I talked to Julie last night.
 She was supposed to meet with Christian next weekend to help plan the big event,
 but that's been pushed back a week because the film producers shooting the feature film,
 "The Hunting of the President," written by my good friends
 Joe Conason and Gene Lyons, are flying in to Virginia to film Julie's segment.

 Yoo Hoo!

 I'm not sure she knew until last night she'd be in the film, but she is.

   Sidebar:
 A couple of times, while talking to her on an early Wednesday evening,
 I've suggested we hang up and watch West Wing to see if they'd have
 a "Julie" character in their faux impeachment saga, but they kinda wimped out.

 That's not all bad, because I didn't want to go thru 2-3 years of impeachment
 on West Wing, but just as they were picking up steam, Bartlet copped a plea
 and they suddenly were done with it - as tho things ever end in Washington.

 Of course, it'll be a year or more before the movie comes out,
 but Julie was as excited as I've ever heard her, knowing someone was going
 to point a camera at her and ask her what it's like to be thrown into the cold,
 North Atlantic sea in the dark of night without a life preserver.

 Sidebar:
 The movie producers plan to show a picture of Julie's previous home,
 the 13-room structure that Christian described as a "mansion,"

 ...and then they're going to show where she's living now.

 They're going to show, in stark terms, the price of honesty and bravery.

 Do you know anyone who would give up everything just for a principle?

 If you go to Washington on April 27th to meet Julie Hiatt Steele,
 you'll not only meeting a genuine American hero, you'll meet a "movie star," too :)

I've talked to some professional people and they tell me time is running out.
They say with only seven week's notice, it'll be tough getting some top-shelf talent.
So I'm going to be blunt.

We need some help and we need some talent - fast.

If you lurkers out there know someone with a name that would draw people,
and is willing to loan their name to this extremely just and worthwhile cause,
please don't hesitate to contact us at  juliefest2002@yahoo.com

To give you an idea of how starved we are for celebrity drawing power, at this moment,
the biggest confirmed "name" coming to Juliefest2002, besides the star, is Ol' BartCop,
and trust me, there's not much draw there.

If you know a band, or maybe a stand-up comedian, or maybe a famous lawyer who always
has time to go on Larry King  or  Faux News and explain some extra-complicated legal positions...
we need to hear from you so we can gauge the size of the room to rent.

Just our luck, we'll rent a small room and then Bon Jovi will call and say,
"Julie's a big hero of mine and we'd love to play a show for her."
Then we'd need a bigger room - see what I mean?

Here's the fix we're in:

Response has been good, but we haven't even seen the tip of the iceberg.
We can't advertise without a named venue,
and we can't hardly rent a place until we know how many are coming,
but they can't be invited until we have a venue - get it?

Some places we've talked to have said if we rent 40-50 hotel rooms for the night,
we can have the room FREE - which is probably reasonable. That would cut down on
expenses for travel, hotel rooms and security. Sure - maybe the smart move is too assume
we'll sell out, but every dollar of overhead is a dollar out of Julie's pocket.

Add to that, the cheaper the hotel, the more people can afford it to come, but how cheap a room
do we want to get for the lady who kicked Ken Starr's ass and saved the Clinton presidency?

What's reasonable for a hotel room in the DC area?
$75?  $100?  $150?

I thought about The Willard, where Lincoln stayed the night before he took the oath,
but Christian reminded me The Willard is so luxurious, it costs about $700 a night.

 Sidebar:
On the walls of The Willard, they have the framed original of Lincoln's bar tab.
Did you know Abe Lincoln was a Chinaco Anejo fan?
I knew there was a reason I liked him.

So...

We need your assistance!

My first attempt at a business venture lost $40,000.
My second attempt at a business venture lost $4,000.

This is my third attempt at a business venture.

I need your help.
Help save Julie from a BartCop-produced "fundraiser."

When Julie's book comes out, when Julie's movie comes out,
(well, Gene Lyons and Joe Conason are in it, too...) when Julie does
the cable talk show circuit, she should be recognized nationwide as
"Miss Courage and Integrity," you can tell your friends you helped
Julie Hiatt Steele back in 2002 when she had a run of integrity and it cost her everything.

Sidebar:
I haven't seen Julie's old home or where she's staying now, but the word is, when you
see what she gave up just to do the right thing, you'll lose it and break down.

C'mon, don't you have a cousin who knows a famous stand-up comic?
Didn't Aunt Edna say one of her nephews worked for Al Franken?
Didn't that loudmouth at work claim he knew Paul Begala?

 Sidebar:
James Carville and Paul Begala have a new book out called,

 click to order

Buck Up, Suck Up...
and Come Back When You Foul Up

Tell you what, I'll make you two guys a deal:
If you show up for An Evening with Julie Hiatt Steele,
we wouldn't charge you anything for signing autographs or posing for pictures.

ha ha

That's more lame than SNL offering the Beatles $3000 for an appearance,
but seriously, we need talent!

The format of the evening is yet to be decided, but all we know for sure is that
Julie has said her priority is meeting and personally greeting everyone in person
so she can express her gratitude for everything that has been done for her.

She  wants to thank  you.
Isn't that amazing?

So we need talent, we need people needing a hotel room,
(who wants to drive after sipping Grey Goose with Julie Hiatt Steele?)
it'd be cool if someone could COMP a room with available food and drinks,
but every day that goes by makes the whole operation that much more risky.
 

I know many of you have helped so far,
so this is for the dozens of people who've never written in,
never sent a contribution or an angry, snarling e-mail,
those people like Streisand, Henley, Stone, Nicholson, Affleck ... the big-buck people
who no doubt read the most important site on the world wide web,
which is mediawhoresonline.com,        ...in association with bartcop.com.

please pony up some chump change and help Julie get back on her feet.

If some big touring band could just break off one small performance for the lady
who said she'd rather go to jail than tell a lie for the evil tobacco lawyer Kenneth Starr,
we could help to turn her life around.

There's gotta be somebody!
 

Make that call, send Julie an angel...

   PayPal to  bartcop@bartcop.com
 .Support Bartcop.com
  PO Box 54466.... Tulsa, OK  74155

Do the Math:

I know this is impossible, but if 500 people showed up for this event, that would mean $25,000 for Julie,
but we would have to hold FORTY of these for Julie to just break even on just her real estate loss.

Not to mention losing her actual home,
not to mention the decline in her health,
not to mention the loss of her good name,
not to mention the loss of her friends and some family,
not to mention the still-ongoing years of stress, and on and on.

Adam's last birthday? No kids showed up.
Julie became a pariah in her own town where she'd lived for at least 23 years.
"Stay away from her - she helped Bill Clinton," were the whispers.

Julie has been stuck in a hell like few people have ever been, and she's still there,
and it's because she refused to take the "Get Out of Jail Free" card
offered by the evil tobacco lawyer who was out to destroy our last elected president.

If this was wildly successful and we held 99 more that were just as successful,
she'd still never get back what she lost.

Try to help, would you?