March 17 - The Wearin’ o’ the Green and a Batman Scene

…And a happy St. Patrick’s Day to all you fine people! Even the ones who are still sober after the weekend…my current Sven outfit doesn’t include a trace of green, but my old “Son of Svengoolie” get-up included the bright green iridescent disco scarf that had a tendency to become untied with the least bit of movement. In my real life wardrobe, there are only a few green shirts- maybe I keep the green to a minimum these days because, for a while, when I was growing up, my mom had a tendency to buy me a LOT of green clothes…everything from pants to shirts to sport jackets. What was I, Peter Pan? (To paraphrase an old “Happy Days” episode when the boys were all room-mates, and one of them –maybe Potsie-washed the other’s wardrobe along with something green- tinting ALL said
room-mate’s clothes green.) Today, I do have a t-shirt with a picture of the Incredible Hulk and the statement, “it’s not easy being green.”
I keep forgetting to mention something that a couple of the guys from our crew and I attended last week- a rally for Harvey Dent, who’s running for district attorney. No, I’m not getting political- it was a publicity stunt for the upcoming Batman movie- “the Dark Knight”- in which Mr. Dent becomes the villain Two-Face. The studio has a campaign van going from town to town, staging public “rallies” in support of Harvey Dent, handing out political buttons, bumper stickers and t-shirts promoting Harvey Dent’s pledge to clean up Gotham City.
They made a sweep through Chicago, hitting three locations, the last one being right near our studios, so we strolled over to take a look. It was actually pretty funny- these guys whipping the crowd into a frenzy, having them chant various slogans about Harvey Dent, and the most fun was watching unsuspecting people coming by, or getting off buses, having no clue what was going on. I’m sure some of them really had no idea it was tied in with a movie, and were wondering “Dent? Is he the guy who beat Oberwiese?” You can find pictures of the rallies, in various cities, on the website (promoting the movie, though you’d never know it by looking at it) – and the site is
www.ibelieveinharveydent.com –and, rumor has it, if you look closely, you might see a familiar person in one of the Chicago shots-and, no, not in the Sven make-up this time. And, as I may have mentioned before, Kevin (AKA “hit the theme, Kevin”)
actually worked as an extra in the movie- in scenes depicting the evacuation of Gotham City. He still refuse to sign any autographs…