This year’s election cycle sometimes feels like a game of celebrity Whack-a-Mole, what with all the famous faces popping up in voting ads, wearing candidate-specific merch, or proclaiming their views on late-night talk shows. But there’s one name you won’t be hearing from: Kid Rock. The 37-year-old musician, who has performed at Republican events in the past and is currently appearing in ads for the National Guard, has sold some 25 million albums and recently went to no. 1 with his latest, Rock N Roll Jesus. But he tells EW that he won’t be using his fame to steer fans any which way at the polls. “Celebrities are always putting themselves behind politics, and people assume I’m a Republican, which is funny, because I’ve never said that I was,” he says. “My views generally lean towards less government, yes, but I’m not going to sit here and talk about it publicly, because I’m not that educated in political science. And I feel like to do so, I need to be. Because I might be able to influence people who listen to what I say, and who am I to tell them?”

He will, however, be making what he says is his “fourth or fifth trip” to Iraq this Christmas to entertain the U.S. troops still engaged overseas. “You don’t have to agree with what’s going on there to support them,” he says. “I’ve tried to get more [entertainers] to come over with me, and they bail with lame excuses. Just do it, man.”

Gus Van Sant’s Harvey Milk biopic Milk premiered Tuesday night — on the 30th anniversary of Milk’s death — at San Francisco’s famous Castro Street theater, prompting many entertainment bloggers to discuss the political implications of screening such a movie so close to election time. Starring Sean Penn as Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California in the late 1970s, the film is set against a backdrop of political turmoil, including the fight over a ballot proposal that would have made it mandatory to fire all gay teachers working in the school system. Many opponents of California’s current Proposition 8, which would ban gay marriage, stood outside the theater encouraging moviegoers to vote against the measure.

With so many themes in the film mirroring today’s election climate did Milk‘s distributor, Focus Features, ever consider opening the movie prior to the election in order to better enter the national conversation? Focus’s distribution chief Jack Foley says it wasn’t even an issue, since the film was only finished a couple weeks ago. But what if it had been ready? Focus says they still would have opted for their Thanksgiving release of Nov. 26. “We wanted it to play for itself rather than wrap it up in politics,” says Foley, who also ran the distribution campaign for Brokeback Mountain. The plan is to open it up in 18 markets on Thanksgiving weekend and then expand it throughout December, hopefully getting a bump with the Golden Globe nominations, which are announced Dec. 11. “The reality is this is a business and there is a lot of competition you have to consider, from Slumdog Millionaire, Frost/Nixon,The Wrestler, The Reader, etc. How do you get your film to open and gain a life? That’s what we were thinking about when we chose this day. That’s why we didn’t go before the election.”

Hallelujah! Preacher has found a new home at Sony Pictures. Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes (Revolutionary Road) will take a stab at making a movie version of the super-subversive comic-book series by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, now that HBO has abandoned its longtime plans to create a full-on series adaptation. Given the massive box office success of Warner Brothers’ bleak Batman entry The Dark Knight, the timing seems right for audiences who want to get caught up in the supernatural tale of a sexy, foulmouthed, chain-smoking cleric who is imbued with the word of God and battles an all-powerful religious society. Whether Sony takes the adaptation as dark as the original comic remains to be seen. Their description of the property is as follows: Preacher focuses on Jesse Custer, the preacher of a small, destitute Texas town, who is struggling to get by and driven only by his strong moral sense. When his town is decimated by a supernatural force, Custer embarks on a journey across the country to take on the evil that has destroyed his town. Neil Moritz’s Original Film will produce along with Kickstart Productions’ Jason Netter.

More on Sam Mendes:

Sam Mendes on making Jarhead

It’s a boy for Sam Mendes, Kate Winslet

Sam Mendes, Kate Winslet elope

Fashion designer Tom Ford will direct his first film, the indie production A Single Man. Based on the Christopher Isherwood novel of the same name, A Single Man will star Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, and Matthew Goode. Ford’s production company will produce the film along with the Weitz brothers’ company, Depth of Field. The story centers around a British college professor (Firth) who loses his partner of 16 years. Shooting is set to begin next month in Los Angeles.