This is why the less-powerful Upper House of the Diet often hosts a cast of minor celebrities including TV anchors, talk show commentators -- and even a handful of pro-wrestlers.

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Led by Sinise, who edges his profile into every shot as if he were a model in a rustic clothing catalogue, and Malkovich, who carries on like a further infantilized Tommy Smothers (his upper register recalls Tweety Bird), the cast acts with self-conscious, surface physicality.

NEWYORKER: Of Mice and Men