There’s been a great deal of talk - and, of course, some controversy - about Oliver Stone’s “W.,” due to be released October 17. (See an exclusive clip from "W.")

Elizabeth Banks plays Laura Bush in "W."

Certainly the idea is audacious. A film about a sitting president? Whose term in office may be the most contentious of modern times? By Oliver Stone?

But, as Stone has said, “W.” isn’t just a film about President Bush’s politics (though that’s what has most of the tongues wagging). The director is also trying to offer a biographical portrait of the 43rd president, which means paying attention to the quieter, more quotidian moments in his life.

In this scene, the future president meets Laura Welch - soon to become Laura Bush - for the first time. The two were opposites in many ways, not least because Laura was a Democrat who backed the darling of the peace movement, Eugene McCarthy, in the 1968 election, nine years before she met George W. Bush.

"Even though he was a partying Republican candidate for Congress, and she was a Democratic librarian, there was something bigger between them that lasted," Stone tells CNN. Referring to the clip, he continues, "Their meeting at the barbecue has been documented by family friends in numerous books. For them, it was the best thing that ever came out of a Texas barbecue."

Laura Bush, in fact, comes off as quite intriguing in the clip - and there may be more to come. Next month Curtis Sittenfeld’s “American Wife,” a fictionalized biography of the First Lady, hits bookstores. Like "W.," Sittenfeld's novel has also earned its share of chattering-class conversation.

What are your impressions of this "W." clip and the idea of the movie?

– Todd Leopold, CNN.com Entertainment Producer

The list of contestants for the latest edition of “Dancing With the Stars” featured few surprises. There was the bombshell reality star (Kim Kardashian), the pro football player (Warren Sapp), the unlikely actor (Ted McGinley) and someone for the teenyboppers (“Hannah Montana’s” Cody Linley).

But then there was Cloris Leachman: Oscar winner (“The Last Picture Show”), comic actress (Mel Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein” and “High Anxiety”), TV regular (“The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Malcolm in the Middle”).

And - oh yes - she’s 82.

Now, “Dancing With the Stars” can be plenty to handle for even its youthful contenders. Witness dancing professional Mark Ballas’ dislocated shoulder or Cristian de la Fuente’s arm injury.

So will Leachman be able to hold her own?

CNN spoke to Lisa Perkins, Leachman’s publicist. Perkins said that Leachman actually received two medical clearances to appear on the show, one from her personal physician and one from a physician affiliated with ABC.

Perkins says her client was listed in perfect health by both, but as a precaution Leachman will be monitored weekly throughout the seventh season of the show.

And don’t underestimate Leachman: She’s a former Miss America contestant, a veteran of TV’s frantic live drama broadcasts in the 1950s - and we all know what happens to horses who hear the name of her “Frankenstein” character, Frau Blucher.

“Dancing with the Stars” premieres September 22.

– Todd Leopold and Jennifer Wolfe, CNN

Has it really been three months already? Is it already time to get ready for fall?

Heath Ledger's performance in "The Dark Knight" is earning Oscar talk.

If that’s the case, then it seems like a good time to take stock and pick out a few favorites from summer 2008:

Movie: “The Dark Knight.” What can I say? It lived up to the hype. Director and co-writer Christopher Nolan - helped immeasurably by performances from Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman and several others – gave a nifty comic book movie several deeper and darker layers. Expect to see several nominations come Oscar time.

CD: “Pacific Ocean Blue,” Dennis Wilson (Legacy). Brian Wilson wasn’t the only Beach Boy capable of genius. Brother Dennis’ 1977 album, given the special anniversary treatment that includes a number of cuts from the unfinished follow-up “Bambu,” emerges as a gorgeous, fragile testament to the late drummer. Dennis Wilson had written some terrific songs for the late-‘60s/early ‘70s Beach Boys - “Little Bird,” “Forever” - but few would have thought he’d have something like “Pacific Ocean Blue” in him.

Also: “The Hard Way,” James Hunter (Hear Music). The British retro-soul guitarist does it again with 12 songs Jackie Wilson or Sam Cooke would have been proud to cover - and guitar-playing that brings it on home. (If Hunter ever visits your town, see him. The man is a wizard.)

DVD: “All You Need Is Love” (Zeit). British documentarian Tony Palmer’s 1976-80 history of popular music is now (finally!) available on a 5-DVD set. Palmer took on an ambitious task, suggested by John Lennon, to chronicle popular music from its roots in field hollers and music halls, showing how Rudy Vallee was connected to Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and David Bowie. Unfortunately for Palmer, his filming ended just as punk was coming alive, but what remains is still an incredible wealth of material, with interviews and performances from the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Who. If, in hindsight, the filmmaker occasionally missed out ... well, hindsight is 20/20.

TV: The Olympics. One exciting moment after another.

Books: As always, I’ve spent the summer desperately trying to get books out of my ever-growing To Be Read pile and actually reading them, so very few are recent releases. (Jeremy Larner’s 1970 chronicle of the Eugene McCarthy campaign, “Nobody Knows,” and Neal Gabler’s 1994 Walter Winchell biography have been the best books I’ve read lately, with Larner’s one of the best of my year.) Indeed, I believe I’ve simply put recent releases in, well, the To Be Read pile. But I will get to “Traffic” and “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle” soon. In the meantime, Mark Twain awaits.

– Todd Leopold, CNN.com Entertainment Producer

Once it was the president. Then it was Walter Cronkite.

Jon Stewart and "The Daily Show" have been praised for its distinctive coverage of the news.

Now, The New York Times - in a nice article by Michiko Kakutani - suggests that “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart may be the latest man for the moniker “most trusted man in America.” The piece notes that Stewart tied for fourth in a 2007 survey to name the country’s favorite journalist; Katie Couric led the list, which you can see here (scroll down).

Stewart, of course, will have none of it.

He’s long described his style as “throwing spitballs” from the back of the room, and that “The Daily Show” is entertainment, not news. “Hopefully the process is to spot things that would be grist for the funny mill,” he says of the “Daily” staff’s daily writing sessions.

Still, “trusted” isn’t a bad title for the former William & Mary psych major - one who knows his comedy, too. Asked about his deadpan look after some particularly absurd video has gone by, he says, “There’s only so many ways you can stare incredulously at the camera and tilt an eyebrow, but that’s your old standby: What would Buster Keaton do?”

Read the piece here. And if you don’t have access to Comedy Central, you can watch “The Daily Show’s” “Global Edition” on CNN International.

Trust us.

– Todd Leopold, CNN.com Entertainment Producer

Former 92 and 96 Olympian Mark Henry still competes in front of thousands of people every week. Instead of lifting weights for a medal, he is now lifting bodies as a superstar for the WWE. Henry, The Worlds Strongest Man, is currently the ECW Heavyweight Champion.

Making the transition in 1996 from weightlifting, an anaerobic sport, to the WWE, an aerobic sport, was not an easy task for Mark.

“I went from one extreme to another and I sucked,” says Henry. Over the course of the last 12 years with multiple injuries and setbacks, Henry has become a household name within the professional wrestling world.

While Mark is done competing, he hopes that future athletes are taken care of better at the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

“I hope that at some point that Olympic athletes don’t have to do what Oscar De La Hoya and I had to do by climbing over the fence at the Olympic training center and putting our money together to buy chicken. If you are an Olympic athlete you shouldn’t have to worry about bills or where you next meal is coming from,” says Henry.

Henry is going to watch team handball, swimming, basketball, and of course weightlifting in-between punishing his opponents in the ring.

P.T. Barnum would be proud.

The legendary 19th-century promotional genius, who once passed off an elderly black woman as George Washington’s 161-year-old former nurse and a monkey-fish construction as “the Feejee Mermaid,” would have loved the Montauk Monster.

A couple weeks ago, a mysterious creature apparently washed up on the eastern shores of Long Island, New York. Quickly given its monstrous moniker, the New York press, led by the Gawker Web site - which meant, by extension, the national media - tried to figure out what it was. Was it a semi-aquatic rodent? Something from the nearby Plum Island Animal Disease Center? A representative of the devil?

Now the Web site Slashfilm may have the answer. The site, using research from Montauk-Monster.com, speculates that the creature might simply be a prop for a movie called “Splinterheads” starring Lea Thompson (“Back to the Future”) and Christopher McDonald (who was so good as Jack Barry in “Quiz Show”) - though, as Slashfilm observes, it’s odd that the filmmakers haven’t tried to make more of the buzz surrounding the Monster. Of course, it took months before a headset company admitted to the cell phone-popcorn viral videos.

With all these Internet tubes around, there are going to be more and more of these things. What Barnum could have done with the Web, we can only wonder.

– Todd Leopold, CNN.com Entertainment Producer

The Olympics have already produced some amazing images - and last night might have been the finest yet.

Jason Lezak’s incredible finish in the 4 x 100 freestyle relay swimming event, which enabled Michael Phelps to continue his quest for a record amount of Olympic gold, was phenomenal. Lezak, swimming the final lap for the U.S. team, finished the race a slim eight-hundredths of a second ahead of Alain Bernard and the French team. The U.S. quartet - Lezak, Phelps, Garrett Weber-Gale and Cullen Jones - set a new world record in the process.

But, for us, that spectacular finish wasn’t the image that lingered. It was Phelps’ victory dance, arms thrust in the air, showing his chiseled body to perfection. Instead of wondering just how Lezak saved the day, many women (us, for example) were left wondering just how Phelps could have molded himself into such an incredible physical specimen in his skintight Speedo.

And we realized how young the athletes are, and how old we have become.

Now, is it so terrible to admire the athletes for their bodies as well as for their skills? After all, our partner publication, Sports Illustrated, has showcased female athletes in swimsuits for years - even if the swimsuit isn’t their usual uniform (or, for that matter, isn’t made for swimming).

And yet … can you feel exhilarated and dirty at the same time? Exactly how old is too old to appreciate the physical gifts that athletes have been blessed with?

– Audrey Irvine and Jo Parker, CNN

Of course all the Isaac Hayes obituaries are leading with “Theme from ‘Shaft,’ ” the No. 1 song that won Hayes an Oscar and Grammy and became his most famous hit.

Isaac Hayes was an accomplished writer, producer and singer.

And then they mention his performance as Chef in “South Park,” which earned Hayes a whole new generation of fans (many of whom can recite the lyrics to “Chocolate Salty Balls” from memory).

But let’s not forget about Hayes’ other contributions: writer, producer, and - yes - fashion plate.

Through his involvement with Stax Records, the Memphis label that was home to Sam and Dave, Otis Redding, Carla Thomas and Booker T. and the MGs, Hayes - with partner David Porter - created some of the most indelible soul classics: “Soul Man,” “Hold On, I’m Comin’ ” (which, legend has it, was inspired by a bathroom break), “I Thank You.”

He then expanded the genre with his 1969 album “Hot Buttered Soul,” which consisted of four songs - one of them a monumental 18-minute version of Jimmy Webb’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.” “With the release of this album, Motown suddenly seemed manufactured and James Brown a bit too theatrical,” writes Allmusic.com’s Jason Birchmeier.

And the Hayes look? Unforgettable: proudly bald, heavily jeweled, wearing flowing outfits befitting an African king. “It was almost as if he was made to be a musical god,” writes The Associated Press’ Nekesa Mumbi Moody.

We can dig it.

– Todd Leopold, CNN.com Entertainment Producer

Paris Hilton is often thought of as a cartoon, the prototypical shallow celebrity. That was certainly one point of John McCain’s commercial featuring her and Britney Spears (and likening Barack Obama to both).

Paris Hilton has responded to John McCain's ad with her own video.

But upon seeing the McCain ad, director Adam McKay (“Step Brothers,” “Anchorman”) thought of Hilton differently - as an American citizen.

"I was literally in my car and thought Paris must respond. It's her duty as a citizen,” McKay told CNN. “Within three hours I was on the phone with her and she was into it.”

McKay is also co-founder of FunnyOrDie.com, the comedy video Web site that posted the Hilton video. He observed that the Hilton response was a natural reaction to McCain’s ad.

"McCain made one huge mistake. He drifted into the world of pop culture. And that's Paris' world. She owns that world,” he said. “So now he gets the blowback.”

Now that the Hilton video (as expected) has received coverage on mainstream media outlets such as CNN, McKay has bigger plans.

“Our next goal is a town hall style debate between Paris, McCain and that sea creature that washed up in Montauk," he said.

And could there be more videos?

“We're praying that Obama does an ad with Screech from ‘Saved by the Bell,’ ” he said. Then he twisted a knife. “Or maybe McCain's next ad about the trillions we've spent on the Iraq war while our economy falls apart will have Janet Jackson or Paula Abdul in it."

– Jennifer Wolfe and Todd Leopold, CNN

Atlanta Braves announcer Skip Caray did not suffer fools gladly, though he had to deal with plenty of them.

There was the postgame caller who couldn’t understand how a player could receive an RBI for a solo home run. After a few attempted explanations, an exasperated Skip finally said, “I’ve told you thrice, sir,” and abruptly hung up.

There were the idiocies of the late-‘80s Braves, such as an attempt to play one-season wonder Omar Moreno long after his one good season, or the eruptions of gopher balls given up by the patchwork pitching staff. Skip never sugarcoated the dismal play.

And then there was the usual foolishness involved in broadcasting sports events, the side details and odd plays of Braves baseball and Atlanta Hawks basketball and even the strange sport of motoball (essentially soccer on motorcycles) at the 1986 Ted Turner-created Goodwill Games. Skip - he was always "Skip" - called it as he saw it.

We loved him for it. (iReport: Send us your memories of Skip Caray)

Skip Caray died Sunday. He was 68.

There’s something about a longtime local sports announcer - particularly one who works radio, particularly one who works baseball’s lazy summer nights and Sunday afternoons - that gets into the soul of his listener. He talks directly to you, even when you can hear that voice out of every car radio and apartment window in town. The Dodgers’ Vin Scully, the Cardinals’ Jack Buck, the Tigers’ Ernie Harwell, Bob Prince and Red Barber and Skip’s dad Harry Caray - it’s a rare breed.

The best of today’s announcers - the Giants’ Jon Miller and the Dodgers’ Charley Steiner and the Indians’ Tom Hamilton - have that same character, describing the game as if it and you are the only things that matter.

For Braves fans, it was Skip (and I mean no disrespect to Joe Simpson, Pete Van Wieren and Ernie Johnson). It was Skip who had the last word on Sid Bream’s pennant-winning slide in the 1992 National League playoffs. It was Skip who told Atlanta fans the 1995 team had just won the World Series. It was Skip who announced the hometowns of foul ball-catching fans, Skip who encouraged listeners to walk their dogs if the home team was being crushed, Skip who reveled in the occasional off-color joke.

He sounded like broadcasting baseball games was the best job in the world, and he was having the time of his life doing it. Because of his enthusiasm, so did his listeners.

Thanks, Skip.

– Todd Leopold, CNN.com Entertainment Producer