Beatty Joins the Celebrity Campaign Buzz List

In the age of Minnesota Gov. Jesse “The Body” Ventura, it didn’t seem so farfetched: President Warren Beatty.

Ronald Reagan blazed a trail from Hollywood to Washington, but is the latest crop of could-be celebrity candidates just movie make-believe?

Testimony to a celebrity’s instant access to headlines, the ripples of a possible Beatty campaign quickly grew to a swell. Ditto with recruiters boosting TV slugfest host Jerry Springer for the U.S. Senate. In Memphis, wrestler Jerry “The King” Lawler, whose claim to national fame is slapping comedian Andy Kaufman on “Late Night With David Letterman,” wants to be mayor.

Harvard political analyst Laura Liswood chalked it up to Capitol-sized Hollywood egos. “They do start believing their own press releases,” she said.

It was unclear Thursday whether Beatty, who portrayed the dangerously honest senator in “Bulworth,” was for real about joining Campaign 2000--or just stirring publicity.

The notion of a Beatty candidacy was floated Tuesday in a syndicated column, printed in the Los Angeles Times, by Arianna Huffington. She wrote: “If we need a Bulworth, there is no better Bulworth, some say, than Bulworth himself: Warren Beatty.”

Beatty’s talk of the need for a liberal alternative to Democrats Al Gore and Bill Bradley--someone fresh, different--echoes in some of the talk surrounding Springer, the controversial talk-show host, and his possible candidacy in Ohio.

Beatty did not return phone calls Thursday, apparently content to watch the buzz develop.

“He’s anxious to use it to start raising some of these issues,” such as campaign finance reform, said Washington political activist Robert Borosage. “I don’t think he’s in the process of seriously putting together a presidential campaign. He’s not a fool, so he knows he has lots of difficulties in being taken seriously.”