TVSquad

Last night, Oliver Stone went on The Colbert Report to plug his new movie W, which examines the life and presidency of George W. Bush. Stone isn't exactly known as one of the most ardent supporters of the Republican Party, and I bet everyone expected Stephen Colbert to ratchet up his O'Reilly-esque character in order to "nail" Stone, as Colbert likes to say.

But, either on his on or in cahoots with the producers, Stone decided to go in the other direction. "I really started to like him, and I think he's a great man," Stone said. "He is on his way to being a great president." His entire interview consisted of deadpan praises of Bush and his handling of everything in his administration. He also suggested that we suspend the election (a la McCain suspending his campaign) so Bush can stay in power and deal with the failing economy. He even said "I love Fox News."

I bet Stone thought that he could throw Colbert for a loop. But that just means he doesn't know Colbert very well. The man's a master of improvisation, and he just rolled with it, as you can see in the video clip after the jump.

After a New York court dismissed most of the claims in Dan Rather's $70 million lawsuit against his former employer, CBS, he was told he could resubmit the suit. So Rather, never one to back down from a fight, did just that. He filed an amended suit that now claims that he met with other broadcast and cable networks, but didn't get offered jobs by them because, as the suit claims, he had "too much baggage" after the Bush / National Guard incident that eventually led to his departure from CBS.

CBS's lawyers are pretty confident that the suit will be dismissed a second time, but all Rather wants to do is get to the bottom of what happened with the story about the president's Guard record, which he still stands behind.

"I've never lost sight of the fact that this is a long, hard, expensive road and the odds are against," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "I knew that going in. I've known that every hour I've been in it. I'm in this alone. I bear the whole, total expense, which comes out of my pocket.

Yesterday, President Bush signed into law a bill that increases FCC indecency fines tenfold, from $32,500 to $325,000 per violation. The sponsors of the bill, as well as the members of the Parents Televison Council, pushed for the higher penalties so they can make more of an impact on the networks. "For some broadcasters, this amount is meaningless," said Bush at the signing ceremony.

The law states that broadcast networks cannot air any obscene material and no indecent material from 6 to 10 PM. The problem is, the definition of "indecent" is still up in the air, and the mechanism for the FCC to intiate indeceny investigations is coming under fire for its inequites (as in: 4,000 PTC members with Internet access and a form letter can trigger an investigation). The push for higher fines was sparked, of course, by Janet Jackson's infamous "wardrobe malfunction" at the 2004 Super Bowl.

Oh, Janet. What have you gotten us into here? All this hoo-ha over a misshapen, nipple-ring-clad breast. And, to be honest with you, considering what's happened since, that looky-loo you gave us so wasn't worth it.