Now that Bill de Blasio has hit the big time, he’s bringing the (local) star-power. The mayoral candidate has followed up his Susan Sarandon night of ping-pong with a new ad featuring Sarandon and her famous friends, many of whom you might recognize from premium cable. Among the many, colorful faces are Steve Buscemi (Nucky Thompson), Cynthia Nixon (Miranda Hobbes), Chris Noth (Mr. Big), and Aida Turturro (Janice Soprano), plus Harry Belafonte, Russell Simmons, Alan Cumming, Amy Ryan, Lee Daniels, Martha Plimpton, Kathy Najimy, Sarah Paulson, and Holt McCallany (in order of descending fame, roughly). There’s also a cameo from de Blasio’s teenage daughter Chiara, who might be sick of her little brother’s hair getting all the attention.
The rest of the cast includes activist Bertha Lewis, drag queen Lady Bunny, and City Council member Melissa Mark Viverito. “This is our city, not some playground for the rich,” goes the script, which also takes a gratuitous shot at New Jersey.
The celebrities-speaking-in-overlapping-sentences commercial is a bit of a cliché, but de Blasio at least assembled an amusing crew.
