The New York Times has an article about Showtime’s thriller series “Homeland” . . . and offers this little anecdote:
And then there was that request from the White House screening room. Mr. Gordon’s reaction? “Completely surreal.”
(When [actor Damien] Lewis sat next to the president at a state dinner last spring, he said Mr. Obama told him, “While Michelle and the two girls go play tennis on Saturday afternoons, I go in the Oval Office, pretend I’m going to work, and then I switch on ‘Homeland.’ ”)
Ms. Danes said: “I think we were all stunned — and a little terrified by that idea. The president knows what we do?”
Chiefly, Mr. Lewis said, it was validation that the show’s seemingly far-fetched premise — a Marine held captive by Islamic terrorists is converted into a willing anti-American operative, while the C.I.A. agent on his trail suffers from mental illness — had been rendered compellingly believable. “It was Obama saying this is not unrealistic,” Mr. Lewis said.
Which is more disturbing?
1) That Obama “pretends he’s going to work” on Saturdays and watches “Homeland”?
2) That Obama finds Manchurian Candidate–style POWs-turned-terrorists to be plausible?
I hope the president wasn’t scheduled to review intelligence briefings about threats to our embassies and consulates some recent Saturday.