A
Art Mann
Guest
Mayor Rob Ford and entourage greeted
by 'chauffer' Jimmy Kimmel at L.A. airport
By: Stephanie MacLellan Staff Reporter,
Toronto Star, Sat Mar 01 2014
Just days after he insisted he was not an international celebrity, Mayor Rob Ford arrived in Los Angeles ready to appear at the Oscars and on Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show.
Ford is slated to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Monday. Kimmel greeted Ford and his entourage at Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday night, dressed up as a chauffeur.
Etalk host Tanya Kim asked Kimmel if he was taking Ford to the Academy Awards as his guest Sunday night.
“Absolutely. Wherever he wants to go,” Kimmel said in the interview.
Ford told the Toronto Sun’s Joe Warmington earlier Saturday that he would be attending the Oscars. But his staff told CP24 that no Oscar appearances had been confirmed.
Ford’s trip to Hollywood came the same week he told viewers of his Ford Nation YouTube show that he disliked the “celebrity” label.
“I am not an international celebrity,” he said with a bit of a chuckle in the video posted Wednesday. “I’m an average, hard-working guy that goes to work every day, comes home to their family, takes my kids out, supports my wife and family and does whatever I can.
“If the late-night shows want to make fun of me, that’s their job. Let ’em make fun of me.”
At that point his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, interjected to say that talk shows had been trying to get the mayor as a guest.
“They’re doing everything they can, calling me every night, and you know something? We might go on one of these days,” Doug Ford said.
Mayor Ford has provided a bottomless reservoir of jokes for Kimmel and his writers in the months since the crack scandal broke. Before Christmas, he put together a video celebrating the “12 Days of Rob Ford” to thank the mayor for being “the greatest gift any talk show host could ever ask for.”
More recently, he featured video of Ford leaping for joy in council chambers after the women’s Olympic hockey team won gold at Sochi.
. . .
Kimmel is well known for his viral hoax videos: One starred a woman who set fire to herself while twerking, and another, a wolf on the loose in a Sochi hotel during the Olympics.
Was that the purpose of Ford’s trip to Los Angeles?
A publicist for Kimmel was tight-lipped. “You’re going to have to tune in Monday,” she said.
Along with Ford, guests on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Monday are Gonzo the Muppet and musical act Fitz and the Tantrums.
Also this weekend, Ford made his Mardi Gras debut Friday night as the subject of a parade float in New Orleans.
Ford’s float in the Le Krewe d’Etat parade — preceded by a large sign reading “Canadian Club” — featured a giant replica the mayor with smoke billowing out of a crack pipe, and sported mockup Toronto Star front pages with the headlines, “Mayor Ford: ‘So I smoked a little crack’ ” and “I was in a drunken stupor.”
Painted on the side of the float were caricatures of Justin Bieber — who faces drug use allegations in Florida — clutching a smoky bong and former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson holding a sign reading “Remember me?” The parade reviewer for the New Orleans Times-Picayune described the Ford float as an “absolute masterpiece.”
The Le Krewe d’Etat parade, which traditionally kicks off Mardi Gras weekend, focuses on satire; this year’s theme was “DUI: D’Etat Under the Influence.” The year’s theme always remains a secret until the parade begins.
