“Director” on The Daily Caller

Reporting from New York — To tell the big-screen tale of Valerie Plame, a real-life CIA spy whose covert identity was blown by the White House, director Doug Liman needed a special kind of actress: someone who could build an emotional wall around herself and still convey “a sense that there’s a good person inside her.” (more)

* SPOILER ALERT*  There are some spoilers of the FIRST movie here (which you really need to see before seeing this one). But don’t worry, no spoilers of Paranormal Activity 2. I wouldn’ t do that to you. So, here we go. (more)

Mel Gibson’s cameo in The Hangover 2 turned into a big headache. (more)

ADULT FILM stars Marilyn Chambers, Traci Lords and Ginger Lynn all had varying degrees of success transitioning into mainstream acting careers, but Sasha Grey may soon be the first porn star to become a crossover star. (more)

Samantha Geimer, who was 13 when director Roman Polanski had unlawful sex with her in 1977, said she is “very relieved” that the filmmaker was not extradited from Switzerland. (more)

Jim DeMint, a South Carolinian who is one of the most conservative members of the U.S. Senate, doesn’t shrink from bucking his party’s leadership. In 2001, for instance, he was one of the chief GOP foes of President George W. Bush’s key education initiative, “No Child Left Behind.” He fought Bush’s 2008 emergency bank bailout, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). And lately, he has gone his own way to spend more than $1.5 million in support of Republican Party insurgents like Joe Miller in Alaska, Sharron Angle in Nevada, and Christine O’Donnell in Delaware. (more)

President Obama is angry over recent public disclosures of classified information in Washington and the intelligence community is re-evaluating the post-Sept. 11 push for greater intelligence-sharing, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Wednesday. (more)

The Toronto International Film Festival is famous for its star-studded, Oscar-caliber lineup, but it showcases films featuring stellar turns from lesser-known performers too. Before the festival’s conclusion Sunday, The Times’ film staff caught up with some of the players poised to break out of this year’s pack. (more)

In a break with the White House, Peter Orszag, the former director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), recommended Tuesday that Congress extend the expiring Bush tax cuts for two years, then do away with them altogether. (more)

LOS ANGELES — In the glory days of the 1990s, Ben Affleck and his friend Matt Damon, a couple of struggling actors, startled Hollywood by writing brilliantly conceived roles for themselves into a screenplay called “Good Will Hunting,” and picking up an Oscar for their effort. (more)

Venture capitalist and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel will host GOProud’s “Homocon” party in New York, a spokesman for the organization that represents gay conservatives told The Daily Caller Friday. (more)

“Avatar” is returning to theaters — this time in an even lengthier form — but the movie’s creator seems intent on once again mocking the very people that have made his success possible. (more)

Sen. John Thune has already spent more than $4.6 million on a re-election campaign that doesn’t have an opponent. (more)

Actress Rooney Mara will play Lisbeth Salander, the edgy heroine of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” The wildly popular mystery has already been brought to the screen in Swedish; director David Fincher will begin filming an English language version next month. (more)

FORT BELVOIR, Va. (AP) — Letitia A. Long became the first woman director of a major U.S. intelligence agency Monday, taking her post as chief of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency at a ceremony at the agency’s half-built, high-tech campus in Springfield, Va. (more)

When President Obama signed into law the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act on July 21, he also created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and along with it, perhaps the most powerful agency head in the history of the American bureaucracy. (more)

Obama White House hemorrhaging economic ‘experts’ — Senate Dems now bribing industrial farmers in order to save Blanche Lincoln
— Scottish doctor exaggerated Lockerbie bomber’s poor health — Back in Denver, teachers are probably burning Michael Bennett’s picture — Will Charlie Rangel be the only guest at Charlie Rangel’s birthday party?
– Tennessee gubernatorial candidate pledges to change the face of American politics  (more)

Environmentalists went with an all-or-nothing strategy for the 111th Congress. Nothing won. (more)

In addition to initial success of the BP’s ‘Static Kill’ operation, concerned residents of the Gulf Coast received a second piece of good news Tuesday when the government announced a possible early end to its drilling moratorium. (more)

Few people got a career boost from the recession. But Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard law professor who had little name recognition before the economic crisis, has. Not only was she appointed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in 2008 to chair the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP), she is now under consideration to be nominated to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) – a new bureaucratic arm created by the financial reform bill. (more)