In the last few months, Beatty, the star of and force behind such seminal films as "Shampoo" and "Bonnie and Clyde," has become the first big name to break the entertainment community's unofficial speak-no-evil toward Schwarzenegger and his wife, Shriver.
Over the weekend, Beatty, 68, gave his first commencement speech ever to the graduating class of UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy, and used the occasion to humorously but witheringly attack Schwarzenegger — much like the candid candidate Jay Billington Bulworth from his 1998 political satire. He derided the governor for "his reactionary right-wing agenda," "his bullying of labor and the little guy," his plan to spend money on a "totally unnecessary special election" and his refusal to raise taxes on the rich. Beatty asked Schwarzenegger to "cut down the photo ops, the fake events, the fake issues, the fake crowds ... the scapegoats, the 'language problems,' the broken promises, the 'Minutemen,' the prevarications and put some sunlight on some taxes.
Still, as it's been for decades, whenever Beatty talks, the media wonder if he's planning to run for public office. During his speech, Beatty said that Schwarzenegger "knows I'm a private citizen just as he was a year ago, I'm an opponent of his muscle-bound conservatism with a longer experience in politics than he has and, although I don't want to run for governor, I'd do one helluva lot better job than he's done." A couple of days later, Beatty demurs and seems keen on simply being a "truth teller," although he does say, "One never knows at what point one becomes sufficiently inflamed to take a step that one does not basically want to take."
I think if it comes to that, I'd a lot rather have a guy who goes trolling for bored housewives on a 500 Triumph with a hair dryer stuck in his belt for governor than a guy who talks funny (albeit a lot better than Bush) with chain guns in either hand and a grenade launcher in the other on a Hog. A kinder, gentler image, I guess.
Say what you will about California, when it comes to goobernatorial politics we're a lot more colorful than, oh, I don't know, anywhere else!
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