 and the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, which he attempted to squash but finally allowed because of pressure from victims’ families.

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