Checking the pulse on Moore's 'Sicko'

'Fahrenheit' helmer keeping mum about next docu

By IAN MOHR

Where in the world is Michael Moore?

This time last year, word was that the incendiary auteur behind "Fahrenheit 9/11" had the country's top pharmaceutical companies looking over their shoulders in anticipation of "Sicko," his look at the American healthcare industry.

But since then, the usually outsized Moore has been mum on "Sicko's" health.

Calls to Moore and his production company's PR rep went unreturned.

His Website, michaelmoore.com, last mentioned "Sicko" on Dec. 23, 2004, linking to a L.A. Times report that the drug companies were up in arms over the pic.

Moore's tactic of sauntering into major corporations and confronting execs no doubt became more difficult after "Fahrenheit 9/11" made him the docu biz's most famous gadfly.

But reports have said that Moore is using hidden cameras in doctors' offices to expose corruption within the drug biz. And a person close to the project says the helmer was most recently in Miami shooting at a weight-loss clinic.

Bob and Harvey Weinstein are expecting big things from the film. According to an early draft of the Weinstein Co.'s business plan, generated to drum up investment in the company, the brothers plan to roll out "Sicko" in September, and they anticipate about $40 million in domestic B.O.