First, I’m trying to imagine what kind of fundraiser one would find both David O. Russell and George W. Bush. But allowing for that possibility, I have to say I was surprised to hear this anecdote:
[Three Kings] director Russell ran into candidate George W. Bush at a Hollywood fundraiser in the summer of 1999 and told him that he was making a movie critical of his father’s Gulf War legacy. “Then I guess I’m going to have to go finish the job, aren’t I?” the younger Bush replied.
From J. Hoberman’s review of Jarhead in the Village Voice
According to an LA City Beat interview last year around the time of I Heart Huckabees, Russell met GWB at Terry Semel’s house in July 1999. DOR called Semel “an opportunist who was jumping off Clinton and onto the Bush bandwagon at the time.” Of course, now we call him the CEO of Yahoo.