Before Tuesday's election in California, Gary Coleman and his press agent talked that hopefully--"maybe"--the former child star would get 10,000 votes for governor. He got more than 12,500.
"When you see this happen, maybe if you found a non-incumbent congressional seat, you might have a chance of winning," publicist Mike Casey said Wednesday. "We'll see."
On the day after California's historic polling, in which Governor Gray Davis was recalled and action star Arnold Schwarzenegger was anointed, celeb players in the campaign, from Coleman to Angelyne, assessed their vote totals, and laid out new plans.
Schwarzenegger, clearly, has the most pressing matters at hand. With 3.7 million votes, nearly 49 percent of all ballots cast among the field of 135 candidates, he got the job. (Gray Davis got a gig reading the Top 10 List on Friday's Late Show with David Letterman on CBS.)
On Wednesday, the Terminator held his first news conference as Governor-elect. He said he fielded phone calls from President George W. Bush and former South African President Nelson Mandela. He said he worked out at 6 a.m.--"I do this every morning." He said he would continue to work out while serving as governor.
He said he would not, however, continue to be the Terminator, at least until his term as California's 38th governor runs out (assuming he doesn't run for reelection) in 2006, when he'll be 59.
"There will be no time for movies, or anything else. I will pay full attention to this job," said Schwarzenegger, who did squeeze in a quick appearance on Wednesday's Tonight Show to thank host Jay Leno for his support.
There were at least two Schwarzenegger films in the works prior to the actor's political detour: Big Sir, a family comedy; and, a remake of the 1973 sci-fi actioner Westworld. Daily Variety said Will Smith has already been approached about taking over star duties on Big Sir, while Westworld relocates to development hell. The producers of Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines previously had plans in place to mount a T4 minus Governor Arnold.
While Schwarzenegger takes a sabbatical from the set, for the near future he'll continue to be a fixture at the multiplex. He's currently seen cameoing in The Rundown, and has filmed a bit for the upcoming Around the World in 80 Days remake, likely due out next year.
In November, Schwarzenegger is featured prominently in two DVD releases, the home-video debut of T3, and the 25th-anniversary edition of Pumping Iron, featuring a younger, rowdier Governor-elect. Both are due in stores on Nov. 11. That date is likely not too far off from when Schwarzenegger, currently assembling his transition team, takes office.
The Sci Fi Channel, meanwhile, plans to celebrate the end of the campaign by running a Schwarzenegger marathon Thursday, with back-to-back-to-back airings of The Running Man, Total Recall and Conan the Destroyer. Even though the cable network wasn't governed by federal "equal time" rules, it decided to go cold turkey on Arnold flicks until the election was over.
A&E is also planning to air an Arnold movie next summer--not a rerun, but an original docudrama about the recall election. See Arnold Run is a cross between Primary Colors and Pumping Iron, the network teased in a press release.
While Schwarzenegger fixes on fixing California, wife Maria Shriver is figuring out where she fits in at NBC News. Shriver, 47, went on an unpaid leave of absence when the Schwarzenegger campaign began. She said she hoped to return to the network once the election was over, whether her husband won or not.
NBC News President Neal Shapiro said Wednesday that he wants to talk with Shriver about possible future assignments. One range of topics has already been ruled out for her: "She's not going to report on California politics nor anything that a Governor Schwarzenegger might have to make a ruling on," Shapiro told the Associated Press.
Shriver joined NBC News in 1986. She has scaled back her assignments over the past few years and most recently served as a correspondent for Dateline NBC.
Elsewhere, among the also-ran celebrity candidates:
Larry Flynt said, through a rep Thursday, he was "extremely happy to end up in the Top 10." Overall, the Hustler publisher, with about 15,500 votes, garnered the seventh-highest total.
Billing himself as a "smut peddler who cares" and coming out in favor of legalized gambling, Flynt placed behind only the so-called serious candidates, including Schwarzenegger, and former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth, who withdrew from the race in early September.
"We didn't do any real campaigning or advertising, so I thought it was a great turnout," Flynt said.
Gary Coleman spent the day after the election on the Simi Valley, California, set of the Hallmark Channel TV movie A Carol Christmas, where he's playing the Ghost of Christmas Past. Earlier, Coleman had complained that he had no job offers to show for all the campaign press he'd done. Now, the ex-Diff'rent Strokes star is basking in both work, and a "tremendous" election showing, per his rep.
Coleman ran eighth in the state, and seventh in Los Angeles County, topping Flynt in the Hustler's home base. As for Congressional ambitions? "If he really puts his mind to it," Casey said.
Mary Carey joked that she was moving back to Florida upon learning Schwarzenegger, and not she, had been elected to the statehouse. But it was just a joke. California is where she makes her living as an adult film star. Her next opus, she said on the Game Show Network Tuesday night, is Mary Carey for Governor, costarring Ron Jeremy as fellow failed gubernatorial candidate Cruz Bustamante.
Carey finished with 10,114 votes, 10th in the state. Among basic-cable viewers, she was number one, claiming victory in the Game Show Network's Who Wants to Be Governor of California? special. She pledged to use her $21,200 in winnings to help "needy strippers" and further Parkinson's disease research.
Carey told the New York Times she was sad to see the campaign end. "I don't think I could ever top running for governor," she said. "I'm not in the porn industry for sex. I love being on camera. And running for governor, I got to be on camera with my clothes on."
Gallagher fell about 150 votes short of smashing the 5,000 mark. Overall, the sledgehammer-armed comic ran 16th in the state. Undeterred, he's already announced a Presidential bid, and hits the road for a show in Wausau, Wisconsin, on Oct. 18.
Los Angeles billboard queen Angelyne came in 28th, with 2,262 votes. "I'm very happy with the results. That gives me latitude to go the next step," she said Wednesday. The next step? "I've been asked to run for President."
George B. Schwartzman posted perhaps the most surprising results. With nearly 11,000 votes, Schwartzman, a 57-year-old Carlsbad, California, businessman, was the only Top 10 finisher who was neither a celebrity nor a well-known statewide figure.
His surname, however, does bare a striking resemblance to Schwarzenegger's. And his moniker did appear just below Schwarzenegger's line on the ballot.
In a statement, Schwarzenegger--sorry, Schwartzman--denied he benefited from his "somewhat similar name association" with the action star. His success, he said, demonstrates what can happen "when you are innovative, common-sense oriented, hard-working and well-organized."
Rob Lowe wasn't a candidate on the ballot, but that didn't stop reporters from pressing the former West Wing staffer on his own political ambitions at Tuesday's campaign bash for Schwarzenegger. Lowe, now of the NBC lawyer drama The Lyon's Den, was asked repeatedly if he intended to be the next famous face to enter politics. Said Lowe: "I got a show I gotta make work."