Giving us some perspective, Ted Johnson offers an exclusive review of Ron Howard’s new film, Frost/Nixon, as well as a portion of an interview he conducted with the Academy Award Winning Director (oh yeah, All Caps) at a recent screening. Don’t skip out and miss Howard’s Nixon impression. Apparently, it’s what all the cool kids are doing these days. Teresa and Maegan also weigh in on the Bush/Nixon comparison, our leaders’ difficulties in admitting mistakes, and the judgment of history.

Now, who you callin’ a team of rivals? Hilary? Really? Didn’t you disagree with her on everything? Yeah, a reporter asked that and what was That One’s response: brushed his shoulders off. It’s like the primaries didn’t even happen. Obama’s got some explaining to do, with his appointment of Senator Hilary Clinton as his new Secretary of State. Will Obama punish the reporters for asking about that? And what about this paradox of our current presidential duopoly, with every time Bush says something, the market crashes? How does that reflect psychologically on the administration, and how will the Mumbai terrorist attack affect Obama’s first real days in office? Is this India’s 9/11? How did the media respond, online and off, and how has it affected the Obama’s transition? All on today’s Wilshire & Washington. - Blaise Nutter, Producer

Listen to the show here, subscribe to the iTunes podcast, or use the Blog Talk Radio player on the right >>.

Speaking of Prop 8, would you like pork chops with your side of segregation? Religion has been a big question within a question in the debate over Proposition 8. How does the religious question fit into the gay marriage issue? Should people be denouncing and threatening the Mormon Church, who donated so heavily to pass the proposition? Who’s to blame for the crummy campaign for No on 8 and its lax beginning? Were campaign organizers lazy early on? Did they do anything to reach out to essential demographics in the Latino and black communities? Renowned Voy internet entrepreneur, Cafe Espuelas radio host and CNN contributor Fernando Espuelas stops by to discuss these still very relevant issues on today’s Wilshire & Washington.

We had a bit of a glitch in the first minute, but the show gets rolling quickly and it’s a good one! Listen here or click on the blue Blog Talk Radio player to the right >>.

Gotta give Sarah Palin some love for being a good sport on SNL. She did look a little bit uncomfortable, but considering the show’s been bagging her since the day McCain selected her as his veep choice, it was pretty cool that she had the guts to show up and stare down Tina Fey. I pretty much fell off the couch when Amy Poehler shot the “mother-humpin” moose down and all the mavericks in the house put their hands up.

I wish I could say the same about Oliver Stone’s “W,” which I caught on Friday afternoon. (The theater was surprisingly packed for the twighlight show, even though the movie came in 4th at the box office, according to Variety.) The tone was meant to be part satirical, part drama, but it didn’t work for me. The caricatures of leaders depicted were definitely a farce, as intended, but the script just didn’t add a whole lot that we haven’t covered already to the conversation about George Bush or the last eight years. I expected more.

Celebrifantasy is proud to announce Celebripresident, a month long March Madness style tournament pitting 64 A-list (and D-list) celebs against each other in a fictitious race for the White House. Starting THIS WEDNESDAY, October 1 , users can vote on the 64 celebrities (including Beyonce’s Bootylicious party, Zac Efron’s Cougar platform and Jennifer Lopez’s Get Right agenda) and their unique qualifications to be our next Celebripresident. Vote early and often!

Just trolling through HuffPost comments about Russell Brand’s performance as host of the Video Music Awards, and it is horrifying how so many people can’t handle a celebrity with opinions and a sense of humor.

“The journalism-school side of my brain was inclined to agree with [the reader] because certainly one can defiine as, say, an A1 story about Iraq from the New York Times or a report on the recession from the Wall Street Journal. But I don’t believe it’s that simple anymore, or that new media enthusiasts are stretching the definition of news to show that the millennial generation is engaged, especially when amateurs are more frequently leading the traditional news cycle, as we saw this past weekend with blogosphere and Sarah Palin.” Read more here. 

While a lot of the usual arguments were being made, Will.i.am stole the show (to much applause) by talking about passion and inspiration. Noting that stepping out politically as he has this year is “detrimental” to his career, he said “I’m willing to take that risk for my country” because he’s been so inspired by BO. He was also convinced that the web would enable more people to connect and communicate without the corporate revenue-driven model that predominates creativity and information. And for my E & P readers, he also argued that entertainment information is a viable source of news (which I’m not entirely convinced on; it really should be more of an entry point).

Since I’m jetting off to The Big Tent now, I’m going to bullet point some other things that stood out to me:

- Rahm Emanuel argued that the web is 2008’s equivalent to Bush’s tactic of mobilizing church groups in 2004. He also said the next step is how the example of BO’s candidacy will lead local politicians to implement new media strategies.
- Charlie Rose asked George Stephanopoulos why the Republicans haven’t embraced the internet (because they’re too busy gabbing on talk radio!!) and he said they didn’t have the right talent, like BO has Facebook’s Chris Hughes.
- SNL guy (sorry I can’t remember your name right now! I’ll look it up later!) said that he is most interested in seeing how comments evolve in 2012, which is one of the things I’m interested in too. They are such a great value in terms of interactivity and expanding the conversation, but they’re expensive to moderate and crowded with drivel.
- I also caught up with WaPost publisher Katharine Weymouth and talked about preserving reporting resources for newspaper brands in the new media realm and she really seemed to get it. She was realistic about the non-competitive nature of the web. She also said she thinks readers will enjoy vertical-driven information, where they can access the things they like most. We both expressed concern with that model, however, that readers would not benefit from the stumbled-upon factor of news they don’t seek out directly. I suggested that it may be made up for through social networking, since friend recommendations and sites like Digg serve as entry point to news you weren’t necessarily tuned into.
- And finally, I was pleased to see my former governor, Gray Davis, working the crowd. I wondered what happened to that guy! Call it a comeback?

I’ll be interviewing Digg’s marketing director on W&W at 4:30, and Digby joins us at 6pm for the regularly scheduled show. And now … off to search for disgruntled HRC supporters!!
UPDATE: My agent notes that SNL guy is Fred Armisen. Thx!!