DesMoines Register "'Prairie' film with cowboys" By JEFFREY BRUNER REGISTER FILM CRITIC June 2, 2005 Pick up the phone and talk to public radio icon Garrison Keillor and that trademark, self-depreciating humor begins to drip through the receiver. He's going to be in a Robert Altman film, about the final broadcast of a long-running radio show. Perhaps an explanation is in order. "It originated with Mr. Altman, whose wife is a fan of the show," Keillor said. "She listens to it regularly so he's been forced to listen to it from time to time. He got the idea of making a fictional documentary about the radio show." Altman did something similar with ballet when he made "The Company," but I don't suspect you'll see Keillor in pointe shoes. "He asked me to write the screenplay," Keillor said. "I didn't really want to write the screenplay but I didn't want anyone else to write it, either." The result is a film called, at least for now, "A Prairie Home Companion" and filming starts this summer in St. Paul, Minn. The story involves two singing cowboys, a country music star played by Meryl Streep, and other assorted characters played by Lily Tomlin, John C. Reilly, Woody Harrelson, Maya Rudolph and - I'm not making this up - Lindsay Lohan. "He's been arguing with me for greater fidelity to the show," Keillor said of Altman, "and I've been arguing for fiction. I seem to be winning so far." I point out that Altman may get the last word because he is, you know, editing the film, and Keillor hems and haws for a moment. Keillor has written other, unfilmed screenplays and you can literally hear the pain in his voice. "The (radio) show itself is nothing you would want to make a movie about. It's very quiet backstage. We're all Midwesterners and so we're self-effacing and quiet. It would be boring," he said. "I'm trying to put a little flame and smoke into this and that's fiction."