D aniel "The Wig Man" Vovak, who runs for public offices wearing a curly Colonial-style periwig, is used to people thinking he's a little goofy.
How's he holding up now that Politico is taking him seriously?
Picking up on a Washington Business Journal story, Politico reported the other day that Vovak is looking for a Bill Clinton look-alike for The Blue Dress, a movie he's making on the former president and Monica Lewinsky.
The Business Journal made no mention of Vovak's wigged political quests. Nor did Politico. (Vovak ran for the U.S. Senate in Maryland two years ago. In 2004, he ran for the Senate in Illinois, despite living in Maryland - like Alan Keyes - and out of a car he called "Air Ford One.")
So Vovak's movie venture comes off as entirely credible, in the Journal, on Politico and in the Washington City Paper, which also picked up on the Journal's story.
"Do you look just like Bill Clinton? [Stinks] for you, until now," the City Paper story begins.
Politico writes: "Still, don't get your hopes up, Clinton wannabes. Daniel Vovak, executive producer of The Blue Dress, says Darrell Hammond of Saturday Night Live is reading a script, for the part of Clinton."
I don't want to pooh-pooh Vovak's movie project. The professional ghostwriter says he's making a movie, so I'll take him at his word. And he really has signed Paula Jones, the former Arkansas state employee who claimed then-Governor Clinton gave her an unwelcome audience with his distinguishing characteristics in 1991. She will play herself. Her Dallas-based agent has confirmed that much.
But Darrell Hammond? Is he really reading the script?
Vovak told me he'd sent the script to Hammond and Hammond hadn't sent it back, so that was a good sign. Some guy out of Los Angeles also has offered to put the script under Hammond's nose. But even Vovak was a little skeptical.
"If a company out of L.A. calls you," Vovak said, "you're never certain if they're telling you the truth."
Not exactly let go
Frank "Flip" DeFilippo, former press secretary for Gov. Marvin Mandel, is former something else now. He is no longer Ron Smith's Monday sidekick on WBAL-AM radio.
DeFilippo had appeared with Smith from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Mondays. (Full disclosure: Smith writes a weekly op-ed column for The Baltimore Sun.) DCRTV.com, a Web site that covers area radio and television, reported that "DeFilippo has been let go" from the news talk station. That's not exactly the case, WBAL general manager Ed Kiernan told me.
