Hollywood Left Behind: Stephen Colbert's Truthiness Will Set You Free

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Poor Daryl Hannah. For all of her trouble getting arrested in front of the White House on Aug. 30, she received with nothing but a few tepid "Splash" references and was the butt of a joke in Washington's newspaper of record. Doesn't the former 1980s eye-candy star know that corn porn will beat angry mermaids every time?

It remains unclear whether Hannah managed to bring any more public awareness to her cause--stopping construction of an Alberta-to-Houston tar sand oil pipeline--than the non-celebrity protesters sitting on the sidewalk in front of the White House did. After snarking, "Hannah and her resisters ... arrested for a good cause. Yawn," the Washington Post couldn't be troubled to tell us what tar sand is, much less why we should be wary of it.

In contrast, political satirist Stephen Colbert shows Hannah how it's done. Colbert wants everyone to know how ludicrous he thinks so-called Super Political Action Committees (PACs) are, so he went to the Federal Election Commission June 30 and got the green light to start his own. After taping the tedious proceedings inside the FEC chambers, for use later on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," he emerged victorious in his Bill O'Reilly-inspired alter ego to a press conference outside. As fans held signs that said, "cash and checks only," Colbert declared, "I don't know about …