It’s somewhat old news, I realize, but the cast keeps growing for Nip/Tuck creator and Running with Scissors director Ryan Murphy’s Dirty Tricks, an adaptation of John Jeter’s stageplay about the women of Watergate, which I realize sounds like a special Playboy spread. Brad Pitt and Sharon Stone have joined the cast, which already includes Meryl Streep as the whistle-blowing Martha Mitchell, Annette Bening as frumpy reporter Helen Thomas, Gwyneth Paltrow as Maureen Dean and (naturally) Murphy good-luck charm Jill Clayburgh as Pat Nixon. (Jim Broadbent is reportedly set to play Tricky Dick himself.)

Mitchell’s various revelations to journalists, of course, — including Bob Woodward, who
broke news of the Watergate story, as well as veteran White House
correspondent Thomas, still walking the beat — firmly implicated her husband in the
scandal, but also corroborated Nixon’s involvement. Great. So there’s a story there, maybe. But while I don’t know if it’s the hermetically sealed colorfulness of Running with Scissors or what, why can’t I shake the feeling that this is a bad idea? Or at least an interesting idea that will be done badly?