He’ll Be Back

"I PHONED my wife and she said to me, ‘How did you feel meeting Arnold Schwarzenegger?"

Tony Blair is delivering a talk to Angelinos who lunch. “I felt acute body envy, actually," says Tony.

But Arnie is impressed. “If he needs a job and wants a job in Hollywood, I’ll get him to play Terminator 4,” says the Governor of California.

"Now that is definitely the best offer I’ve had. Actually, the sad thing is, it’s the only offer I’ve had," says Blair, who is on a five-day visit to the United States.

While Americans laugh until their abs hurt, Tony may well consider what he can do next. Perhaps a role as the Terminator could just be a logical progression on Tony’s career path.

As Alice Miles writes in the Times: “If Mr Blair accepts Arnie’s offer of a film part, it will be a fitting end to his journey into fantasy.”

“’The future has not been written,’” writes Miles, recalling the opening to Terminator 3. “’There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.’ By god, he sounds just like Mr Blair.”

So will Tony be back to take up Arnie’s offer? He’s tough on crime. He talks like a robot. He is here to save the planet. And if Arnold Schwarzenegger can be a political figurehead of what he calls the "nation state" of California then surely Tony can turn his hand to acting.

But perhaps the style is wrong. Looking at that aforesaid exchange between Tony and Arnie, we sense the beginnings of a double act.

As does the San Francisco Chronicle. It produces a feature entitled “Blair shows knack for humor on California trip”. The piece features some of Tony’s lighter moments, something Tony may care to hand to casting agents by way of a resume.

Cymbals ready please.

Realising he is the only British prime minister to have a child while in office, Blair says, "I don’t know what the hell the other prime ministers were doing."

Ker-rash!
Talking at a meeting at the Getty Villa sponsored by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Blair says his son Leo is enthralled by California. Leo turns to his dad and says: "You’ve got to see them … they’re so big." The whales, that is.

Badda-bing!

But why not go alone? George Bush once employed comedian Steve Bridges to take part in his after dinner speech at the White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner. Bridges does a decent impression of Bush and while the President talked, the double delivered his ‘private’ thoughts.

Perhaps if Arnie can learn to speak slower, he and Tony can repeat the trick…

Posted: 2nd, August 2006 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink