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Tuesday, Apr 14, 2009 2:32 PM UTC

Who should play Hillary and Palin?

As HBO announces a 2008 election movie, that's what we wanna know.

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Topics: Sarah Palin, Broadsheet, Love and Sex,

Remember back when political figures had to die — or at least leave office — before you could make movies about them? Not so these days, when the scramble to memorialize, spoof and otherwise interpret the oh-so-recent political climate is a race that often ends at the Golden Globes. HBO’s “Recount,” about the disastrous 2000 presidential election, did pretty well at that shindig last year, and so yesterday HBO announced plans to make a film of the even-more-nailbiting 2008 campaign.

The movie will be based on the as-yet-unreleased book by Time magazine’s Mark Halperin and New York mag’s John Heilemann, “Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime,” which focuses on the personalities of its riveting star players. The movie is being adapted by “Blood Diamond” scribe Charles Leavitt. Good for him.

Of course, when these announcements are made, all I really want to know is: Which actors are going to play the main characters? What current leading lady has the pluck and the audacity and the sheer conniving spirit of Sarah Palin? (Let’s assume Tina Fey will pass.) Which actress has the fortitude and the intelligence and the indomitable drive to play Hillary?

Remember, these actresses must also have the award-baiting cachet on which HBO prides itself. (The network surprised me by casting Julianne Moore to play Hillary in its upcoming film about the Clintons and the Blairs, “The Special Relationship.” Didn’t see that one coming.)

This is a women’s blog, so we’ll start here: Who should play Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton? (Bonus points for casting Obama and McCain and Bubba.) At the end of the day, we’ll check back in and see who the likeliest candidates are. HBO, we got this thing!

Sarah Hepola is an editor at Salon. More Sarah Hepola.

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