Much of the background for the new movie “Lincoln” was shot in Richmond and Petersburg, Va., but it wasn’t until Sunday, when director Steven Spielberg let “60 Minutes” air two clips, that the irony became clear that the capital of the Confederacy had supplanted Washington for Honest Abe’s home.
“Virginia capital playing the nation’s capital, I think with the Jeffersonian architecture, it seems very appropriate,” said Rita McClenny, the director of the Virginia Film Office and the interim president of the Virginia Tourism Corp.
Asked if the filming meant that the South in some way didn’t lose the Civil War after all, McClenny joked, “No, not really, it’s all just an illusion.”
One of the scenes shared by Spielberg on “60 Minutes” showed Lincoln addressing Congress in the U.S. Capitol. But in the movie, the Virginia House of Delegates chamber was used.
“Virginia’s capital plays the U.S. capital in the story, so our House of Delegates is playing Congress,” McClenny said.
What’s more, film officials conferred with officials at the White House of the Confederacy for tips in re-creating it for the movie. And Daniel Day-Lewis, who plays Lincoln in the movie version of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s 2005 book “Team of Rivals,” visited that Civil War-era home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
Over the past year, Richmond has become the headquarters of Lincoln movie filmings, the latest being “Killing Lincoln,” the movie version of Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly’s book. Ridley Scott, the maker of “Alien” and “Top Gun,” is filming that movie.
“It seems like once someone like Steven Spielberg takes on a topic, the rest of the world follows,” McClenny said.
Smartphones gaining as news source
Maybe Newsweek, which is ceasing print publication this year, saw the handwriting on the wall because a new poll finds that computers and smartphones are becoming the dominant news delivery sources for younger consumers.
A poll from the Winston Group found that while 58 percent people get their news from TV, those ages 18 to 34 prefer computers over TV, 57 percent to 33 percent. A strong third is smartphones at 24 percent, said pollster David Winston.
“While not every magazine will incur the same fate as Newsweek, there can be no doubt that the media landscape has already changed for the youngest members of the adult population,” he told Secrets.
Team Obama: N.C. gone; is Va. next?
Facing a Mitt Romney surge in the polls in North Carolina, Team Obama is poised to withdraw forces in the state that hosted the Democratic National Convention, and Democratic advisers suggest that Virginia may be next to fall.
While Obama aides on the ground in both states reject suggestions the campaign has given up to devote more resources to Iowa, Ohio and Florida, those close to the Obama campaign say it’s getting to be time to cut bait.
Democratic strategist Paul Begala, asked by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer if the Obama campaign has given up on North Carolina, said, “Yes. I’m not supposed to say that, Wolf. I work for the pro-Obama super-PAC, so I’m being paid to help re-elect the president, but if you look at where he’s going and where he’s spending money, yes, it looks like Gov. Romney is likely to carry North Carolina.”
Pollster John Zogby told Secrets that North Carolina is still winnable for the president. “North Carolina should be in play, but Obama is pulling out, never a good vibe to send to voters. He is competitive, has a large and growing African-American and creative-class base, and a small and growing Latino vote. He is underperforming, but I never understand the ‘throwing in the towel’ thing. Sends the wrong message.”
The president still remains committed to Virginia, but less and less. His TV advertising spending has dropped significantly in this month, from $4,172,263 for the week of Oct. 1 to $2,570,595 last week.
Paul Bedard, The Examiner’s Washington Secrets columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears each weekday in the Politics section and on washingtonexaminer.com.
