November 2, 2004

• ELECTION DAY, PART I. It is mid-afternoon on Election Day and I have just received my second movie star phone call. Martin Sheen phoned to tell me that President Bush lied (gasp!) so don’t forget to get out and vote. He was kind of impersonal and hung up really quick so I didn’t get to tell him how much I loved him in the 1975 TV movie “Sweet Hostage” with Linda Blair, and that it really cemented my already forming fixation on “bad boys, ” which was furthered the following year in a more age-appropriate manner with Jackie Earl Haley’s portrayal of badass Kelly Leak in “The Bad News Bears” along with his taller, sexier grown-up rock ‘n roll version: Tom Petty. But that Martin Sheen, he was named Martin, and yet he was sexy! How did he DO that!? There was a boy in my class at The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Elementary School (so NOT made up) named Myron, who was sort of as crazy as the guy in “Sweet Hostage,” but in a 10 year old Catholic-y first generation American-Eastern-European immigrant way, I remember thinking, “Well, maybe crazy grows up to be sexy. Martin…Myron…Martin…Myron.” It just didn’t translate.

  Our first movie star phone call was, of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger since we live in the Golden State. Now, some may consider this a call from a Governor, but I bet my bippy that more people considered it a call from a movie star, which is sad, and I say that as both a voter and an actor. My dh took Ahnold’s call, and I will say it was the first recorded pre-election call he’s ever sat through without cussing and hanging up. He claims he wanted to hear the end of the message (i.e. what organizations paid for it), but I think he may have been mesmerized by star power. I admit that until recently I could never keep Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone straight until one of them opened his mouth. At one point in the late 80’s Sly started wearing glasses. That helped. Now one is the governor of California. That helps even more.

  I’m hoping we get a couple more movie star phone calls before the polls close. Do you think Drew Barrymore could call? I always wanted her to call. I know she is the one person who could teach me to knit. And then maybe Vincent Price, who is admittedly and decidedly dead, but I wouldn’t put it past him to call from beyond the grave to really push for stem cell research, make it sound exciting and all Spielberg-y, say “House of the Stem Cell Wax Terror!” (or is Fun With Stem Cells too “positive spin?”)

  Okay, off to avoid CNN, MSNBC, FXNWS, etc. for another few hours. As Harry Shearer said on his show last Sunday, let’s start repeating now, “The American people deserve to know who their next President is…before they sit down for Christmas dinner.”

  kim

  • 7:23 pm
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