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On the night of the 2000 presidential election, as the counting began in a tight race between Texas Gov. George W. Bush and incumbent Vice President Al Gore, it all came down to Florida. And then, all hell broke loose.

Director Jay Roach and writer Danny Strong captured the stakes and the personalities that drove that strange moment in “Recount,” the Emmy-winning 2008 HBO movie starring Denis Leary, Kevin Spacey, Bob Balaban and Laura Dern. Instead of “Stop the Steal,” the rally cry in 2000 for Bush supporters was “Stop the Recount.”

“The events in ‘Recount’ were in some way a rehearsal for January 6,” Roach says. “It proved that there was potential to physically disrupt an election.”

As the nation braces for what will surely be a long night of waiting for election returns, it’s eye-opening to revisit the chaos and political theater that ensued for five weeks while Bush and Gore...

Left to right: Ehud Barak, Bill Clinton and Yasser Arafat at Camp David, in July 2000.

Photo credit: William J. Clinton Presidential Library. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most intractable the world has seen. The Human Factor focuses on the effort to bring a resolution to that conflict through negotiations mediated by the U.S., but particularly on the human side, the human factor, in that effort. Interestingly, it is also presented from the viewpoint of the guys in the middle, the American mediators, rather than the two sides in the conflict. The result is an engrossing, surprisingly gripping documentary that makes one ache for what might have been.

The Human Factor is also a revealing documentary about the long-running effort to resolve the conflict, that offers up remarkable insights, some unexpected humorous moments, and many fascinating details about the process and the personalities involved.

No filmmaker is better at unraveling the complexities of Middle Eastern turmoil than Dror Moreh. In the Oscar-nominated “The Gatekeepers,” the director looked at the Israeli/Palestine conflict through the eyes of the six living men who have run Shin Bet, Israel’s Secret Service. We expect Avraham Shalom, Yaakov Peri, Carmi Gillon, Ami Avalon, Avi Dichter and Yuval Diskin to be hardliners, but they turn out to be smart, sane and reasoned about the sources and solutions for Israel’s 45-year security problem. They know about it first-hand, because they have had to deal with it every day, unlike the politicians who come and go, for whom they have little respect. The one Israeli leader who did make a difference – Yitzhak Rabin – was felled by an assassin’s bullet on November 4, 1995.

Moreh adopted a similar approach with “The Human Factor”, which looks behind the scenes of three decades of...

This election in particular has generated flashbacks to 2000, when a 36-day battle ensued between the campaigns of George W. Bush and Al Gore over the results of the election and Florida’s vote in particular.

The recount, the subject of a recent HBO documentary and Meet the Press podcast, also proved to be an endurance contest for the reporters who covered it.

Bill Hemmer, anchor of Bill Hemmer Reports at Fox News, was with CNN at the time and ended up setting up stakes for the month that followed election night in Tallahassee, Fl, which was sort of ground zero for media coverage of the disputed results.

That year, during CNN’s coverage, Hemmer’s job was to take over for anchor Bernie Shaw at midnight, and “Bernie never got off the air.”

Hemmer said that the next morning, he was doing the morning show with Daryn Kagan, and around...

A few years ago, then-Secretary of State Warren Christopher gave a few useful tips on the art of negotiation.

First, he said, always start from a place of agreement, with the points that aren’t in dispute, and move out from there. Don’t begin with where you disagree. Being instantly confrontational works for some things, but a little kumbaya serves you better going into a deal.

Second, no matter how strong your hand, leave something on the table for the other side. You don’t have to get all of the pie to feel full. You can score a victory without obliterating...

A few years ago, then-Secretary of State Warren Christopher gave a few useful tips on the art of negotiation.

First, he said, always start from a place of agreement, with the points that aren’t in dispute, and move out from there. Don’t begin with where you disagree. Being instantly confrontational works for some things, but a little kumbaya serves you better going into a deal.

Second, no matter how strong your hand, leave something on the table for the other side. You don’t have to get all of the pie to feel full. You can score a ...

The Doctor! Guillermo del Toro! Vampire pilot for FX! Who Wouldn’T be all over this story? We’ve actually already told you a little about the del Toro vampire pilot The Strain, based on the trilogy of books he co-authored with Chuck Hogan (Prince of Thieves). If picked up, the showrunner would be our beloved Carlton Cuse (Lost, Bates Motel).

So, as the headline blares, the newest cast member is (one of) the Doctor(s). This particular Doctor is the newest to us, though I suspect he’s one of the oldest. It’s John Hurt, reuniting with his Hellboy director del Toro. Hurt’s castmates in include Corey Stoll (The Bourne Legacy, Midnight in Paris), Mia Maestro (Nadia in Alias) and Kevin Durand (Keamy in Lost). Here’s the press release, which includes a synopsis of the show:

FX Casts Oscar(R)-Nominated Actor John Hurt In “The Strain...

As the 2011 year comes to a close, I’d like to take a look back at the actors, actresses. musicians and others who have passed on this year. There is no doubt that these celebrities have left their mark on our society and in their respective fields and I’d like to say thank you to them for their contributions. Pete Postlethwaite- Actor (The Town, Clash of the Titans, Inception) Gerry Rafferty- Singer/Songwriter ('Stuck in the Middle With You,' 'Baker Street') Peter Yates- Director (Bullitt, Breaking Away) John Dye- Actor (Best of the Best, Touched by an Angel) Jack Lalanne- Fitness Guru (Juice Tiger) Dwaye McDuffie- Comic Book Writer/Co-Founder Milestone Media (Damage Control) Mike Starr- Musician (Alice in Chains) Nate Dogg- Musician (Collaborated with Warren G, Eminem, Snoop Dogg & Dr. Dre, among others) Michael Gough- Actor (Alfred in Batman,...

Washington - Warren Christopher - lawyer, diplomat and political operator - was a measured man who faithfully carried out Us foreign policy, even if he did not necessarily agree with it. The former Us secretary of state, who served in president Bill Clinton's administration 1993-97, died Friday, aged 85, after struggling with kidney and bladder cancer. In late 1994, after two exhausting years as secretary of state, Christopher suggested that he step down from the job. But Clinton asked Christopher to stay, at least long enough to give one more major effort to breaking the deadlock in the Middle East negotiations. Christopher agreed, but the news in February 1995 that he was suffering from a bleeding stomach ulcer and...

Washington - Former Us secretary of state Warren Christopher died late Friday at the age of 85, the daily New York Times reported on Saturday. Christopher had been suffering from kidney and bladder cancer. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton mourned Christopher's passing. 'I was deeply saddened by the passing of my friend and predecessor Warren Christopher. The longer I spend in this job, the deeper my appreciation grows for the giants who came before,' she said. Christopher served as secretary of state under president Bill Clinton 1993-97 and was heavily involved in efforts to end fighting in the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s and expand Nato. 'America is safer and the world is more peaceful because of his...

Richard Holbrooke pushed harder and cared more than other American foreign-policy players. Peter Beinart on Holbrooke's special blend of superpower swagger and moral passion.

There will probably never be another American diplomat like Richard Holbrooke. The reason is partly personal. Most diplomats are careful, reserved, discreet... diplomatic. Holbrooke was the opposite. He didn't merely court reporters; he stalked them. And when they didn't write enough about him, he wrote about himself. He did not do subtle. When he bore down on people, he had about as much respect for personal space as Lyndon Johnson in a men's room. As Democratic doyenne Pamela Harriman once put it, "he's not entirely housebroken."

Related story on The Daily Beast: An American in Full

In all these ways, Holbrooke was part of the sociology of 20th-century American Jewry. He entered the Foreign Service in the 1960s, when it was still something of a Wasp club.