Alternate celebrity politicians?

marktaha

Banned
I would imagine Bill Gates or Adam Sandler. I am aware that Kanye West ran for president, but what if he was more dedicated to the political cause even not as a presidential candidate. He probably could have more of a legitimate politician rather than just a humorous Easter egg on the voting ballot.

Bill Gates would have an idea to be a politician due to his already gained influence through his company in around 2006. He would probably be outraged by an infringement on media freedoms caused by an overturning of a press law and start to enter politics to ensure that his idea of "free speech"(whatever he believes free speech to mean) is set in politics. Despite his high profile, he would probably be disregarded as a "hopeless technocrat" due to his technical knowledge. Although he would have to MAKE time to be a politician, so he would have to sell his business or entitle someone to it(this will surely be a lot of butterflies, so don't expect Xbox or Windows Vista to just magically take off). Also, I am not much of a good researcher, so this post might not make sense.

I also have the idea of Adam Sandler being a politician because why the heck not?
Gates probably has far more power as it is.
 

marktaha

Banned
Muhammad Ali if his health had permitted?
Frank.Sinatra, Clark Gable, Bing Crosby?
Several other heavyweight champions have successfully run for office in the past.
 
Robin Day & Jeremy Paxman go into politics and receive their just deserts by being interviewed as aggressively as they interviewed politicians IOTL.

In this interview "Paxo" famously asked Michael Howard the same question twelve times.
However, he's since said that he only asked the question twelve times because the director asked him to "fill in" because they weren't ready to show the next item.

This is one of Robin Day's. Unfortunately, the quality of the sound is poor.
 
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Russell Brand expressed his ambition to go into politics in this interview with Jeremy Paxman.
I haven't watched the video but as far as I can remember from watching it in 2013 Paxman gave him an easy ride.
 
He also said, "When England was a kingdom, we had a king. When we were an empire, we had an emperor. Now we're a country, and we have Margaret Thatcher." Which got him sacked from BBC Radio Two.

But it was all done in the best possible taste.
As a token of thanks to the people who liked and loved the above this is Kenny Everett's Rod Stewart impersonation which Sir Rodney hates and to be fair to him the joke isn't funny when its on one's self.


I'm sorry about the poor quality of the picture and sound. It's the best one that I could find on Youtube that didn't include other sketches.
 
Judith Sheindlin as Mayor of New York?

Btw if there's a WI: Judge Judy for President on these forums, please direct me to it immediately as I can't think of a timeline I need in my life more than that.
 

marktaha

Banned
Robin Day & Jeremy Paxman go into politics and receive their just deserts by being interviewed as aggressively as they interviewed politicians IOTL.

In this interview "Paxo" famously asked Michael Howard the same question twelve times.
However, he's since said that he only asked the question twelve times because the director asked him to "fill in" because they weren't ready to show the next item.

This is one of Robin Day's. Unfortunately, the quality of the sound is poor.
Day did run for Parliament as a Liberal in 1959.
 
Day did run for Parliament as a Liberal in 1959.
I wrote that post as a joke. But, yes you're right. I'd forgotten about that.

IIRC several ITN reporters stood for Parliament in that election but only one of them was elected and I can't remember his name.

Ludovic Kennedy was another and he stood as a Liberal too. He was also a Liberal candidate in a by-election in 1958.
 
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Just updated the list. There's also been a few Beauty Pagent winners, radio hosts, and other minor celebrities who I haven't listed, and would take me hours if I tried going through all of them, but if anyone does, feel free to do so, since I'm quite interested in the subject. (Jeff Bridges as Senator and George Clooney as Governor would be quite interesting, and Oprah and Fran Drescher in the Senate, even for a short time, would be quite fun to see.)
 
Gene Wilder. Idk if he ever actually seriously tried to go into politics at some point in his life, but it’d be funny to see Willy Wonka become the president of the U.S.
 
Claudia Pechstein ran for the parliament in the last German Federal election.
While she had no chance in winning that seat (Incumbent Gregor Gysi is unbeatable), she might have gotten a better place on the party list and with a different overall election result become a MP.
I would not be surprised, if she tries again.
And once Gysi dies (or retires, but I doubt he will) the seat is wide open, with all parties in parliament (except the FDP) having a shot at it.



Edit: sorry if this is to close to modern politics, I kind of missed that this wasn't in political chat.
 
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Alright, here's one very, VERY far out of left field and honestly probably would take a lot of convincing to get him to run - and likely he wouldn't become President.

Steve Harvey, host of Family Feud. The little we know about his politics is that he supported Obama and is against political correctness, so possibly a Centrist/Liberal Democrat? Either way, maybe someone close to him convinces him to run for Mayor (LA, Atlanta or Chicago are cities he has ties to - though I imagine LA or Atlanta would be the 'easiest') or maybe Governor of California.

From a little bit of web sleuthing, it'd honestly be hard to figure out where he would run that he could win. For races that he could lose? I honestly don't think he could get elected governor of Georgia, may be a bit too red. Texas, Ohio (Went to HS in Cleveland) and West Virginia (Was born there) are also states he has ties to but I don't see him winning there.

Ngl, I mostly am suggesting this because I think a Steve Harvey political campaign could be funny to some extent. I'll probably go look into some more realistic ones now.
 
What celebrities do you think would run for office in alternate timelines? I thought of this after hearing on a podcast that Ronald Reagan had asked John Wayne to run on the Republican ticket for California governor after Reagan’s term ended, but Wayne said no and even if he had, the Duke was in poor health, dying in 1979. What if he ran though?

Also, what about other celebs who seriously considered running? I’m sure plenty hsve but I know of some, like Tim McGraw running for either governor of Tennessee or his native Louisiana, or Jeff Bridges running for Senate in Montana. Also, you do have in otl folks like Clint Eastwood or Martin Sheen who were small town mayors. So any other fun ideas for celeb office holders?
If any of you eventually need people from Latin America for a TL:
  1. Silvia Pinal (Mexico): One of the most beautiful, talented, and successful actresses in the history of both Latin American and Mexican cinema, as well as the mother of several children — including the talented actress Sylvia Pasquel and rockstar Alejandra Guzmán. She actually served as First Lady of the state of Tlaxcala, member of the local council of Mexico City, congresswoman, and member of the Senate as a member of Mexico's dominant party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
  2. Irene Saez (Venezuela): An extremely beautiful woman who won several important beauty contests, including Miss Venezuela and Miss Universe during the 1980s. She was elected as the independent mayor of the wealthy Chacao municipality in Caracas, before launching an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 1998. One of the main reasons why Chavez took most of her voters is because she asked and got the support of one of the country's two traditional parties, Copei — which leads to the question of what would have happened had she not accepted that endorsement.
  3. Renny Ottolina (Venezuela): An extremely knowledgeable and interesting TV showman who used his platform to increase the cultural level of the Venezuelan people, as well as to showcast the wonders of one of the most beautiful countries in the world. He managed to royally anger most media moguls in the country for his reckless defiance of the 1970s consensus, including the powerful Cisneros family. He tragically passed away after an air crash while running for president in 1978, throwing a huge bucket of cold water in the face of the country and spawning more than forty years of speculation and conspiracy theories regarding his demise.
  4. Ruben Blades (Panama, United States?): One of the most important salsa performers ever, as well as actor and showman, Blades is a peculiar figure who could be exploited for someone who has the interest in writing a timeline related to Latin America or Latinos in the United States. His complicated life story, left-wing activism, and classic opposition to American materialism and imperialism have made him a widely revered figure in the left. He was recently honored during the 2021 Latin Grammys for his trajectory and activism, which included serving as Tourism minister of Panama and running for president in the aftermath of the American invasion of the country. Considering his personal history, it wouldn't be that complicated to write a timeline moving his place of birth to New York or directly having him stay there instead of moving back to Panama, thus allowing him to eventually run for something.
  5. Willie Colon (United States): Another major and extremely talented salsa musician, he is still very much involved in New York politics as a long-time Democratic activist who also worked hard in support of HIV patients at the peak of the AIDS pandemic. He worked for David Dinkins and Michael Bloomberg, challenged Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) in a Democratic primary in 1994, ran for NYC Public Advocate, and is a sworn sheriff in Westchester County. He is my best bet for someone who could have gotten far in American politics.
 

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Martin Sheen as POTUS with John Goodman as VP.
Special counsil to the president, Paul Heyman
Foregin minister, Arnold Schwarzenegger
Minister of culture: Madonna
 
I believe Arnold Schwarzenegger had previously aspired about running for president of the U.S. Had he not been born in Austria, we could've had President Schwarzenegger in an alternate universe.
It could still happen.

He's still alive and Constitutional amendments are a thing
 
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