Danny Glover Will Campaign for DC Mayoral Candidate Andy Shallal

Hollywood meddles plenty in presidential and congressional politics, but how often do movie stars sink their hands into municipal races? The DC mayoral race will get its first taste of celebrity participation tomorrow when Lethal Weapon star Danny Glover campaigns with Busboys and Poets owner Andy Shallal.

While Mayor Vince Gray is giving his reelection kickoff speech on Saturday afternoon, Glover will headline a fundraiser at Shallal’s Adams Morgan home. The restaurateur and the actor will also appear together at a town hall-style event that evening at Union Temple Baptist Church in Anacostia.

The two know each other from Shallal’s work with the foreign policy organization TransAfrica, of which Glover is a board member. In campaign events, Shallal has tried to position himself as the candidate best in touch with working-class voters, so it’s a bit surprising to see him go Hollywood so soon. But Shallal is promoting Glover more for the actor’s social activism than his film work. Glover, the campaign says, “shares Shallal’s concern about the growing distance between the well-off and those left out.”

He just also happens to be the star of Lethal Weapon and Predator 2.

Benjamin Freed

Staff Writer

Benjamin Freed joined Washingtonian in August 2013 and covers politics, business, and media. He was previously the editor of DCist and has also written for Washington City Paper, the New York Times, the New Republic, Slate, and BuzzFeed. He lives in Adams Morgan.