Jerry Rubin’s ‘Rambo’ Caller a Sly Impostor?

Is it live or is it Memorex or is it just an impostor with a future as a Las Vegas showman?

On Thursday, Day 5 of 44-year-old peace activist Jerry Rubin’s proposed 63-day fast to protest the violence in Sylvester Stallone’s “Rambo III,” Rubin received a message on his answering machine from a man he said sounded suspiciously like Rambo himself. Rubin, director of the L.A. chapter of the Alliance for Survival peace group, said he’s fasting a day for each million the film purportedly cost to make. (Published reports have put the figure at $60-milion plus.)

“This is Sylvester calling,” the message said. “I don’t know what this is about, but films are fantasy, not reality. I’d appreciate it if you would open your mind to what’s sheer entertainment. Sheer entertainment. Enough said. Get a steak.”

But was it really the Sly one making a personal appeal to the determined protester or just some accomplished impersonator playing a prank?

Stallone spokesman Paul Bloch said that he had messaged the actor, currently in Japan as part of a worldwide “Rambo III” publicity tour, on Thursday and that Stallone had messaged back that he had not called “a Jerry Rubin.”

“That was positively not him,” Bloch said Friday. “He’s traveling around the world and he does not even know Jerry Rubin’s telephone number. I haven’t talked to him personally so I’m not even sure if he is aware of (Rubin’s protest).”

Rubin, who said he is saving the tape, is unsure whether the message on his answering machine is authentic, but he said Friday that he will not end his fast until Stallone agrees to meet with him for half an hour to debate the issue of violence in films.

“I’m still fasting,” Rubin said. “I’m still opposed to the Rambo film. I feel hungry, but very positive and energetic.”

Rubin, who said he went on a 50-day hunger strike in 1987 to draw attention to the danger of realistic-looking toy guns, said he is drinking juices daily. In 1985, Rubin headed a demonstration against the Rambo-inspired line of war toys outside Stallone’s home in Pacific Palisades.