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Baker turns to 'Caddyshack' actor to loosen up image

Print | Comments () Posted by Martin Finucane September 2, 2010 02:54 PM

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By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles D. Baker has been trying to loosen up his country club image. So who better to help him than a country club goof-off like Spaulding from the movie "Caddyshack"?

Baker, the buttoned-down, Harvard-educated former state finance director, has formed a political partnership with John Barmon Jr., the actor who played the vomiting, heavy-drinking grandson of a country club president in the classic 1980s comedy.

In a joint appearance on FOX 25 this week, Barmon, who lives in Cambridge, said he met Baker at a downtown Boston restaurant where he now works, and the two have teamed up for a fund-raiser tonight at The Lansdowne Pub near Fenway Park.

Baker said he has seen "Caddyshack" “oh, eight or nine times,” but, in Fox's gotcha-style quiz about the movie, he failed to come up with the name of Smail’s niece (Lacey) or recall the type of rodent that makes a famous appearance (it was a gopher).

“I don’t know want to know this stuff!” Baker protested. “I want to see it again, like, for the first time.”

Baker did reveal that his favorite line from "Caddyshack" came from Rodney Dangerfield: “Now I know why tigers eat their young.” And Baker, a former health insurance executive, said he might delight donors at his fund-raiser tonight with an impression of Smails, who was played by the late, great Ted Knight.

Perhaps he can yell at Barmon: "Spaulding, get your foot off the boat!"