Hbo

Here's a first-look at the HBO satire, "VEEP," starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and it's a winner. The series from Armando Iannucci ("In The Loop") was filmed in Baltimore last year and debuts April 22 on the premium cable channel. I'm working on a magazine story about the series. It includes a set visit and interviews with Iannucci, Louis-Dreyfus, executive producer Frank Rich and others. This trailer makes me feel like my sense during the set visit -- that this was a smart, savvy and special TV series -- was right.

And the hits keep coming ... Yesterday, I wrote about complaints lodged by members of Sarah Palin's Alaska posse against HBO's "Game Change," a film about the 2008 GOP presidential campaign that is scheduled to premiere March 10. You should know that none of the people lodging the complaints, including columnists at Big Hollywood, have seen the film. They are basing their criticism on a HBO trailer for the docudrama -- and making wild leaps of speculation based on a couple of minutes of videotape.

Last week, I wrote about HBO's "Game Change" right after screening the two-hour film about the 2008 presidential campaign of John McCain and Sarah Palin. You can read it here . I described the film as "so political in so many good ways," and predicted it would be one of the most important cultural movies of the year if it generated the the kind of discussion and debate about Palin, the campaign, media, politics and history that I thought would. The film does not premiere until March 10, but that debate has already started in earnest, especially with those on the right attacking the film without having seen it -- often in the most ideological and uninformed ways.

I just walked out of a dark room after spending two hours with the screener for "Game Change," the HBO film about the 2008 Republican presidential campaign of John McCain and Sarah Palin. Based on a best-selling, non-fiction book about the historic race, it was filmed last summer in and around Baltimore. Since this is sure to be only the first of many pieces I will write about this film between now and its March 10 premiere date on HBO, I am not going to wait for the churn of images, sounds, memories and thoughts to settle overnight.

Seeing HBO's latest trailer for "Game Change," the made-for-TV version of the 2008 GOP presidential campaign with John McCain and Sarah Palin, brought back memories of the early days of Z on TV when I was doing media-and-politics 24/7 -- and loving it. Check out the trailer, which includes the moment in Palin's interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson when she said she could see Russia from Alaska. And then, check out some of my on-the-run, review of the interview posted about 15 minutes after part one of the Gibson-Palin sitdown aired.

HBO has set premiere dates for its two big-ticket political projects filmed in Maryland last year. "Game Change," the made-for-TV movie starring Ed Harris as John McCain and Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin, will premiere March 10, according to Stuart Levine in the Hollywood trade publication Variety . "VEEP," the half-hour political satire that finished filming its first season in December in the Baltimore area, will debut April 22....

With a reported $100 million price tag and a big-name star like Kevin Spacey, "House of Cards" looks like a drama series that should be headed for HBO or AMC. But the 13 one-hour episodes that start filming in Baltimore in March under the direction of David Fincher are being made by and for Netflix. Yes, that Netflix, the one with the red-and-white envelopes you get via snail mail, or the one you stream programs from online. "House of Cards" is the biggest and most credible challenger yet to cable TV's control of quality original programming.

Remember the Baltimore sightings of Ed Harris, Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson last summer? Well, here's the trailer for the HBO film they were shooting here, "Game Change," a docudrama about the 2008 presidential election that focuses on the GOP ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin. How do you think Palin's depicted in this film based on the trailer? I wonder, though, about the timing with Palin all but having dropped out of national consciousness after toying with a run and pulling back 10,000 times this year.

Veep is fliming in Charles Village today, we're hearing. My fellow Campfield Elementary alum, the omniscient blogger Downtown Diane, Tweeted that the Julia-Louis ("Day by Day") Dreyfus HBO show "Veep" will be filming on Friday at the Ottobar and at the Wyman Park Restaurant in Charles Village. I haven't confirmed the Ottobar filming, but the man who answered the phone at Wyman Park didn't deny the show was filming there. The New Wyman Park Restaurant is my regular Saturday morning spot -- I included it in my favorite restaurants in this 2010 round-up.

One measure of a great biography is that you start into it thinking you know the subject. and by the end of it, you admit to yourself that you knew only the tip of the iceberg. "Sing Your Song," n HBO documentary film on the life and word of Harry Belafonte premiering at 10 p.m. Monday is a great biography in just that way. Yes, he's the guy who sang "Banana Boat (Day-O)" in the 1950s, and has a huge seller of an album (back when people still knew what record album and LP meant)