He’s Like a New Man--Himself

Over the years, Robert J. Hunt has duped hundreds into thinking he was an astronaut, professional baseball player and fighter pilot. But he doesn’t think the people of Revere, Mass., will be anybody’s fool, so Hunt’s planning to run for mayor of the blue-collar beach city as the real thing--himself. “People like me,” said Hunt, who was trained as a plumber. “I know how to talk to people. I’ll make a great politician.” In his heyday, Hunt’s favorite guise was that of an astronaut, and armed with a uniform and aviation wings that he ordered from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Hunt lectured to groups of pilots, went to the Marine Corps Ball in Washington, and drank tea with the lord mayor of Dublin. “I went to the White House, I was made citizens of countries, I was an impersonator and there’s no law against that,” said Hunt. There was a law, however, against Hunt’s swindle of a couple for $4,000, for which he was ordered to pay restitution and sentenced to a year’s probation early this year. That experience convinced Hunt to go straight, he says, and now the impersonator-turned-politician spends his days more quietly, strolling on Revere Beach to collect some of the 50 signatures he needs to run against incumbent Mayor George Colella in November.

--A real-life astronaut will be making a special appearance next month in France to mark the 20th anniversary of man’s first steps on the moon. Neil A. Armstrong, the space pioneer who made the “giant leap for mankind,” will join John Glenn, Edwin E. (Buzz) Aldrin Jr. and James A. Lovell Jr. as well as Alexis Leonov and Valery Koubassov of the Soviet Union and French astronauts Patrick Baudry and Jean-Loup Chretien for a television special to be taped July 7 in Toulouse and broadcast July 19 by Antenne 2, a state-run network. The show will focus on the men who landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, and on the progress in telecommunications, meteorology and medicine that resulted from space exploration.

--The star of “The Graduate” will actually become one, the Santa Monica College board has decided, voting to award actor Dustin Hoffman an honorary associate in arts degree. Hoffman had enrolled in Santa Monica College in 1955 to study music but changed to theater arts and never graduated. SMC President Richard Moore said Hoffman sent word through his agent that he would be honored to accept the degree. The Oscar award-winning actor--for his performances in “Rain Man” and “Kramer vs. Kramer”--is currently appearing in “The Merchant of Venice” in London.