'Sonny' finally set for HBO

The conjecture is Lawrence Wright's God Save Texas will make fun of Rick Perry, Wendy Davis and company, and it very well might. But the truth is the series just put into development by HBO dates back to 2000 when Pulitzer-winning author Wright penned a screenplay called Sonny's Last Shot with hopes of directing it himself. Then he transformed the screenplay into a stage play after HBO at that time nixed the story.

That story was inspired by Texas Democrats hiding out in 1979 to kill a bill in the Legislature, only in Wright's story they hid out in the back of the Alamo. Right before the stage play premiered in 2003, Dems did in fact run off--to Oklahoma--to unsuccessfully kill a bill.

The potential HBO series is described thus: "... an idealistic cowboy who, looking to save his ranch and marriage, tries to get elected to the Texas Legislature, where he becomes the target of the powerful energy lobby and learns how to survive in the crazy, brutal world of Texas politics." The original screenplay also had that cowboy, Rep. Sonny Lamb of West Texas, fathering a love child with feisty Rep. Angela Jackson of Houston, a character with a hint of Rep. Dawnna Dukes of Austin, Wright previously said.

Back in 2000 the play got a table reading with newby actor Dan Gattis taking the lead role. Gattis went on to serve as a state representative from 2002-2010.  His father, Dan A. Gattis, is currently Williamson County Judge.

Wendy Davis pulls a presser at ACC

Wendy Davis wants to be Texas' next governor. She kept a chilly press corps waiting outside Austin Community College-Rio Grande this morning to talk education. I watched and snapped some pix.

Friday Night Lights' Peter Berg says, 'Quit it, Mitt'

Peter Berg, creator of the Austin-shot TV series Friday Night Lights says I know Coach Taylor,  Coach Taylor is a friend of mine. You, Mitt Romney, are no Coach Taylor.

In other words, quit using the coach's slogan: "Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose" that Berg wrote.

Berg was behind both the Friday Night Lights film and TV show, but they are both based on Buzz Bissinger's book of the same name. Bissinger, who has long bashed Romney, now suddenly has come out in support of him. He's also shown himself to be a bit of a crank, if not a total nut. Bissinger and Berg are cousins, making it even more interesting.

Now word from actor Kyle Chandler, who is wisely keeping out of the fray.

Murder, politics and Texas State football

John & Oriter Castleberry in happier(?) times.

The story goes that John Kendrick Castleberry, a respected doctor in Nacogdoches, had a thing for his nurse Dora. They first poisoned her husband, Luther, then put a dab of the same potion in a cup of tea that John’s wife, Oriter, was drinking.

After a suitable waiting period, the doctor and nurse got married and had a child. Then the doc turned up dead, and Dora left with all their cash and the youngest child.

The good doctor’s older children grew up angry and mean. If you got in their way on the streets of Nacogdoches, you paid the price. One of those Castleberry boys was my grandfather, who became first a cop then a convicted swindler. I don’t remember him, but I’m told the last time he was in our house he had a gun in his hand. I think of this story every time Texas State plays Stephen F. Austin in football. I start to wonder how much of the East Texas voodoo the Lumberjacks football team brings with them to San Marcos.

Read the rest of the story here.