Nov. 7, 2006

Lindsay Lohan is having a moment.

"Can I please have the tissue? Is the tissue available?" Lohan asks as she begins to tear up during the press conference for the new Emilio Estevez drama, "Bobby." What could make this party girl so emotional? Why, it's a long-winded compliment from her co-star, Sharon Stone.

"I think we have a lot of choices in our lives about what we can do with the power that we have," Stone says. "So, I think that when you look at someone like Lindsay ... it's very hard to be a child in the public eye and go through all of the things of being a teenager and an adolescent. How old are you now?"

"20," Lohan replies.

"I mean, how would you like to be a teenager in the public eye? I didn't make my bed when I was 20, not that I always make it now," Stone says mocking her own public gaffes over the years. "I think that it's really terrific that she's chosen to make a picture here that speaks to her generation about something that's really strongly political in a time when we have a very difficult political situation. I really commend her for doing that and for doing that in this film."

And that's when the tears of joy started. A mutual love fest had broken out among the members of the cast present including Laurence Fishburne, Elijah Wood, Demi Moore, Helen Hunt (who seemed as though she would have preferred to hide in a corner rather than speak to the press), director Estevez and the previously mentioned divas in question. And although the stars may sound somewhat over-the-top when discussing the film, their genuine respect for its subject was never in question.

The events in "Bobby" take place on June 6,1968, when presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated at Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel after giving a speech thanking supporters for winning the California democratic primary. "Bobby" features multiple story lines and characters that are all affected, one way or another, by Kennedy's campaign. Stone's character owns the hotel salon and is also the wife of the hotel manager (William H. Macy). Lohan's character volunteers to marry a friend (Elijah Wood) to help him avoid being drafted into the burgeoning Vietnam War.

It's easy to ridicule "Bobby" for its melodramatic story lines and obvious Oscar baiting, but because Kennedy's beliefs in civil rights, social justice and antipoverty programs still ring true today, the man is someone who shouldn't be forgotten.

"I actually brought my [younger] sister to the set," Lohan says. "She didn't know who Bobby Kennedy was and she learned so much from being there. And she went home and she did say stuff to her friends and I think that's important."

And despite all of the movie's clichés, it's hard to argue with that.

"Bobby" opens in New York and Los Angeles Nov. 17. It opens nationwide Nov. 23.