If Donald Trump wins the U.S. Presidency, he will be the first sitting U.S. President to own a Razzie award for acting. (Technically, George W. Bush won one for Fahrenheit 9/11, but that was all real footage and not “acting.” And Ronald Reagan won a lifetime achievement award, but honorary awards don’t really count.)
Okay, so the movie in question is something from 1989 called Ghosts Can’t Do It. I’m not even going to pretend I’ve seen this, but the Wikipedia entry is the funniest thing:
Scott and Kate are happily married despite their 30-year age difference. After Scott suffers a heart attack and is unable to make love, he commits suicide and becomes a ghost that only Kate can see and speak with. To make it possible for Scott to return as a human, they conjure up a plan to have a young man drown so that Scott can take his body.
Unfortunately, Donald Trump doesn’t play any of these people. Scott is played by Anthony Quinn and Kate is played by a post-10 and pre-Tommy Boy Bo Derek. (Derek’s then-husband John Derek writes and directs.) Donald Trump plays “himself” and in a really terrible scene (I suspect the whole movie is like this), which also features Kate and her ghost husband, Trump gets lines like, “Be assured, Mrs. Scott, that there are knives sharp enough to cut you to the bone.”
Ohhhhhhhhh!
Ghosts Can’t Do It would be nominated for seven Razzies and take home four of them: Bo Derek, John Derek and the film itself would all go home with trophies in addition to Trump, who walked off with a Worst Supporting Actor award. Anthony Quinn was spared. Anyway, the Razzies are awful and Trump is awful and they probably both deserve each other.
Mike Ryan lives in New York City and has written for The Huffington Post, Wired, Vanity Fair and New York magazine. He is senior entertainment writer at Uproxx. You can contact him directly on Twitter.
