AS PUBLISHED IN THE DETROIT FREE PRESS
Friday, June 4, 2004
It
sounded like a friendly wager between two governors whose teams are
playing for the NBA championship.
"Bad is back," Jennifer
Granholm the governor of Michigan boasted.
"We're not intimidated by Ben Wallace, with the hair, fear the fro', all
of that," countered Arnold Schwarzenegger, in a thick Austrian accent.
Classic
gubernatorial trash-talking?
Nope.
It was a classic radio phone scam, and Granholm got suckered.
Detroit radio station WKQI-FM (95.5) duped the guv and her staff Thursday
into talking for about nine minutes to a person she believed was Schwarzenegger.
The voice with the accent was really impersonator Eric Harthen from
the station's "Mojo in the Morning" show.
Granholm told the
man she believed to be "Ahhhnold" that should Detroit
win, she would request a picture of him wearing a Pistons jersey sipping Vernors
and munching on pasties at his desk.
"I'd love to wager you in a friendly way about us cleaning your
clocks," she
declared, explaining that pasties are a "famous bit of Upper Peninsula
food."
Said the faux Schwarzenegger: "It's very hearty food
like Austrians used to eat, right?"
"Exactly," said Granholm. "It's
a meal in a pouch."
Granholm then got curious.
"What would you put on the line?" she
asked.
"If you win, I'll send you Brad Pitt to the governor's mansion.
How's that?"
"You'll send me what?"
"I'll send you Brad Pitt to
the governor's mansion."
Laughing and sounding excited, Granholm
said, "All right, you
got a deal."
She added: "We could send you Michael Moore."
The jig was up when the show's host, Mojo, butted in and told Granholm
that Schwarzenegger's favorite radio show is 95.5, "Mojo in the
Morning."
After she figured out the prank, Granholm appeared
to be a good sport.
"That is so funny," she said.
"She was very cool," said
show co-host Spike.
The real bet: If the Pistons win, the real
Schwarzenegger will be photographed wearing a real Pistons jersey
and dining on real pastie, Vernors and chocolate-covered Michigan
cherries. |
California Gov. Schwarzenegger 'pays up'
with
the items Michigan Gov. Granholm
'bet' with impersonator Eric
Harthen
|
