Phil Donahue Spearheads Antiwar Documentary

TV legend Phil Donahue is teaming up with lesbian filmmaker Ellen Spiro (Troop 1500, (In)Visible Women) for a project that will add to the swelling ranks of documentaries about the war in Iraq.

Body of War, which is currently being finished, follows soldier Tomas Young, who was left paralyzed in the same Sadr City battle in which Casey Sheehan, son of antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan, died.

Young becomes an activist for veterans, copes with medical bureaucracy, and takes his fight to Capitol Hill. Early reports say that the film could make Young a prominent figure akin to Mark Zupan, the wheelchair rugby player featured in Murderball.

All proceeds from Body of War will benefit the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, a charity founded by the late Danny Thomas, father of Donahue's wife, Marlo Thomas.