We had forgotten this part of the Charlton Heston biography:

Heston aroused great anger from the political left. Filmmaker Michael Moore’s Oscar-winning “Bowling for Columbine” (2002) tried to portray Heston as callous toward shooting victims. But Moore’s treatment of the visibly frail actor and what some reviewers contended were flawed facts might have backfired.

Al Gore told the New Yorker magazine: “I really appreciate what [Moore was] trying to do, but I wouldn’t have thought before seeing the movie that anyone could have aroused any sympathy in me for Charlton Heston. And yet he did.”

Better yet, we like how Stephen Hunter put it in today’s Washington Post:

Pilloried and parodied, lampooned and bullied, he never relented, he never backed down, and in time it came to seem less an old star’s trick of vanity than an act of political heroism. He endured, like Moses. He aged, like Moses. And the stone tablet he carried had only one commandment: Thou shalt be armed. It can even be said that if the Supreme Court in June finds a meaning in the Second Amendment consistent with NRA policy, that he will have died just short of the Promised Land — like Moses.

When remembering Charlton Heston, consider what he said about global warming.

And to think, it was Al Gore who won the Oscar.

We wondered yesterday who would play this guy in HBO’s upcoming movie “Recount” …

One loyal reader suggests the answer is obvious: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who has the added benefit of not only deciding the Florida 2000 result, but also already has an IMDB entry set up.

We normally post only about politics and the media.  And we normally don’t relay content with filthy language.

But a loyal reader just alerted us to the following, and we couldn’t resist.  Warning: put in your earplugs and make sure there are no bosses or kids around.  Hint: The Departed.

Political junkies and Hollywood junkies alike should get quite a kick out of watching the HBO film “Recount,” debuting Sunday, May 25 on HBO.

Shot on location in Jacksonville and Tallahassee, “Recount” portrays the turmoil of the 2000 presidential election in Florida, following the Florida recount from Election Day in November 2000 through the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of George W. Bush over Al Gore five weeks later.

Check out who’s playing whom — a delightful mix of political and entertainment bold-faced names:

• Kevin Spacey plays Ron Klain, Vice President Al Gore’s former Chief of Staff
• Tom Wilkinson portrays James Baker III, who was previously Secretary of State to President George H. W. Bush
• Denis Leary plays Michael Whouley, national field director during the Gore campaign
• Laura Dern portrays Katherine Harris, Secretary of State of Florida
• Bob Balaban portrays Ben Ginsberg, national counsel to the Bush-Cheney campaign in the 2000 election
• John Hurt plays Warren Christopher, former Secretary of State to President Bill Clinton
• Bruce McGill plays Republican lobbyist Mac Stipanovich
• Ed Begley, Jr. portrays attorney David Boies, who represented the Gore campaign before the Supreme Court

Of course, we can’t wait to find out who plays this guy …

Brad Pitt. Angelina Jolie. Barack Obama.

Brangelinabama.

So Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are related to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie?

Ninth cousins, twice removed, or something like that.

Pobama and Hillarina.

By the way, how many times have you thrown your head back and roared with laughter at this staple Barack Obama line: “The name of my cousin Dick Cheney won’t be on the ballot.”

Now, in addition to your uncontrollable guffaws, you can proudly wave this Obamaney-ah placard …

If you’re going to watch HBO’s “John Adams” mini-series, stop reading now.

If you’re not, or if you don’t mind a spoiler, read on.

Here’s how the story ends:

How fitting that in last night’s “Bonfire of the Vanities”-esque finale of David Simon’s “The Wire” on HBO, grizzled Baltimore Sun city editor Gus Haynes makes a reference to Tom Wolfe.

In Wolfe’s sprawling big city drama, the people on top — no matter how crooked or how lying, and no matter whether their stated purpose is to do the public good or harm — always finish on top. In “The Wire” conclusion, the ending appears upbeat — lots of smiling faces, lots of individual accomplishment, peppy music. But the folks who succeeded are, for the most part, crooks and liars.

The point was driven home — actually, bludgeoned home — by the Sun paper winning a coveted Pulitzer Prize, for essentially knowingly lying. David Simon (and did our eyes deceive us, or was that Simon himself in a brief cameo sitting at a cubicle with a sticker that says “Save The Sun”) has the paper winning an award for public service that they most certainly did not deserve. That comes after Haynes, in a newsroom rant, cites journalistic luminaries Jayson Blair and Stephen Glass.

The irony is that today, in real life, newspapers are being done in by the Internet, by bloggers. In Simon’s “Wire,” the Internet is acknowledged — but it’s not the reason for the newspaper’s black eye. It’s their own fault. It’s trampling on the truth, and disinterest in fact checking if it means missing a prize.

There’s an old media anecdote that reporters are told: You mother says she loves you? Check it out. And there’s the oft-told line that a New Yorker fact checker once made a call to verify that the Empire State Building was, indeed, still there.

In last night’s “Wire,” all of that good public will that newspaper have fought long to build up came crashing down. Not through disgrace or firing, but through an award. Actually, a silly award.

Yes, Tom Wolfe deserves his shout-out. And old media deserves its Simoniz.