Midler Gets Political…Go Girl!

Disclaimer: There is a good chance that this press release is a hoax, so I’m taking it down for now. I will be able to find out for sure by next week. If it turns out to be true, it goes back up.

PR-USA.net (press release)
Midler Claims Fey Parody of Palin Was “Foreseen” by Republicans as Key to Enhancing Palin Popularity

In surprise remarks, star of “The Women” and “Then She Found Me” suggests upcoming SNL parody was “a clever chess move” Republican strategists knew would win votes for their girl.

NEW YORK, NY (Sept. 13, 2008) In surprise remarks made to friends and reporters outside a New York City Fashion Week reception this week, actress Bette Midler said that the resemblance between Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and former Saturday Night Live star Tina Fey was “foreseen by Republicans” — and implied that it was a “clever chess move” by Republican campaign strategists who knew the highly likeable Fey would be unable to resist broadening Palin’s appeal by parodying her on upcoming segments of NBC’s nationally broadcast “Saturday Night Live.”

“Being parodied by Tina Fey will immediately add 10 to 15 popularity points to Palin’s ratings, and particularly among women voters who will be the key votes in swing states like Florida and Ohio,” said Midler. “This was foreseen and even planned by the Republicans, who have turned media manipulation into a Machiavellian art form. It’s a modern day equivalent to the Trojan horse.”

Midler is currently co-starring in the critically acclaimed “Then She Found Me” with Colin Firth, Helen Hunt, and Matthew Broderick, as well as in Diane English’s well-received remake of George Cukor’s 1939 catfight classic “The Women,” where she joins a dream-team cast of Hollywood actresses that includes Meg Ryan, Eva Mendes, Annette Bening, Debra Messing and Jada Pinkett Smith.

In her remarks, Midler said she first began to suspect the choice of the Tina Fey-look-alike as the Republican vice-presidential candidate was a “very clever chess move” on the part of Republican strategists when a groundswell of support for Fey to parody Palin on the popular NBC show immediately exploded in the media ”“ led by the conservative New York Post.

“The media support was surprisingly well-orchestrated,” said Midler. “Yet looked at with total objectivity, the truth is that Palin is almost an identical twin to Molly Shannon, much more so than to Tina Fey. Palin and Shannon have both got that blunt, square profile, while Tina Fey’s face is so much sharper and pointier, almost like a fox.”

“But the media will never print that,” said Midler.

For the Republicans to have allowed Palin to be parodied by Molly Shannon, says Midler, would have resulted in a net loss of popularity points for Palin. “We can all Google, you know,” said Midler, who added that she was “still haunted” by the decision of Barack Obama not to name Hilary Clinton as his vice-presidential candidate.

Adding fuel to her speculative bonfire, Midler said she “doubts very much” that Republican strategists were “surprised in the slightest” by the fact that Palin’s daughter is an unwed and pregnant teenager — as they claim to have been.

“In modern times, a candidate with a pregnant teenage daughter is almost like a dream come true for a political strategist,” said Midler. “It allows you to send two radically opposite messages all at the same time. And everyone chooses the message that jives most closely with their existing belief system. Methinks these Republicans speak with forked tongues.”

As she left the event, Midler jokingly asked friends if “anyone had seen Karl Rove around lately.”