John Lithgow is a chameleon who can play anything from a TV serial killer ('Dexter') to a charming con in a Broadway musical ('Dirty Rotten Scoundrels'). In 'The Columnist,' the new bio-drama by David Auburn ('Proof'), he does a brilliant job with Joseph Alsop, the Washington political pundit who wielded immense power through his syndicated newspaper column. Supported by a solid cast, Lithgow finds the humanity in this irascible, obsessive and quite unlikable demigod. But neither he nor helmer Daniel Sullivan can do the impossible: manufacture a play out of the scattered events of Auburn's well-articulated but loosely structured scenes.