Presidential story with Andrew Rice connection



Barack Obama: Ready for Close-Up
Thursday , December 21, 2006
By Roger Friedman



Barack Obama is a senator, a bestselling author and a possible candidate for the presidency of the United States.

So it only makes sense that movie star is the next career he has to conquer.

Sources tell me that Obama has been filmed for months and will continue to be, all part of a project to make him the star of a documentary about himself.

The filmmaker, I’m told, is Amy Rice, a freelance cinematographer who’s been following Obama around for some time.

Rice, from Oklahoma City, lost her brother David, an investment banker, in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. Her brother Andrew Rice worked for the BBC out of Canada at the time.

But after Sept. 11, according to published reports, Andrew Rice became politicized. This year he ran as a Democratic candidate for the Oklahoma State Senate District 46 seat vacated by Sen. Bernest Cain — and won. His campaign was helped because the Rices’ father, Hugh, is a prominent Oklahoma City attorney.

What kind of makes Amy Rice’s story even more interesting is that apparently the knockout blonde’s backer on the project is said to be actor Edward Norton, the Oscar nominee and current star of "The Painted Veil."

Norton isn’t her only actor friend. Last year, Rice was photographed at a red carpet premiere as the date of Ron Eldard, former boyfriend of Julianna Margulies.

Amy’s New York friends have also kicked in for her brother. Last March, Norton and a bunch of New York-based “next generation” actors including Paul Rudd, Janeane Garofalo and Fred Weller held a fundraiser for Andrew Rice at a Manhattan watering hole.

It’s good to have friends in the right places, since few would-be Oklahoma state senators get such treatment in either party. Or, make that none.

So stay tuned, because Barack Obama may yet get his own “Inconvenient Truth.” And thanks to his filmmaker, he may pick up a whole cadre of Hollywood types at the same time.