"Although [Michael] Douglas... considered using heavy prostheses and makeup to create [Ben] Franklin’s distinctive look..."

"... including that famously high forehead, they decided to go a more naturalistic route. Douglas wears gray, wavy hairpieces and extensions.... He looks more like Michael Douglas than someone trying to imitate Benjamin Franklin. Rather than experiencing 'eight hours of the full Ben Franklin covering up Michael,' Douglas says, 'I thought the audience would be more comfortable if they knew the guy. … It just freed me up so much more.' Still, he observes, that entailed a gamble: 'Can I give the persona of Franklin?'... In the series, the actor portrays Franklin... as an 18th-century rock star.... 'In five years of [writing a biography of] Ben Franklin, it never once occurred to me to confuse him with Michael Douglas,” says Stacy Schiff, who wrote 'A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America,' on which 'Franklin' is based. 'That said, as soon as Michael’s name came up, he seemed insanely right. … He has the Franklinian twinkle in the eye, the raw charisma, the physical and intellectual versatility, the ability to move a discussion along with a tilt of an eyebrow. Michael has better hair, but that’s a detail.'"

Writes Ann Hornaday, in "Michael Douglas as Ben Franklin? You bet your britches. In ‘Franklin,’ Douglas portrays the iconic founding father as an 18th-century rock star with a dash of Gordon Gekko swagger" (WaPo).

But your main question might be, What streaming service do I need? It's one I don't have: Apple TV. Is this at the level where you'd subscribe to a new service? I'll test it by watching the trailer. The first few seconds of atrocious sound effects (music?) are so off-putting to me that I immediately hit the pause button, but I'll keep going for the sake of this post....

And the award for Getting to the High Ground While Ditching Your Spouse Who Got Cancer goes to Catherine Zeta-Jones.

"The Welsh actress, 43, split from [Michael] Douglas, 68, after he claimed that his throat cancer was caused by the HPV virus, which he contracted from giving oral sex. Douglas did not make it clear he was exposed to HPV BEFORE meeting his wife, who felt this was the last straw."

Hey, old man, while you're busy dying of cancer, how about making it clear whose parts you were tonguing at the time you contracted that damned cancer that's screwing up my life too. Huh? Would it be too much trouble?!

I'm dying and you're going to needle me about the precision of speech?! The precision of the speech coming out of my CANCEROUS THROAT??!!!!

This is the last straw!

The last straw? The last straw?! Like there were all those other straws?

As a matter of fact, yes. There's the straw that's the fact that you are 25 year older than me and the straw that's me being so much prettier than you. Especially now that you've got throat cancer.

You monster! You won't look so pretty when the whole world sees what a monster you are.

The world will see one thing and one thing only: You said you got throat cancer from cunnilingus with me.

"Michael Douglas... has revealed that his throat cancer was apparently caused by performing oral sex."

"HPV, the sexually transmitted virus best known as a cause of cervical and anal cancer and genital warts, is thought to be responsible for an increasing proportion of oral cancers...."

Mahesh Kumar, a consultant head and neck surgeon in London, confirmed that the last decade has seen a dramatic rise in this form of cancer, particularly among younger sufferers. Recent studies of 1,316 patients with oral cancer found that 57% of them were HPV-16 positive.

"It has been established beyond reasonable doubt that the HPV type 16 is the causative agent in oropharyngeal cancer," said Kumar...

But Kumar expressed scepticism that Douglas's cancer was caused solely by HPV, and surprise at Douglas's assertion that cunnilingus could also help cure the condition. "Maybe he thinks that more exposure to the virus will boost his immune system. But medically, that just doesn't make sense."

Al Pacino avoided meeting Phil Spector, whom he's portraying in an HBO movie.

"It would have been meeting a different person. Now he’s been convicted and he’s in prison. I play him before his first trial."

After doing the film role, said Pacino, he didn’t feel he knew Spector much better – but that it didn’t matter, because his job was to explore the film character, not the real-life person.

“The play’s the thing,” said Pacino. “I was looking for the truth of the drama.”

It's not an impersonation, but something much deeper.  Or that's the PR for the HBO movie. Maybe it's a preemptive defense against the criticism that he doesn't seem like Spector at all.

ADDED: In other HBO celebrity impersonation news:

HBO’s new Liberace biopic was “too gay” for every studio in Hollywood, director Steven Soderbergh says.

What big name actor will be probing the depths of the truth of the drama of Liberace? Matt Damon? No. Damon's playing Liberace's younger lover. Liberace will be... Michael Douglas!

Aw, give me a break. The studios turned down this movie because it was (whine) too gay? It's obviously insufficiently commercial.

Promos of the film screened for TV critic in Los Angeles yesterday contain numerous scenes of the two male stars shirtless and about to kiss.

No one wants to see that. It's not anti-gay to say I don't want to see that. Who wants to see Michael Douglas shirtless and about to... do anything?

"I have some idea of the pressure of finding your own identity with a famous father."

Said Michael Douglas... at the sentencing of his 31-year-old son Cameron, who received a 5-year sentence. Or... wait... no... Michael Douglas wrote that. He didn't show up in person. [ADDED: No, Michael Douglas was there. He wrote a statement — 5 pages — and he also appeared. Sorry. I got the sense from that quote that MD was distanced, but that's not right. I'm genuinely sorry. I can't imagine the pain of seeing your son sentenced to prison.]

Althouse on Mancow.

Do you listen to the Mancow radio show? I'm going to be on it tomorrow, around 7 am ET, talking about — of all things — plastic surgery. Click on the tag "plastic surgery" to see what I've said on the subject (and why they want to hear from me).

Advice?

ADDED at 7:21 AM, Tuesday: Waiting on hold now.

DONE: Well, I was on for a little over a minute, much of which had Mancow naming celebrities I hadn't looked at recently. Kenny Rogers? What does he look like now? I have no idea. Michael Douglas? I've been avoiding looking at him for years. Nancy Pelosi? Her, I've looked at. It's disturbing to listen to political statements from someone who looks alarmed for no reason. That's about it. Worth doing? Sure, why not? I got to (had to) spend about 20 minutes on hold, listening to the show. During that time, there was a pretty interesting audio clip of a 911 call from a man watching a robbery in a neighbor's house, threatening to use his shotgun on the culprits, and then actually shooting them. Mancow seemed to think the shooting was justified.

MORE: Here are before and after pictures of Kenny Rogers. Not so bad, really. Especially good if he doesn't want to be recognized.

AND: Here's a news report on that 911 call.

A telling picture...

... of a 62-year-old man with his 37-year-old wife.

UPDATE: They seem to have taken down the picture, but you can see a tiny thumbnail of it here. It's Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas.

The 100 unsexiest men in the world.

Surely, there's someone less sexy than Gilbert Gottfried, but when you're making a list, you've got to put famous people on it. But anyway, Gottfried is funny, and don't all those surveys about what women find sexy always put humor near the top? I know... but still... There's got to be a guy who looks and sounds like Gottfried but isn't funny.

I'm not going to pick over this whole list. I'll just focus on #38, Larry David. I've had spontaneous discussions with women on the precise subject: Larry David is sexy.

And let me single out one choice to agree with: #45, Nick Nolte. I don't know exactly what it is, but I have a physical aversion to him. (Which makes me want to ask: why isn't Michael Douglas on the list?)

And what's with throwing in Osama Bin Laden -- at #8. (And why 8, specifically? Just to stick it to guys like Alan Colmes, who fared worse?) If the list is open to the likes of bin Laden, this guy springs to mind.