SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 2014 New York City mayors turn to comedy at annual show Indian Bollywood actor Sidhant Singh poses with actress Priti Sharma on the set of the Hindi Film ‘Hum Toh Loot Liye’ in Mumbai on March 20, 2014. — AFP In this March 10, 2014 photo provided by the New York City Mayor’s Office, Mayor Bill de Blasio, left, and actor ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ review: Steve Buscemi lift weights during the production of a video to promote the city’s annual Inner Circle dinner, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. — AP Superheroic, yes, but udolph Giuliani donning drag. Edward Koch stepping out of the mouth of a man-eating plant. Michael Bloomberg wear- Ring a harness and flying 20 feet in the air while dressed as Spiderman. The annual Inner Circle, the New York City news smart and subversive too media’s answer to the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, gives mayors a chance to let their hair down - or, just as likely, put on a wig - and poke fun at both themselves and the city n one of the many Paddy Chayefsky- treatise about geopolitics as much as it’s a with Fury learning he needs to open up and they lead. Their appearances, which attempt to earn goodwill with penned monologues in “Network” that movie where a ripped guy throws a shield in have faith in his fellow man, it’s actually the reporters who cover them, also can help shape their image in Istill resonate today, Peter Finch’s news- people’s faces, but it does all the things it’s Captain America who discovers that not all the public eye. man Howard Beale rails against one of televi- supposed to do very well. If you’re just here things are as they seem, and that even those “At a time when it is hard to break through the 24-hour media sion’s dramatic shortcomings: “We’ll tell you to watch Cap (Chris Evans) beat up a bunch who wear the colors of democracy and liber- cycle, this is one way to do it and to do it in a way that is positive anything you want to hear; we lie like hell. of well-trained tough guys in a tiny elevator, ty might be in disguise. and self-effacing,” said Jeanne Zaino, political science professor at We’ll tell you that Kojak always gets the killer, you’ll get that in spades, but if you prefer Fury’s boss in the state department, Iona College. It will give new Mayor Bill de Blasio “a chance to reach or that nobody ever gets cancer at Archie superhero movies that allow themselves to Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford), is the a broader and different audience in a positive way.” Saturday’s Bunker’s house, and no matter how much run a gamut wider than A to B, there’s that as film’s major new character, so it’s not a big show, which features a two-act reporters’ production followed by trouble the hero is in, don’t worry, just look well. We find Captain America still adjusting surprise when he winds up being the turn- the mayor’s rebuttal show, will mark de Blasio’s debut and comes at your watch; at the end of the hour he’s to life in modern-day Washington, DC, after coat who’s behind turning SHIELD’s domes- at a time when the mayor could use a good headline. He has seen going to win. We’ll tell you any s-t you want decades in suspended animation, getting tic surveillance program into a deadly bit of his poll numbers tumble, he’s dealt with a few political missteps - to hear.” music recommendations from a new friend, social engineering. And given Redford’s past from calling the NYPD to inquire about the arrest of a political ally This isn’t always the case nowadays, of veteran Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), and participation in classics like “All the to the handling of a pair of snowstorms - and he has enjoyed less- course; groundbreaking series from “Buffy fending off matchmaking suggestions from President’s Men” and “The Three Days of the than-warm relations with the City Hall press corps. But de Blasio the Vampire Slayer” to “The Wire” to “Game seems game to make a good impression. The mayor, who fre- of Thrones” presented worlds in which even quently cracks jokes at public events - to varying levels of success - beloved characters could suddenly die with- released a video this week in which he “trains” for the performance out warning. And if a character from “Mad with actor Steve Buscemi. In the short video, de Blasio practices his Men” threatens to decamp for another jazz hands, pretends to growl like an animal and even uses a ven- agency, the show doesn’t contrive to make triloquist’s dummy to poke fun at an incident earlier this year when him or her have a change of heart by the end he was caught not using his hands to eat his city’s signature dish. of the episode. “He eats pizza with a knife and fork and they call me a dummy?” de Still, in any serialized drama, the norm is Blasio has the doll say, badly. Details about de Blasio’s appearance to offer the threat of change or imbalance have largely been kept under wraps. But the mayor, a Democrat, is before quickly reverting to the status quo. expected to forgo enlisting the help of a Broadway cast like That’s the kind of safety net that can creep Bloomberg did, instead opting for a no-frills performance featuring into movie franchises as well. In the cinemat- a few celebrity friends. “Our basic philosophy is that you can never ic Disney-Marvel universe, for instance, have too much Steve Buscemi,” mayoral spokeswoman Rebecca SHIELD is always the good guy and HYDRA is Katz said. The reporters’ show is always filled with jokes - some always the villain and superheroes have a cringe-worthy - and a parody of songs that make fun of that year’s clear-cut moral agenda with no wiggle room current events, including a 2008 reworking of the song “Love for the complications of the real world. Potion No. 9” as “Client No. 9,” to mock former Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s alias in the prostitution case that led to his resignation. Outside safety zone Until now, that is. With “Captain America: Absurd costumes The Winter Soldier,” the corporations behind This year’s show, which will be held in a Manhattan hotel ball- one of the most lucrative series in contempo- room in front of a crowd of journalists and politicians, is entitled rary cinema dare to step outside of their safe- “Robin Hood: Men in Tights.” It pokes fun at de Blasio’s efforts to ty zone, not only tossing the building blocks From left, actors Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson and combat income inequality by portraying him as a vigilante trying of a film and television canon up in the air Hayley Atwell pose for photographers at the UK premiere for the movie to steal from the rich to give to the poor. but also using a mainstream entertainment Captain America: The Winter Soldier in London, Thursday. — AP But the spotlight is inevitably stolen by the mayor’s response. to ask provocative questions about our own Bloomberg, known for his buttoned-up persona, surprisingly drew big laughs on stage every year. He would dress in absurd cos- government and about the compromises the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). After Condor,” who better to be part of a vast, tumes, from a hippie to a superhero, and his deadpan, understated that we are willing to make in a technologi- Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) sends the paranoia-inducing conspiracy within the US performance meshed nicely with the silliness erupting around him. cal world where privacy is rapidly disappear- Captain and the Widow to rescue a SHIELD government? Mayors have enlisted big names to help: David Dinkins did a fake ing around us. That screenwriters ship that has been taken hostage, and Cap With Fury being taken off the chessboard newscast with Mary Tyler Moore, while John Lindsay did a song Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely discovers that the Black Widow has a side early on, it’s up to Captain America, Black with actress Florence Henderson. But Giuliani’s turn as “Rudia” (“Thor: The Dark World”), working from a sto- agenda involving data in the ship’s comput- Widow and Sam - whom comics readers remains the show’s most unforgettable highlight. ry by comic book writer Ed Brubaker, and ers, the shield-slinger gets angry with his know as The Falcon, brought to the screen in The brash conservative donned a pink gown, blond wig, high directors Anthony Russo and Joe Russo could boss about being kept in the dark. a thrilling way - to uncover just what’s going heels and makeup to sing “Happy Birthday, Mr President” on stage ask these kinds of questions in an “Avengers” on and how to stop it. (Marvel fans will also in 1997 and brought the character back three years later. The sur- film would be achievement enough, but to People in disguise get a kick out of the inclusion of characters prising turn graced the tabloid front pages and became a punch- bring them up in a Captain America movie Fury and Cap have an argument early on like Jasper Sitwell and Batroc, although their line for David Letterman for weeks.