'Lincoln' Comes to U.S. Senate Amid Fiscal Cliff Showdown

As members of the U.S. Senate struggle to bridge their all-too familiar differences on a looming fiscal crisis, perhaps the image of Abraham Lincoln will spur gridlocked lawmakers into action.

"Lincoln" star Daniel Day-Lewis and director Steven Spielberg on Wednesday found themselves at the U.S. Senate, where Democrats and Republicans bickering over gun laws, aid to superstorm Sandy victims and a looming "fiscal cliff" came together to watch the Hollywood drama about America's 16th president.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, is a big fan of the biopic about the most famous of Republican presidents, and he met with Day-Lewis and Spielberg before lawmakers and spouses sat for a private screening in the Capitol Visitor Center.

Oscar winner Day-Lewis stood silent before media cameras and reporters outside the Senate chamber, where Reid introduced him and the director of such classics as "E.T." and "Saving Private Ryan."

Spielberg said he was proud to have been invited to the Senate, where he could "run the film and see both sides sitting in the same room watching a president who put the people out in front of the abyss."

The critically praised film portrays Lincoln wrestling with the abolition of slavery near the end of the Civil War.

In a poignant moment, Day-Lewis paused in the Capitol Rotunda, where late Senator Daniel Inouye will lie in state Thursday, and viewed the catafalque on which the casket will rest -- the same one constructed for Lincoln's casket and which has been used for every person who has since lain in state there.