Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis. Great. Joke with one another. Riff off one another. Ad-lib to one another. Star opposite one another in the new flick “The Campaign.” Interview them — like together, like at the same time — ungreat. Easier to schlep up Mount Everest in Manolos.
Will Ferrell. This being a political comedy, is he personally into politics? “Happens I am very political. I have deep political instincts. My thoughts are heavy with hopes for this country. I’m fighting now for equal rights for women. I won’t rest until women are allowed to vote.”
Okayyy.
Zach Galifianakis. Is doing comedy a way to be liked? “No. For me it was time to do something with my life. I have no skills. No tools. And I wanted to be a performer. In my case there is absolutely no truth to wanting to be liked. I’m not interested in being liked. I don’t care if anyone likes me or not.”
Okayyy.
Zach: “As for my being political, yes. However, I have a deep ethical gap.”
Will: “As for doing comedy to be liked? Yes, a little. I wanted to be a businessman. I wasn’t desperate to please, but I was a fan of comedy so I thought, why not try it?”
Put in the film’s co-writer Chris Henchy: “I’m eager for the real politicians to see this. It takes place in North Carolina, but we filmed in New Orleans.” Okayyy. So why’s his wife, Brooke Shields, not in it? “Please, don’t cause problems in my marriage.”
Last time we met, scruffy Zach looked like an unmade bed. This time an arrow ad. Pressed blue suit, white shirt, neat tie. And last time we met Will was spiffy and natty. This time, open-collar shirt and tieless.
About how come they co-produced this movie, one or both said: “We wanted to work together. And we knew this was the time for a comedy about an election.” Will plays “an incumbent congressman running for his fifth term.” Zach plays “someone sexy and sweet, naturally, but with questionable character.”
Having survived Leo the Lion and his buddy Simba, excitement flushed my cheeks. Came word the director’s arriving. He arrived. And ignored me. Breezed past like I’m a gnat and posed for the photographers, one of whom whispered: “Who’s he?”
Before I could again lick my paws over my own importance, a geezer whose scalp was even rumpled wanted the lady who handled this screening. Seeing me he asked: “You Peggy Siegal”?
BESIDES victims, Christian Bale also visited Aurora’s First Responders . . . Garry Shandling: “I had a complex about my hair. But hair on your head doesn’t matter, it’s the kind of hair you have inside.”!? Whaa? . . . Courteney Cox: “Friends shouldn’t be a chore. If there’s tension I say, ‘Nix ’em. Don’t count on me.’ ”. . . Stuff downtown “in” places and Upper East Side ritzy places. Best Italian food is 38th & Ninth, near the Lincoln Tunnel. Il Punto. Owner Tony’s from Palermo.
OBUMMA is flaming through campaign contributions. His burn rate’s so high that from George Clooney’s $40,000 per Hollywood-head fundraiser he’s down to a buck a bagel in the burbs. Aug. 6 he’ll pass the hat in Connecticut. Governor, senator and four congresspersons were added to goose the collection. It’s $500 a person. For such a pitiful amount, you could get convicted cash-and-carry Larry Seabrook en route to the can.
This lush plush slush takes place at the Marriott. In Stamford. Where nobody goes for a rah-rah-sis-boom-bah presidential gala. Not even the people who live there.
REMEMBER: It isn’t pre-marital sex if you have no intention of getting married.
GAMBLING’S coming to the USA faster than health care. Twenty-two states already collect casino tax revenue. Pennsylvania’s table games and slots rake in $1.456 billion. Beats Nevada’s $865.25 million. Even Kansas, bigger in crops than craps, pays a 27 percent tax rate on its $13.08 million revenue. New York’s rate is 47 percent. It’s revenue — $593.4 million. Luck Be a Lady . . .
SIX back-up singers for Elvis, Aretha, Dionne, Dusty Springfield, Jimi Hendrix filmed a history of the industry. “This Time” opens at the Quad Cinema Aug. 10 . . . On our recent tragedy, Jason Alexander in Hollywood Reporter: “I cannot understand support for legality of the kind of weapon in this massacre. It’s a military weapon. Why should it be in non-mil hands?”
ONE person on that Elizabeth Taylor movie calls Lindsay Lohan “a feather in the wind”: “She’d show up and learn lines for that day’s scene. Like Elizabeth, always had an entourage. But even though she sometimes showed up late, she’s an excellent actress. Worth her weight. And always very nice. Quiet. Never mean.”
A DOMINICAN sister, retired nun Ann Toomey of Forestburgh, NY, writes me she’s a devoted follower. Besides “giving time and energy to prayer and reading” she “loves” our “creativity” and “revels” in the New York Post.
If that’s Only in New York, kids, I’m grateful for it.