Moore Gets `Red Carpet' From Democrats, No Speech

The Democratic Party is giving filmmaker Michael Moore what he called ``red carpet treatment'' at the party convention in Boston, including a box inside the FleetCenter to entertain guests and credentials to mingle with the delegates and press.

The one thing Moore did not get from the Democrats was an opportunity to address the crowd. A self-described independent voter, Moore said he's satisfied helping Democratic nominee John Kerry through his movie ``Fahrenheit 9/11,'' which questions President George W. Bush's handling of the Sept. 11 attacks and the war in Iraq.

``What we learned from the Oscars is that the last place you want me is on the stage with a live mike,'' Moore said on the floor of the Democratic National Convention yesterday. He was referring to his 2003 Academy Awards acceptance speech, when he said Bush went ``to war for fictitious reasons.'' Moore, 50, won the Oscar for his documentary ``Bowling for Columbine.''

Moore, whose ``Fahrenheit 9/11'' passed the $100 million mark at the U.S. box office this weekend, said his status in Boston reflects the effectiveness of his film. The movie, he said, is a ``de facto'' tool in the effort to unseat Bush in the November election.

The convention's chairman, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, said Moore's presence doesn't mean the party is endorsing the filmmaker or his movie. Moore's anti-Bush campaign doesn't fit the ``positive'' tone the Democrats want to project at the convention, Richardson said.

`Anti-Bush Message'

``I think he represents an anti-Bush message that we don't like,'' said Richardson, 56, a former energy secretary and United Nations ambassador. ``He's a citizen, he's free to come here.''

``Fahrenheit 9/11,'' seen by more than 12 million Americans, is the 10th-highest-grossing movie so far this year.

Kerry volunteers have been registering voters outside theaters, said Matt Brandt, president of Trans-Lux Theaters, a unit of Trans-Lux Corp., which operates 11 cinemas in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming.

Maria Gray, a 48-year-old homemaker and self-described lifelong Republican, saw the film earlier this month and said it persuaded her to vote for Kerry.

``It could be Mickey Mouse for all I care, as long as it's not Bush,'' Gray said as she left a screening of the film at the Regal Cinemas in Easton, Pennsylvania. ``The movie crystallized a lot of doubts I've been having for a while now.''


By William McQuillen
Bloomberg