Lovely. Just what you want to hear from the actress who plays Mrs. Palin in the soon-to-be-released HBO film, “Game Change.” Julianne Moore says she found her theatrical muse “terrifying.”

Actually, Moore’s quote about SP is neither as ideological nor as personal as the headline makes it sound. NewsBusters supplies the context:

Moore explained how she recognized Palin’s political appeal:

“Here’s a woman who’s a parent, who’s an actual working mother, who worked her way up from local government, who was definitely middle working class, married to a commercial fisherman….She was incredibly relatable, she was attractive, she was young; she was speaking to a wide portion of the population that didn’t feel that they’d been noticed or seen or heard.”

In her February 14 item (posted on February 13) “Julianne Moore: Sarah Palin was ‘pretty terrifying,’” Schwab quoted Moore:

“I would say, as a registered Democrat and longtime liberal, I think that I speak for a lot of women when I say that when [Palin] burst onto the scene, the way that she did that was pretty terrifying because I really felt like, Oh my gosh, the Republicans might have this election,” Moore recalled of her first perceptions of Palin back in 2008. “She was so electrifying as a figure, it kind of blew everyone away.”

So, it wasn’t Palin per se that scared Ms. Moore; it was her freshness, the way in which she invigorated an admittedly dull and unattractive ticket.

Still, Moore’s remarks soften my expectations of her portrayal of Palin in the movie. Moore’s a pro, so it’ll be solid and as sympathetic as she can muster, but it won’t be transcendent. Before I read these comments and had just seen the trailer, my hopes were quite high: I dreamed some core of Julianne Moore might have connected with the character she was called upon to play. No such luck.

Eh, well. Look at it this way: Liberals have Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. We have actual Margaret Thatcher and Sarah Palin. Authenticity for the win. Clearly, prominent conservative women intrigue and attract Hollywood. What can we say? They’re magnetic.