David Wallechinsky - The Book of Lists

Surprising as it may seem, Shimkonis v. Peaks was not the only lawsuit to arise from a 1996 breast attack. In an unrelated case in Belleview, Illinois, Bennie Casson sued dancer Busty Heart (Susan Sykes) and P.T.’ s Show Club in Sauget after he was assaulted by Heart’s 88-inch breasts during a performance.

Australian mega-star Dame Edna Everage (a.k.a. Barry Humphries) made a point of ending her public performances by tossing dozens of gladioli with cut stems into the audience. Unfortunately, at the end of a show in Melbourne in April 2000, the stem of one of Dame Edna’s gladis hit singing teacher Gary May in the left eye. May, who was taken away in an ambulance, sued for 40,000 Australian dollars, but later reached an out-ofcourt settlement.

A Broadway star, Gahagan moved to Hollywood after marrying film actor Melvyn Douglas. Her brief movie career was highlighted by her leading role in the cult classic She (1935). After several years’ involvement in Democratic Party politics, she was elected to Congress in 1944 and served three terms. Gahagan Douglas ran for the US Senate in California in 1950, facing up-and-coming right-winger Richard Nixon. Nixon scared voters by calling her ‘red hot’ and ‘pink right down to her underwear’ and by insinuating that she had slept with President Truman. Nixon won the election and went on to further political success. Gahagan Douglas never ran for office again.

In 1986, the star by then of such films as A Fistful of Dollars (1964), Dirty Harry (1971) and Sudden Impact (1983), Eastwood took time off from his film career to serve two years as mayor of Carmel, California (pop. 4,800). Elected on a pro-development platform in 1986, Eastwood nonetheless stopped greedy developers from buying the 22-acre Mission Ranch by buying it himself for $5 million.

Known as the ‘Filipino Ronald Reagan’ because he starred in so many B movies, Estrada built his reputation by playing the role of the common man fighting the system. Elected mayor of San Juan, a suburb of Manila, Estrada moved on to become the only senator without a college degree. In 1992 he was elected vice-president of the Philippines. Estrada was elected president of the Philippines in 1998. In 2000, he was impeached by the Philippine Congress on charges of corruption and bribery. He resigned on January 20, 2001, in the face of a bloodless ‘people’s revolt’. He has since served time in prison for perjury.

Although he has appeared on Broadway and in the movies, Grandy, a Harvard graduate, is best known for his portrayal of Gopher in the TV series The Love Boat (1977–86). In 1986 he returned to his earlier interest in politics, winning election from Sioux City, Iowa, to the US House of Representatives. A Republican, Grandy describes himself as a ‘knee-jerk moderate’.

Jackson won two Academy Awards for her performances in Women in Love (1970) and A Touch of Class (1972). Running as a Labour Party candidate, the bricklayer’s daughter won election to Parliament in 1992 in the Hampstead and Highgate constituencies of north London and has since had a committed career as an MP.

Best known for his portrayal of the mechanic Cooter Davenport in The Dukes of Hazzard , Jones, a Georgia Democrat, won election to the US Congress in 1988. He was re-elected in 1990, but in 1992 he was defeated in the Democratic Party primary.

Kuehl played Zelda Gilroy in the TV series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis from 1959 to 1963. After the series ended she went to law school and became an attorney specialising in feminist issues. In 1994 she was elected speaker pro tem of the California State Assembly, the first woman to hold that position. In 2000 she was elected to the State Senate. Kuehl was the first openly gay or lesbian politician to be elected to the California legislature.

The star of Never on Sunday (1959), Mercouri entered Greek politics as soon as democracy was restored in 1974. A member of the Pan-Hellenic Socialist movement, she was elected to Parliament in 1977 and has represented the working-class district of Piraeus ever since. She also served as minister of culture from 1981 until 1990. In 1990 she ran for mayor of Athens, but was defeated.

No one was surprised or upset when the beautiful niece of actress Sophia Loren became a film actress herself, appearing in such films as White Sister (1973) and A Special Day (1977). But she did cause a stir when, at the age of 30, she followed in the footsteps of her grandfather, dictator Benito Mussolini, by entering politics. In 1992 she was elected to Parliament as the representative of the neo-Fascist party from Naples.

Known as the ‘Saffron Caesar’ because he usually appeared in an orange costume, Rama Rao, the star of more than 300 Indian films, capitalised on his widespread popularity to enter politics. He rose to become chief minister of Andhra Pradesh state. After leaving office, he remained the leader of the Telegu Desam Party, and in 1991, at the age of 69, he was arrested in the midst of a hunger strike to protest at an attack on his house by supporters of the ruling Congress Party.

Reagan was a movie actor, a president of the Screen Actors’ Guild, and a Democrat-turned-Republican. When he announced that he planned to run for governor of California in 1966, studio head Jack Warner commented, ‘No, no, no! Jimmy Stewart for governor, Ronald Reagan for best friend.’ When he won the election, Reagan was asked what he planned to do when he took office. ‘I don’t know,’ he replied, ‘I’ve never played a governor.’ Reagan was re-elected in 1970 and later served two terms as President of the United States (1981–89). Nevertheless, he never lost his basic actor’s mentality. At the 1987 economic summit in Venice, Reagan startled the leaders of the world’s industrial nations by showing up with cue cards, not just for important meetings, but even at an informal cocktail party.

The bodybuilder-turned-actor rose to stardom in such films as Conan the Barbarian (1982) and The Terminator (1984). By the end of the 1980s, he was Hollywood’s top action hero. After he married into the Kennedy clan (his wife, broadcast journalist Maria Shriver, is the daughter of Eunice Kennedy Shriver), speculation grew about a possible political career. He saw his chance in 2003, when Republicans launched a drive to recall California’s Democratic Governor Gray Davis from office. In true Hollywood fashion, Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy on August 7, 2003, to Jay Leno on The Tonight Show . Two months later, California voters chose to oust Davis and replace him with Schwarzenegger.

Hungarian-born pornographic film star Ilona Staller, better known by her stage name, Cicciolina, was elected to the Italian Parliament in 1987. A member of the Radical Party and the Party of Love, Staller represented her Rome constituency until retiring in 1992.