Director of the American Islamic Congress Zainab Al Suwaij at the convention in New York. (Reuters)

New York, Aug. 31: Michael Moore — filmmaker, rabble-rouser, citizen — wandered into a dangerous neighbourhood yesterday. A Today at the Republican National Convention, he only wanted to take some notes, he said, to observe. But from the moment he entered Madison Square Garden, Moore was the one being observed.

For more than two hours, he created a comet’s tail of commotion. Holding a rolling news conference as he dragged a clot of some 70 reporters past a growing wave of security officials and hostile conventioneers, Moore came close to disrupting the entire convention. “Moore, you loser! Get out!” shouted Dan Willard, an alternate Maryland delegate from Rockville. Others merely scowled — if not at Moore, then at the traffic jam he created. Moore, whose anti-Bush film Fahrenheit 9/11 is a $100 million-plus polemical blockbuster, seemed delighted by the ruckus. It gave him another platform to sound off on a variety of themes: the war in Iraq, the economy, the national debt.

When Senator John McCain called him “a disingenuous filmmaker” during his speech, Moore said: “Thank you, John McCain.” No offence taken. Only dollar signs.

“Hey, the film’s doing $120 million right now,” Moore said. “When McCain mentions it, I have a chance to do $150 million. It just creates more interest, more excitement.”

It sure did. At the senator’s gibe, delegates near Moore started pointing and booing, and the crowd roared: “Four more years! Four more years!” McCain said: “That line was so good, I'll use it again,” and the crowd booed Moore some more. In his faded burgundy baseball cap, the filmmaker just smiled and sort of waved.

Moore first attracted attention about 8.45 pm as he walked slowly over the temporary bridge that connects the media spillover building to Madison Square Garden. Stopped by a handful of reporters, Moore began to hold court. Video camera lights quickly popped on, and the knot around Moore grew.

It quickly became a crowd-control issue, and officials began trying to corral the unruly scribes. “You were told to stop,” shouted one police officer as reporters tried to break through his hallway cordon. “If you don't, I can arrest you.”

This set off grumbling in the mob, with several reporters asserting their sacred First Amendment right to chase a celebrity through the corridors of a sports arena. “This is my big rugby scrum,” Moore said, explaining the scene around him to a security guard. “It’s a dangerous situation here,” yelled a plainclothes NYPD officer. “Please make a lane. Please make a lane.”

A delegate from Missouri called Moore a “disgrace,” a few seconds after asking for his autograph. “I could kick his [rear],” said Steven R. Schirripa, an actor on The Sopranos who is here as a “correspondent” for NBC's Tonight show. “We need to get this Moore guy on The Sopranos in case we need to whack someone.”