POLLYWOOD | HOLLYWOOD ON THE POTOMAC

BY JANET DONOVAN

The Chicks vs. Bush You'd have to be a hobbit living in a Tolkien novel not to know about the controversy surrounding The Dixie Chicks. The country music trio roller-coasted to personas non-gratas after singer Natalie Maines publicly criticized fellow Texan George W. Bush on the invasion of Iraq during a London performance. Their meteoric rise and fall was the impetus for Harvey Weinstein's flick The Dixie Chicks: Shut Up & Sing.

Whistling Dixie, a knockout punch for domestic abuse, an un- Happy Meal and more

Presented by the Center for American Progress with co-director Barbara Kopple, the film chronicles The Chicks by following the film's poster tagline: "Freedom of speech is fine, as long as you don't do it in public."
"I never in a million years would have dreamt saying that would have resulted in everything that followed," explained Maines. Now, they're back on top of their game with "Taking the Long Way".

Close Up Just about the only brunettes among 800 women at the 13th Annual Knock-Out Abuse Gala were the polo players and their horses parked outside the entrance of The Ritz Carlton Hotel, where the evening's theme was "Polo Argentina".
"They warned me about you," emcee Leon Harris told the crowd. "This is Las Vegas, right?" Tom Cruise impersonator and filmmaker Archie Drury ("They had me at hello," he said of the gala attendees) got to the real point of the evening: Domestic violence and honoree Yvette Cade.
"Just so you're not The Washington Post," said Robert Duvall when asked for a few comments. Which came first: Argentina or the Tango? "Tango and then my wife," said Duvall of his Argentine born writer/director/actress wife Luciana Pedrazza.
Players: Argentine Ambassador Jose Octavio Bordon and his wife Monica; Co-founders Jill Sorensen and Cheryl Masri; event chair Holly Muldoon; and Hollidae Hayes.

Desi's girl Luci Arnaz's dazzling rendition of "They're Playing My Song" with Robert Klein was a showstopper at The Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Tribute honoring playwright Neil Simon.
The sheer volume of Neil's work is overwhelming as were the tributes by Robert Redford, Matthew Broderick, Richard Dreyfuss, Jason Alexander and Mercedes Ruehl.

Where's the beef? Places you don't want to know about, according to Fast Food Nation which premiered in Washington with author Eric Schlosser present.
His 2001 book examines the dark side of the fast food industry and the harsh reality of what happens to illegal immigrants who end up in processing plants. The underlying food for thought is: Do you want lies with that?
The all star cast includes Kris Kristofferson, Bruce Willis, Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette, Luis Guzman, Greg Kinnear, Avril Lavigne and Wilmer Valderrama.
There is no "Happy Meal" ending. "It's too complex," said director Richard Linklater at the posh Agraria after-party where guests dined on veggie-burgers for obvious reasons. "If it had a nice ending it would have been like walking out of Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth and saying 'Al Gore's got it all taken care of.' I've never ended a movie on a freeze frame before. You have to look at that image though - a cheerful bag of burgers - and wonder what's behind it." Fries please.

RFK Remembered Don't bother looking for Paris Hilton in Emilio Estevez's political drama Bobby, the star-studded depiction of fi ctional characters at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on the night of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination - she's not in it, but just about everyone else in the 90210 zip code is. Kudos to Sharon Stone, William Macy and Demi Moore.
Although the fi lm earned standing ovations at the Venice Film Festival, the celebrity overload seems like Jack in the Box on Rodeo Drive. Fortunately, Robert Kennedy was such an inspirational icon that it doesn't matter. See it, if only to remember what real passion sounds like.
The audience at The Goethe Institute's screening hosted by Clinton Social Secretary Capricia Marshall was a Kennedy love fest. "I came to Washington in 1962. Ted Kennedy was a 30 year old freshman from Boston," said Terri Robinson. "The country was innocent and alive with hope."
It was also a country soon divided. The historic backdrop of the tumultuous '60s is a grim reminder not only of how history repeats itself, but how well it does so.

The Dixie Chicks: Shut up and Sing follows the country group through turbulent times	Robert Duvall at the 13th annual Knock Out Abuse Gala

Lucie Arnaz at the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Tribute to playwright Neil Simon	Movie poster from Emilio Estevez's film Bobby