Michael Moore

Say what you like about Michael Moore, he certainly knows how to pick his subjects. "Fahrenheit 9/11" was so au courant about the invasion of Iraq it won the 2004 Palme d'Or at Cannes, and 2007's "Sicko" got the jump on the current healthcare imbroglio. Now, barely a year after the Wall Street meltdown, "Capitalism: A Love Story" examines, in typical love-it-or-leave Moore fashion, the causes of the collapse of the century. "Capitalism" is not just Moore's latest documentary, it is, as the filmmaker himself has said, "the movie I've been making for the past 20 years."

Michael Moore plans a follow-up to "Fahrenheit 9/11," his hit documentary that assails President Bush over the handling of the Sept. 11 attacks and the war on terrorism. Moore told Daily Variety columnist Army Archerd that he and Harvey Weinstein, the Miramax boss who produced the film, hope to have "Fahrenheit 9/11 1/2 " ready in two to three years.

The country is polarized, Michael Moore is Hollywood's most polarizing filmmaker, and almost everybody is agitated about the economy. Put it all together, and the timing for Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story" couldn't be any more provocative. Moore's latest nonfiction jeremiad -- about the incestuous relationship between government and corporate America -- premieres in Los Angeles and New York on Wednesday with the kind of build-up usually reserved for "Spider-Man" sequels. On the heels of the film's raucous, ovation-filled screenings at the Venice and Toronto International film festivals, Moore will continue a high-profile publicity tour that includes appearances on "The Tonight Show," "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "The View" and one of television's stranger stops for an anti-consumption crusader, "The Martha Stewart Show."

What you'll be talking about: "Sicko." Love him or hate him, filmmaker Michael Moore knows how to spark a cultural conversation. This summer he takes on the health industry. What you'll be talking about ... again: Spidey, Shrek, Harry Potter, Jason Bourne, Capt. Jack Sparrow, John McClane, etc. No less than 18 movies hitting screens this summer are sequels, and half of them are sequels of sequels. What you'll be subliminally forced to talk about: The City of Light.

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore is under investigation by the U.S. Treasury Department for taking ailing Sept. 11 rescue workers to Cuba for a segment in his upcoming healthcare documentary "Sicko." The investigation provides another contentious lead-in for a provocative film by Moore, a fierce critic of President Bush. In the past, Moore's adversaries have fanned publicity that helped the filmmaker create a new brand of opinionated blockbuster documentary.

Filmmaker Michael Moore has asked the Bush administration to call off an investigation of his trip to Cuba to get treatment for ailing Sept. 11 rescue workers for a segment in his upcoming health-care expose, "Sicko." Moore, who made the hit documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," assailing President Bush's handling of Sept. 11, said in a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. on Friday that the White House may have opened the investigation for political reasons.

Michael Moore and his movies have always been hard to miss. But with "Sicko," his acidic new documentary about healthcare, there's suddenly less of the filmmaker and his usual methods. Not wanting the limelight, Moore is forgoing the competition at this year's Cannes Film Festival, where he won the top prize with 2004's "Fahrenheit 9/11." In "Sicko," he isn't chasing down insurance and pharmaceutical executives for confrontational interviews.

Blending a movie premiere and a political rally with a savvy that even Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger might admire, documentary filmmaker and provocateur Michael Moore stormed through California's Capitol on Tuesday to promote his new film, "SiCKO," his indictment of the country's healthcare system. Sacramento is not usually a first-choice locale for movie premieres -- 2006's "Akeelah and the Bee" was the last.

Movie pirates are flooding the Web with bootlegged copies of "Sicko" two weeks before the Michael Moore healthcare documentary is due in theaters. The renegade filmmaker, whose previous targets have included General Motors in "Roger & Me" and the Bush administration in "Fahrenheit 9/11," Moore's incendiary view of the Iraq war, now finds \o7himself\f7 the target of renegades who are widely sharing copies of his film. Weinstein Co.