“LOOKER” ON PRESIDENTIAL VIEWING LIST

In a week filled with high-profile speeches, President Obama and his staff apparently took time to relax with an 80’s movie night, screening the science-fiction thriller “Looker.” Albert Finney stars as a plastic surgeon who uncovers a plot to covertly add hypnotic sparkles in the eyes of televised spokes-models, thus making their pitches irresistible to audiences. Time for the 1981 Michael Crichton-directed picture also starring Susan Dey and James Coburn was squeezed into a week already packed with a speech to American school children and an address to Congress on health care reform.
Speaking with a gleam in his eye before a nodding and compliant press corps, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs would neither confirm nor deny the presidential viewing habits. “President Obama and his staff enjoy a wide range of movies,” Gibbs said utterly convincingly. With complete sincerity, Gibbs added, “Movies nights are strictly for entertainment purposes and nothing, I repeat nothing should be inferred from them.”
A Freedom of Information Act filed with Netflix revealed that other titles recently in the Oval Office queue include “The Parallax View,” “The Manchurian Candidate” (original and remake), “The Matrix” and “Road Trip: Beer Pong.”