The HBO movie “Game Change” took home three Golden Globe awards last night, including a “best actress” award for Julianne Moore, who portrayed former VP candidate Sarah Palin in the film. Based on the book of the same name, “Game Change” dramatized the machinations behind the 2008 presidential campaigns.

“I would like to give a shout-out to two people who made significant contribution to the 2008 election, Tina Fey and Katie Couric,” Moore said in accepting the award. Fey portrayed Palin on “Saturday Night Live,” while Couric’s interview with the former VP candidate made headlines. 

Moore also won an Emmy for her role. And in her acceptance speech last September said, “I feel so validated because Sarah Palin gave me a big thumbs down.”

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“CBS This Morning” co-anchor Gayle King made a guest appearance as herself on the NBC sitcom “30 Rock” last night. Liz Lemon (played by Tina Fey) was honored as one of the “80 under 80″ by a New York women’s media organization. King was also an attendee, and had some sage advice for Lemon about the machinations of “best friends.”

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As it happens, the moment may have been based on a real-life event. In 2010, both Fey and King were presented with “Matrix Awards,” by the organization New York Women in Communications. King’s best friend, Oprah Winfrey, helped honor her.

The Hollywood Reporter is out with its annual Women in Entertainment Power 100. For the third straight year, Anne Sweeney, co-chairman of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney/ABC Television, tops the list.

Sweeney says her proudest moment this year was ABC’s Day of Giving across all the network and syndicated programming. The network raised $19 million for the Red Cross for victims of Hurricane Sandy. “She has a unique combination of professionalism and warmth,” Katie Couric — who also makes the list this year — says of Sweeney.

NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment chairman Bonnie Hammer, CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler, OWN CEO Oprah Winfrey and PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger also made the list.

Other fun facts from the THR list: Tina Fey gets starstruck by local New York City anchors and Couric’s ringtone is “I’m Sexy and I Know It,” by LMFAO. “It’s a joke,” the “Katie” host says.

At 7am Sarah Palin sat patiently on the “Today” show couch — with a stack of newspapers, a running gag going back to the 2008 Katie Couric interview when she was asked what newspapers she read. Other than telling a quick anecdote about a tourist she ran into outside 30 Rock yesterday who mistook her for Tina Fey, Palin would have to wait a few minutes for her first segment. Matt Lauer and Ann Curry lead off the show as they always do. Then it was on to the news with Savannah Guthrie in for Natalie Morales.

At 7:08 Palin, introduced as a Fox News analyst, and Lauer discussed politics, specifically the GOP contest and what the eventual VP pick will have to face:  ”It doesn’t matter if that person has national level experience or not,” Palin told Lauer. “They’re gonna get clobbered by the lamestream media who does not like the conservative message.”

As Lauer alluded to Monday, Palin’s co-hosting stint will be mostly left to 8am… “which technically makes you part of the lamestream media, for that hour,” Lauer joked.

We’ll see if the stunt, meant to take attention away from Couric’s week-long fill-in on “Good Morning America” will have its intended effect when overnight ratings come in tomorrow.

Over on “GMA” Couric led off day two of her fill-in stint showing pictures — some of which went out over Twitter yesterday — of the day she spent with her GMA colleagues, including stopping by Madame Tussaud’s with Josh Elliott and getting this picture of a waxed Lauer: “One of my oldest friends. Friends of long standing, that is,” said Couric.

“Game Change” is not a flawless docudrama. Neither is it, in the words of a conservative blogger, “a heinous piece of propaganda” for Obama.

What “Game Change” is, at its essence, is a wildly-entertaining cautionary tale about presidential politics. Moral of the story: Be careful what you wish for.

“Game Change,” which debuts on HBO Saturday, follows Sen. John McCain‘s disastrous decision to name then-unknown Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his Republican running mate in 2008. It’s based on the best seller of the same title by reporters Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, both of whom served as consultants.

McCain and Palin, among others in their respective camps, have made so much noise about the alleged inaccuracies of “Game Change” (sight unseen) that HBO included a letter in its media kit, defending Danny Strong’s script. For HBO, that is not an everyday occurrence.

This much is beyond dispute – Julianne Moore and Ed Harris give remarkable performances as Palin and McCain.

Moore, a four-time Oscar nominee, perfectly mimics Palin’s speech in its distinctive rhythm, pitch, and scrappin’ of consonants. She doesn’t go too far, however, allowing her to avoid the level of parody by Tina Fey on “Saturday Night Live.” (In a nice touch, Moore is shown watching the “SNL” clips.)

Harris is equally impressive in his McCain incarnation. The actors’ eyes alone speak volumes, particularly in the scene where his Alpha-dog chief strategist, Steve Schmidt (played to the

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The Baltimore Sun’s David Zurawik got a sneak peak at “Game Change” yesterday, which premieres on HBO next month. Based on the 2010 best-seller by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, the HBO telling is get a lot of attention for its portrayal of Sarah Palin, played by Julianne Moore. But Zurawik thinks it’s Woody Harrelson‘s turns as McCain adviser Steve Schmidt — who was on “Hardball” just last night talking about the current GOP race — that should be noticed.

Wow, and wow again. What a force Harrelson brings to the role. The real Schmidt had the thankless task of trying to manage an emotionally fragile and, at times, possibly imbalanced Palin. But he should get on his knees every night for the rest of his life and thank God that Harrelson was picked to play him.

Zurawik notes several tvnewsers are featured in “Game Change” through the use of clips of their reporting and, in some cases, body doubles for reversal shots.

Fox hosts Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly do get a little face time, but nothing like CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper. In fact, the film opens and closes with Cooper, in his role as a part-time correspondent at CBS for”60 Minutes,” interviewing Schmidt.

By the way, if you want to see some of the relics from the 2008 campaign — both real and imagined — head over to the Newseum beginning Friday where, among other items, Tina Fey‘s suit, flag pin and eyeglasses worn during her Palin parodies on “Saturday Night Live” will be on display.

A week after the real Sarah Palin was hanging out with the media, the fake Sarah Palin — aka Tina Fey — was taking part in the first GOP 2012 debate moderated by fake Shepard Smith — aka Saturday Night Live’s Bill Hader — on fake Fox News. ”

Fey: “Well first I want to acknowledge that this week we finally vanquished one of the world’s great villains, and I for one am thrilled to say good riddance to Katie Couric.”

As we reported in March, actress Julianne Moore has been tapped to play former Republican Vice Presidential nominee and current Fox News Channel contributor Sarah Palin in the HBO movie “Game Change.”

This week People got a first look at Moore-as-Palin:

What do you think? Is Moore a convincing Palin? Or should HBO call up Tina Fey?

While reading up on our favorite new controversy – England’s sexist broadcast team debacle – we stumbled across a gem in the Guardian. The following comes from a story about how soccer commentators across the pond struggle to say anything intelligent.

In American sport the talking heads who fill the gaps between games are emboldened by their masters to be provocative as well as highly detailed in their technical analysis. The result is entertainment plus enlightenment (plus earache, sometimes). Here, in football, there is no ante-room between the end of a playing career and the start of a life in broadcasting, which is television’s fault.

We are laughing!

And then there’s someone defending Andy Gray and Richard Keys. Read more

Tina Fey reprised her role as Sarah Palin last night as Fey hosted SNL.
Taking a page from Oprah Winfrey, Palin launches her own network, with a full slate of shows including, “That’s So Palin,” and “Hey Journalist, I Gotcha!”

Using the 2008 Katie Couric interviews as an example, Fey-as-Palin says she re-edits interviews with journalists “to make them look like they were the ones that were woefully unprepared.”

And after the jump, the Today show’s Al Roker gets his own show, “Ruff, Rugged and Roker,” on the TVOne network, “the only network that doesn’t put Al in a box.”

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