Bad actor? No, just playing himself.....redundant, i know....

[Flangepart]

Someone on a local radio show,(Bob and Tom)said that Bill Clinton....do NOT get me started on that...person.......may get to play the U.S. prez in the next James Bond flick. From there, the topic was Real people playing them selves in movie cameos. Larry King, Jerry Springer, Jessy Ventura in "Joe Somebody", that sort of thing. What is the best/worset example of this shameless shilling that comes to mind for you guys?

[peter johnson]

Mayor Ed Koch as a tourist to an alligator farm in some Beverly Diangelo film of years gone by -- Wild at Heart?  It's been so long -- I forget the name.  Raul Julia is excellent as a has-been ballplayer.  Koch appears at the beginning with his wife, complaining that the alligators don't do a damn thing --

[Drezzy]

Best:
Last Action Hero. Arnie plays Jack AND himself. I thought it was great how Arnie, as himself, was talking about how "in the last movie, we killed 150 people, and in this movie, we only kill 57 people", or something along those lines, and talks all Hollywood to Jack after Jack just saved Arnie's life from The Ripper...
Arnie: My god...you're the best stuntman I've ever seen! You know, if you'd like, I could get you a part in the next...
Jack: Shut up. You've caused me nothing but pain.

Greatness...haha...=)

[BlackAngel]

I have only five words:

Michal Jordan in Space Jam.

[AndyC]

BlackAngel wrote:
> Michal Jordan in Space Jam

That opens up a whole family of athlete-as-superhero stories that would really mess up a kid's sense of reality. A few Saturday morning cartoons come to mind, the most recent of which would be Jackie Chan. Good show, but I certainly hope Jackie's life is nothing like it.

Remember the Pro Stars? No? I'm not surprised. Crappy show. Wayne Gretzky, Bo Jackson and one or two other athletes as crime fighters. Let us not forget the various portrayals of the Harlem Globetrotters and their wacky adventures.

Hulk Hogan's Rock and Wrestling was another one, although not as easily categorized as the others as the others. Wrestlers are, at best, quasi-fictional characters. Then again, the current pro wrestling shows warp reality in the most remarkable ways, leading fans to believe these people do all kinds of things in their private lives that simply aren't true.

I just don't agree with shows featuring famous people having fictional adventures and leading fictional lives as themselves.

As for Larry King interviewing a character in a fictional movie, as one example, I don't mind it. It adds a little realism, and it's an accurate portrayal of King. He's doing what he really does.

[Vermin Boy]

Didn't MC Hammer have his own cartoon for a while in the late 80s/early 90s? Something about having platform shoes that grow on their own. I never saw the show-- I was around 5 or 6 at the time, and even I knew it was a baaad idea.

Am I the only one who read that post and envisioned a cartoon about Larry King fighting crime with superpowers? Now THERE'S a good idea...

[Scotty Xtreme]

EEEWWWWW, don't remind me of THAT one again

[Flangepart]

Man, Verm....it does have something....Larry King:Superhero! Larry can defeat bad guys with one snap of his super suspenders!....watch Larry leave crimminals weaping with stories of his heart surgery...or, as always: Just bore them to sleep with his interviews. "Hello,Iowa, any questions for Dr. Doom?"

[yaddo42]

In "Contact" all of the news anchors were real CNN anchors. I know TimeWarner (now AOL) wants to cross promote every product they own but this was irritating. It didn't add to the realism of the story, it just made me realize how far media companies will go to squeeze out a few extra bucks. Not to mention damage the already sorry reputation of CNN.