That'll Do, Prez. That'll Do.

Wow, what a terrible reference to James Cromwell's most famous movie line, I apologize. The dialogue from Babe actually reads, "That'll do, pig, That'll do."

You remember, right? He plays Arthur Hoggett, the farmer?

C'mon, he earned an Academy Award nomination for the role!

If you have a child younger than 15, surely you've seen the film.

Anyway, I unearthed these pictures of James Cromwell from his not-too-recent visit to the Clean Skies News studios. He's teaming up with the group Beyond Nuclear to advocate against a US nuclear generation build-out, against uranium mining, and against any kind of weapons proliferation. You can catch Susan's entire interview with Cromwell on The Energy Report. Their conversation starts about 13 minutes into the newscast.

Yeah, he's pushing an unabashedly liberal series of causes. But whether you agree or not, Cromwell does seem to have a good grasp of the relevant talking points and is patient enough to state his case with civility. That's not necessarily standard when you consider some of the other issues advocates from Hollywood who hit The Hill here in Washington.

Utterly unrelated to the energy conversation at hand though it may be, James Cromwell couldn't have been nicer. He posed for pics with almost everyone in our newsroom (maybe two dozen photos). He talked about life as a nearly 6'6" actor (bigger challenge than you might think). He endured my remark that I'd just watched his scene from Revenge of the Nerds on TV a few nights earlier ("I've got the old cruise control set at 35."). I did, however, manage to refrain from telling him how strong his performance was in L.A. Confidential.

And if you do watch the first report (on domestic transmission issues) from that edition of The Energy Report, you'll get a look at a decidedly now-outdated haircut of mine. I think Long Duk Dong put it best in Sixteen Candles: "Flat?"

I guess I need to end this post with another cinematic apology, since I couldn't get the actual Gedde Watanabe quote. At least that one is from the same scene.