Being the leader of the free world has its perks, as anybody could guess. What each US President does with those perks though is their own prerogative, and some stories are naturally going to be better than others. That’s the case for Ronald Reagan’s trip to the Star Trek: The Next Generation set in 1991. Even though he wasn’t a sitting president at the time, that didn’t stop Reagan from rolling up to the set and sitting in the captain’s chair without even asking. That’s right, apparently The Gipper enjoyed outranking Patrick Stewart’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard so much that he didn’t even deign to ask permission if he could take a seat in the iconic captain’s perch. You may see the wonderful photo of Reagan and Stewart here.
To be fair, if any fan of a popular sci-fi series or film had the chance to do whatever they wanted on set without asking they probably would (Presidents, they’re just like us!) but it’s funny to imagine one of the most powerful people on the planet flexing their power in this particular way. What other pop culture perks did Presidents of the past ask for? Just imagine Zachary Taylor requesting stories from Charles Dickens before they were printed or FDR getting to meet Charlie Chaplin and see an advance screening of silent movies. The untold stories of Presidential privilege are surely amazing, but this particular cross between politics and pop culture fandom has an especially sweet tinge to it since there are still legions of Trek fans that definitely understand Reagan’s excitement.
(Via Foxtrot Alpha)
