Maybe his agent set him up? We Love D.C.’s Tom Bridge says of news that Eddie Murphy will play Marion Barry in an upcoming HBO film: “Folks, this is not April 1st, but I’d just about swear that it was.” Bridge suggests Danny Glover or Don Cheadle would be better choices, “or, if I was going for parody, Samuel L. Jackson.”
DCist’s Martin Austermuhle also suggests Cheadle and Jackson, as well as Glynn Turman, “who played Mayor Clarence Royce in The Wire. He wouldn't need much coaching -- he did play a divisive and ethically bankrupt politician in the acclaimed show.”
Meanwhile, the real Mayor For Life is also heading to the small screen. Roll Call reports, “An up-and-coming variety act is pulling out the big guns for a television pilot,” and has secured Barry “for an interview about his political legacy and stormy career.” The pilot, to be recorded at the Riot Act Comedy Theater on Sunday, will include “two ‘legitimate’ interviews conducted during the show, which will also feature comedy sketches and the debut of a parody rap video.” In addition to Barry, the other “legitimate” guest will be veteran adult film star Nina Hartley.
* Not Larry Sabato says Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli opposition to $150 million for the Dulles Metrorail project could “become the sleeper issue of the 2013 Governor's race.”
* Daily Kos says new entrant Milad Pooran will have to overcome “two much bigger names” -- state Sen. Rob Garagiola and former Montgomery County Councilmember Duchy Trachtenberg -- in order to win the Democratic congressional nomination in Maryland’s Sixth District.
* The Maryland Daily Record says in an editorial that even though state Sen. Ulysses Currie “managed to escape conviction on federal corruption charges by a jury of his peers,” the verdict “sends the wrong message to legislators and to the public. Once again, it looks like an elected official can flout state ethics rules with impunity.” Since even Currie’s own lawyers “did not dispute that he received about a quarter-million dollars from Shoppers Food Warehouse for lobbying various state officials on the supermarket chain’s behalf,” the Daily Record says Currie’s peers would be justified in expelling him from the Senate.
* The Baltimore Sun reports Anne Arundel County Attorney Jonathan Hodgson has advised the County Council that it can replace Councilman Daryl Jones when Jones begins a five-month federal prison sentence in January, even if Jones refuses to resign. In a memo to councilmembers, Hodgson says as a prisoner, Jones -- convicted on one count of failing to file a tax return -- would no longer reside in his district and would therefore be ineligible to hold the seat.
* The Pew Center on the States says Maryland “has the second-best state election website in the nation,” according to Maryland Reporter, with only Minnesota scoring higher.
* Former D.C. city administrator Robert Bobb, occasionally mentioned as a possible mayoral candidate, has returned to the District “after more than two years as the controversial emergency financial manager for Detroit Public Schools,” Washington Business Journal reports. He has hung out the shingle of the Robert Bobb Group LLC, “a consulting business he recently set up with five well-connected principals” aimed at “financial and organizational turnaround, program and asset management and economic development.”
