Schröder successfully blocks novel

Schröder has successfully blocked the publication of a novel in which a fictional German Chancellor, co-incidentally from Schröder's hometown of Hamburg, is murdered by an ex-chemist blaming the Chancellor for a bad economy.

Okay, I understand that there are safety concerns for the Chancellor - the character is basically him. However, I just have to wonder what would happen if the President of the United States found out that a German director had written a screen play that has a VP that looks and acts amazingly like Cheney and a President who's mostly silent but looks and acts a lot like President Bush. And in this screen play, said look alike President was killed because of a freak snowstorm supposedly caused by his administration's environmental policies. What if the President of the United States decided to try blocking this screen play from being made into a movie? Um, he'd be laughed out of court and you'd be hearing about suppression of first amendment rights, etc.

Okay, okay - in this instance, the POTUS is killed by (freakish) natural causes, not a malicious murderer with a political grudge. [Although you could argue the screen writer is a malicious director with a political grudge.] I suppose you could say the circumstances aren't the same, one is definitely more personal and malicious than the other. But, I think it bears thinking about.

Oh, and I could write a whole diatribe against said movie director who hates the US environmental policy so much he had to fly cross country every two days to check up on special effects work being done at seven different companies and loves to drive down the California coast to his office in his cute little VW Cabrio. Oh, and how he looks up to Ghandi and hopes his puny little film will have an effect on the election in the fall. But I won't.