Did Republican U.S. Congressional candidate Kerry Bentivolio star in a "blatantly leftist, anti-Bush" movie — or was he just researching Michigan's film credit program?
Nancy Cassis, who's battling Bentivolio for the Republican nomination in the 11th U.S. Congressional District, sent a link out Tuesday to the trailer for the 2011 film "The President Goes to Heaven," which Bentivolio says he played a role in. Cassis, the former state senator from Novi, demanded Bentivolio, an Iraq War veteran, reindeer farmer and former teacher, denounce the movie, which Bentivolio described as a "spoof."
Dressed in green scrubs, a bearded Bentivolio plays the part of a surgeon for a president who has suffered a severe stroke.
"This is not a spoof; it is bizarre, disgraceful and disrespectful to a former president," Cassis for Congress Campaign Manager David Mroz charged in a press release, adding participation in the film is "below the decorum expected of a candidate for federal office."
Bentivolio says he played a doctor in the film but never saw the completed movie, directed by Tom Charley. The film won Best Picture at the American International Film Festival, according to the Internet Movie Database.
"It was a fictitious story about a president who's in a coma," Bentivolio said. "It was a lampoon on the president dies, he goes to heaven and turns around and becomes a better person because of his escape from death.
"All I wanted to do was feel more comfortable in front of a camera and research film subsidies."
