British mayors have the best job in the world – getting paid to wear some Mr T-style bling while women's institute members give you slices of cake? How is that not brilliant?
But Chilean mayors have it even better. Not only do they get the requisite bling/cake combo – we assume – but they also get to try and mow down iconic movie characters in their mayoral 4×4. On purpose.
Don't believe us? Then look at Carlos Lopez, mayor of Baquedano. He's been arrested for driving a car at James Bond star Daniel Craig during a scene as some form of protest. Lopez was either protesting about the heavy-handed nature of the Bond crew during filming or because he just thinks that A Quantum Of Solace is a really, really shitty name. Either way – mad props, you mental South American public official.
We're starting to think that Daniel Craig has a curse. For 44 years James Bond movies have tick-tocked by without any major incident, but as soon as Daniel Craig took over – whammo – everything falls to shit. People complained about Daniel Craig's blonde hair, his hatred of handguns, his inability to drive and his weird fondness for having his teeth smashed out by midgets. And that was just in Casino Royale.
It's eased off a bit for the new James Bond movie; now the only thing Daniel Craig has to worry about is the film's rubbish title – A Quantum Of Solace still sounds like the sort of over-pretentious cack that you only get from the top percentile of hopeless thesaurus addicts – and crazy South American mayors who try to run him over.
Filming for A Quantum Of Solace was disrupted earlier this week when Carlos Lopez, the mayor of Baquedano in Chile, stormed the set in his 4×4 during a scene and put his car between Daniel Craig and the camera. But don't worry – Carlos Lopez isn't crazy, he was just protesting about something, as The Independent reports:
"He got angry, entered into a private enclosure … caused public disorder and was detained," said a police official from Baquedano. "Now it is in the hands of the prosecutor." Mr Lopez is reported to have been angered by what he called an "excessive" police presence in the small town during filming, and the fact that Chilean soil was being used to represent neighbouring Bolivia… For a town that has just 1,000 residents, sending in special forces and water cannon, preventing people from walking in the street, reminded me of the worst of the Pinochet years."
So there you have it – conclusive proof that James Bond is basically General Pinochet in a pair of tiny blue speedos. And the consequences of this disruption are going to be huge for the local economy – chances are the 007 producers will look elsewhere next time they want to turn a town into a stereotypically dilapidated shanty town.
But if Carlos Lopez is right, then maybe his protest did have a point – all that disruption for a scene that'll probably just appear on screen for a few seconds seems a little bit heavy-handed. Although we still honestly believe that the reason for his protest was because Halle Berry wasn't included in the recent hecklerspray list of bad Bond girls.
If that's the case then it'll be the most preposterously extreme reaction to a hecklerspray article since The Great Haiku Syllable Skirmish Of November 2007. Well done, Carlos Lopez. You truly are the angry, confused mayor of our hearts.
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zien ibrahem says
I personaly love james bond and everyone how played his role
and i have an insanity about him
all the actors were great from barry nilson to danial craig
and the movies were all great