One of the gossip columnists in the NY Post, Liz Smith, went to the premiere of the new Bill Maher film, “Religulous.” I haven’t seen the film, so fairness restrains me from saying that I get the sense it’s juvenile, boorish, condescending and dumb.

Anyhow, it is directed by one Larry Charles, and Liz Smith talks to him:

GIVING UP on getting next to Maher, I talked with his movie’s director, Larry Charles. I asked if directing the big hit “Borat” gave a big zip to his career?

Liz: Were you already a name in films before that?

Larry: Maybe in my own mind. Yes, I had a small cult following. But doing “Borat” made me hot, in the sense that I was able to get another job - for this movie! I hadn’t known Bill before, but we discovered we had the same friends and ideas. I believe he is the only person powerful and smart enough to have starred in this - his own movie.

Liz: Are you and Bill of like minds - as atheists, as agnostics?
Larry: Oh, we are not atheists. We don’t know the answers. We just wanted to ask questions about God, about religions, what people believe - and we wanted to have fun. We traveled a lot to make the movie; we didn’t get to see the pope, but went to Rome, to Jerusalem, and some of it was so hilarious.

Liz: Well, I never heard of you before “Borat,” so where have you been all my life?

Larry: Hmmm. Well, I did make a movie in 2003 called “Masked and Anonymous,” which was a title of Bob Dylan’s. He was in the movie as a version of himself. It had a great cast - Penelope Cruz, John Goodman, Jessica Lange, Jeff Bridges, Luke Wilson, Steve Bauer, Angela Bassett, Michael Paul Chan, Bruce Dern, Ed Harris, Val Kilmer, Cheech Marin, Chris Penn and Giovanni Ribisi.

At this, I excused myself, said goodbye and rushed off to find a DVD of “Masked and Anonymous.”

I must say, I’d kind of like to be a fly on the wall when Liz Smith sits through “Masked and Anonymous.”

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