Hot Gallery: These Stars Have Made Headlines—and Played Real-Life Newsmakers, Too

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Ashton Kutcher Played Newsmaker Steve Jobs

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Ashton Kutcher in Jobs; Apple Founder Steve Jobs

Dude, where’s my ... space bar? Ashton Kutcher, the star of Two and a Half Men, That ’70s Show and No Strings Attached, played Steve Jobs, the guy who brought us Macintosh computers, iTunes and iPhones. Though it may seem an odd choice—Kutcher isn’t exactly known for his lofty intellect—at least we know that he’s a technology fiend (just ask his impressive number of followers on Twitter and Facebook). Kutcher received one important endorsement: Jobs’ partner in founding Apple, Steve Wozniak, gave his blessing to the casting. “I’m glad that he’s onboard,” Woz told TMZ. “I think he'll put a lot into it and that he cares about this particular subject.” Plus—come on, doesn’t he look an awful lot like the young Jobs?

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Noah Wyle Played Newsmaker Steve Jobs

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Noah Wyle as Steve Jobs in Pirates of Silicon Valley; Apple Founder Steve Jobs

Of course, Jobs wasn't the first time Jobs was portrayed onscreen; back in 1999, Pirates of Silicon Valley brought the incredible origin stories of both Apple and Microsoft—as well as the conflicts and outsize personalities—to TV. And ER vet Noah Wyle embodied Jobs’ genius, his temper, his remarkable journey. Jobs’ old friend Steve Wozniak also gave his blessing to Pirates, calling it “the greatest way to portray the whole story, because it was so entertaining.” Wyle, meanwhile, reprised his role by impersonating the real Jobs at a Macworld event, sporting his trademark black turtleneck, dorky jeans and white sneakers, which Jobs clearly got a kick out of.

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Anthony Michael Hall Played Newsmaker Bill Gates

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Anthony Michael Hall as Bill Gates in Pirates of Silicon Valley; Microsoft Founder Bill Gates

Telling the story of Microsoft and its power-nerd founder was no small task. Anthony Michael Hall, who has plenty of nerd cred of his own, brought just the right mix of brilliance, awkwardness and savvy to the man who would become the world’s richest. For most of us, it was the first time we’d seen Hall in nearly a decade—since Edward Scissorhands—and it was a return to the geek-hero image that made him a star in John Hughes movies like Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club.

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Tina Fey Played Newsmaker Sarah Palin

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Tina Fey as Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live; Former Governor Sarah Palin

As soon as we all saw and heard John McCain’s newly minted vice-presidential candidate in the 2008 election, one question seem to arose from our collective pop-culture conscience: When is Tina Fey going to play her? The 30 Rock star had not just the comic chops but a remarkably similar look. In a series of appearances on Saturday Night Live, Fey appeared with the hair and the suits and the glasses and the voice down pat. Pretty soon it was hard to tell one from the other. Palin was a good sport about the whole thing, making an actual appearance on Saturday Night Live and giving the actress props: “Tina Fey was good … [she] was pretty clever.”

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Julianne Moore Played Newsmaker Sarah Palin

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Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin in Game Change; Former Governor Sarah Palin

Based on the acclaimed book about the 2008 presidential election, HBO’s Game Change focuses on how John McCain chose Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who was previously unknown on the national stage, to be his running mate. The campaign’s ups and downs are chronicled in detail, including Palin’s growing popular support—and her glaring interview gaffes. Palin herself gave Moore a thumbs-down. “I didn’t see the movie,” she said on the Today show. “I don’t waste my time on false narratives, on lies.”

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Amy Poehler Played Newsmaker Hillary Clinton

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Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton on Saturday Night Live; Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Where else would you find such a hilarious bipartisan combo as Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton and her buddy Tina Fey as Sarah Palin on SNL? Spelling out their differences in sharp detail, Poehler manages to convey Clinton’s intelligence, her prickliness—and her disappointment in her failed bid to become the first female president. Clinton herself also appeared on a later episode, endorsing her doppelganger: “I simply adore Amy’s impression of me.”

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Drew Barrymore Played Newsmaker Amy Fisher

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Drew Barrymore as Amy Fisher in The Amy Fisher Story; “Long Island Lolita” Amy Fisher

Amy Fisher is one of those people who makes headlines for all the wrong reasons. In 1992, the 17-year-old was having an affair with car-shop owner Joey Buttafuoco. When she was finally convinced that he was never going to leave his wife for her, Amy confronted Joey’s wife, Mary Jo, and shot her in the head, leaving her face partially paralyzed. The story was too juicy for just one TV movie; Barrymore’s version competed with Casualties of Love: The Long Island Lolita Story (starring Alyssa Milano) and Amy Fisher: My Story (Noelle Parker). And Fisher? She served six years in prison for her crime, wrote a book called If I Knew Then ... and has gone on to become an exotic dancer and porn star (both of these links are, naturally, NSFW).

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Josh Brolin Played Newsmaker George W. Bush

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Josh Brolin as George W. Bush in W.; President George W. Bush

Oliver Stone’s unapologetically critical biopic was strategically released at the end of the president’s second term and the height of the 2008 campaign to elect his successor. Telling the president’s story from Yale through the Iraq war and beyond, Josh Brolin eerily captures both Bush’s demeanor and voice.

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James Franco Played Newsmaker Aron Ralston

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James Franco as Aron Ralston in 127 Hours; Hiker Aron Ralston

It was a horrific story, grippingly told first in hiker Aron Ralston’s book Between a Rock and a Hard Place and then by James Franco in the Oscar-nominated film 127 Hours. In case you’ve been living under a rock (sorry!) and don’t know Ralston’s tale, he was an outdoorsman who went canyoneering without telling anyone where he was going—and then got trapped when a boulder pinned his arm against the canyon wall. After five days, sure that he was on the verge of dying, he did something most of us couldn’t even imagine: He amputated his right arm with a dull tool. He was rescued hours later and lived to tell his incredible story of survival. Ralston has said that the movie is “so factually accurate it is as close to a documentary as you can get and still be a drama.” Ralston continues to climb mountains and canyons, and has become a motivational speaker.

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Robert Redford Played Bob Woodward and Dustin Hoffman Played Newsmakers Carl Bernstein

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Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in All the President’s Men; Reporters Woodward and Bernstein

As reporters for The Washington Post, Woodward and Bernstein broke one of the biggest journalistic stories of all time: the burglary of the DNC headquarters at the Watergate complex, and its subsequent cover-up. With sources including Deep Throat and other government officials, they ended up breaking the scandal that eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Talk about making news! In the process of filming, Hoffman and Redford consulted Bernstein and Woodward for details and accuracy.

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Denzel Washington Played Newsmaker Malcolm X

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Denzel Washington as Malcolm X in Malcolm X; Activist Malcolm X

One of the most important figures in American history, Malcolm X also wrote one of the nation’s most influential autobiographies (with Alex Haley). It was this source material that inspired the 1992 movie Malcolm X, the three-plus-hour (!) account of the activist’s life, incarceration, ideological journey and assassination. Denzel Washington managed to not only look and sound like Malcolm X—according to director Spike Lee, it was something more: “It might sound like some hocus-pocus voodoo stuff, but ... it was spooky because that was Malcolm there. That was not Denzel.”

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Jesse Eisenberg Played Newsmaker Mark Zuckerberg

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Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network; Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg

When Mark Zuckerberg developed Facebook as a student at Harvard, he didn’t just build a website; he changed the way the world interacts. Of course, as the tagline for the movie says, “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.” Much of the Oscar-winning movie focuses on the lawsuits lobbed at Zuckerberg by his former friends and partners (Zuckerberg’s net worth is now valued at upward of $17 billion). The Social Network’s Jesse Eisenberg hosted Saturday Night Live last year, and Mark Zuckerberg made a cameo—apparently the first time the two had met. Eisenberg asked if Zuckerberg had seen the film; he had. “It was interesting,” was all he had to say on the subject.