The latest news from Hollywood

Movies
+ The cast that will portray President George W. Bush’s inner circle in Oliver Stone’s upcoming political biopic W is starting to come together. Elizabeth Banks (Definitely, Maybe) will join star Josh Brolin as First Lady Laura Bush, James Cromwell is in negotiations to play George Bush Sr., and Jeffrey Wright (Casino Royale) is in talks for the role of Colin Powell. But at press time, it was still unclear who will take the role of Vice President Dick Cheney. A source close to the production tells EW that Stone will reach out to Oscar winner Robert Duvall, though the actor’s agency says that an offer has not yet been presented. W, which was penned by Stanley Weiser (who co-wrote Wall Street with Stone), aims to explain how Bush 43 went from being a hard-partying college student to the most powerful man in the world. Stone has said that he wants to make ”a fair, true portrait of the man,” but controversy will likely dog the film, which is described in an internal positioning statement as follows: ”W is the improbable story of a man who went to the White House despite getting fewer votes than his opponent; who became commander-in-chief despite having avoided military combat himself; and who became the least popular president ever elected to a second term. W will shock and surprise you and leave you questioning everything you believe to be true.” Filming is set to begin on April 21 in Shreveport, La. W is being produced by Moritz Borman (who worked with Stone on World Trade Center and Alexander) and Jon Kilik (Babel and Alexander). — Nicole Sperling

Television
+ Problem: Your show is back after a three-month strike and you need to catch the audience up. Solution: Make your boss do it! My Name Is Earl exec producer Greg Garcia tapped NBC Universal head Jeff Zucker to film a recap of the Jason Lee comedy for its April 3 episode. The 90-second intro features Zucker cracking wise and even signing off with ”JZ out.” Says Garcia, ”It was a healing gesture between the writers and conglomerates.” — Dan Snierson
+ Scrubs star Aloma Wright (Nurse Laverne/Shirley) tells EW the NBC comedy will jump to ABC for season 8. ”As far as I know, it’s set,” she says. (Without a deal in place, NBC and ABC declined to comment.) ”After he killed me off, producer [Bill Lawrence] promised me that if they got picked up for a seventh season he’d bring me back as my twin sister. I’m assuming he’ll continue to do the same.” — Abby West

Books
+ A surprising title popped up in Hyperion’s fall 2008 publishing catalog: Late Show Fun Facts, co-authored by David Letterman. Why’s that weird? Well, Late Show airs on CBS, which has its own publishing arm, Simon & Schuster. Hyperion is controlled by Disney, which operates CBS’ rival, ABC. Letterman is free to make any deal he wants, since his production company, Worldwide Pants — not CBS — owns Late Show. (Pants CEO Rob Burnett says, ”Hyperion has shown incredible enthusiasm.”) The likely explanation: Leslie Wells, who edited Fun Facts, had previously worked with Letterman on two of his Top Ten books while at Pocket, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. — Kate Ward

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