By Debbie Schlussel
Thanks to all of you who sent me or posted questions for my interview, today, with stars Billy Bob Thornton and Virginia Madsen and director/writers Mike and Mark Polish of “The Astronaut Farmer,” a movie I liked a lot. I used some of your questions.
I will write up the interviews, sometime between now and the release of the movie (late February). For now, though, I will say this, the young Polish brothers are very impressive and have a lot of the same kind of values and views I try to portray on this site. They wrote, directed, and produced the film, as well as personally designing the movie poster. You may not have heard of them, but you will. I see them doing even bigger things. They have a very interesting background, which I’ll detail in my write-up.

“The Astronaut Farmer” Actors Billy Bob Thornton, Virginia Madsen
As for Madsen and Thornton, they were very nice, and I liked what they had to say. If all celebs were like them, we wouldn’t have cause to hate Hollywood so much. I can say the same for this movie, which I liked a lot, and to which you can take your whole family.
Billy Bob was very thin. And Virginia Madsen was extremely beautiful, way better looking in person (not that it matters, but since looks are important for women in showbiz, figured I’d comment on it). Refreshing was that they tried very hard to stay away from politics. Billy Bob paraphrased Elvis, saying, “I don’t talk about politics because I’m just an entertainer. I don’t know enough about it.” That’s the kind of thing I like to hear.
(Madsen wanted to make clear that she has never seen “Paradise Now” and didn’t even know what it was about. I noted this yesterday. She says she was not at the “Golden Globes” when the movie won, but I have a tape of her clapping for the movie at some awards show (from when I discussed the movie on Al-Jazeera), which I’ll chalk up to politeness–she is NOT political.)
Stay tuned.