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Just a little note on our upcoming schedule. Are Ben and Eric taking a spring hiatus? Yes! Will they be back this summer? HECK YEAH! Should you unsubscribe? HELL NO! Take a listen to find out what the first two movies will be when we return this summer. (Hint: One's a spy comedy based on a classic TV series, the other's a celebrated entry in a long-running comic book franchise.) And if there's a particular fake president you want us to add to our list to cover when we get back, let us know! You can find us on Twitter: @Fake_Presidents, @ericbuchman, and @TheRealBenOren. Or email us: fakepresidents [@] gmail.com See y'all in a few weeks!

In honor of the upcoming Presidents' Day holiday, Ben and Eric veto their usual format to elect some fake presidents into movies that don't have one.  Which movies without a fake president deperately needed one? Who would we have cast as the faux POTUS? FIND OUT ALL THIS AND MORE (Okay, not that much more, we pretty much mostly just talk about that) Find us on Twitter (@Fake_Presidents) and Instagram (@Fake_Presidents) to join the conversation. Or email us at fakepresidents [at] gmail.com Happy Presidents' Day!!!

Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence play astronomers who make a thrilling discovery in the feel-good holiday movie of 2021! Meryl Streep is a fake president that's all "Lady Biz." Jonah Hill is hanging around as the president's son/chief-of-staff! Oh, and Timothée Chalamet is in it, too, but he's not in any political scenes, so we don't talk about him. Maybe in the sequel! Find us on Twitter (@Fake_Presidents) and Instagram (@Fake_Presidents) to join the convo. Or email us at fakepresidents [at] gmail [dot] com!

Before Wolfgang Peterson directed AIR FORCE ONE (where the Secret Service completely craps the bed), he directed IN THE LINE OF FIRE (where the Secret Service almost craps the bed!) Clint Eastwood plays a heroic but haunted secret service agent while a pre-famous John Malkovich plays the assassin Eastwood has to stop. Also in this movie: Rene Russo plays Eastwood's much younger love interest, Dylan McDermott plays Eastwood's much younger partner, and Clint Eastwood plays the piano! As for who plays the president, does it even matter in a movie as awesome as this? (No, it does not!) Find us on Twitter (Fake_Presidents) and Instagram (Fake_Presidents) to join the conversation! And you can email us at fakepresidents [@] gmail [dot] com  

We take one last look back at the fake presidencies of 2021 before looking ahead to 2022. Topics include: - Our favorite fictional presidents of the last 12 months - Succession - Diary of a Future President - Presidential impersonator changes at Saturday Night Live - Competing novels featuring fictional presidents written by Bill and Hillary that came out within weeks of each other - And so much more! (Okay, not THAT much more...but still more!) Find us on Twitter (@Fake_Presidents) and Instagram (@Fake_Presidents) to join the conversation!

Tony Stark has PTSD, Don Cheadle has a new superhero name, and the President of the United States is going to need a new plane. That's right, it's Christmastime in the MCU, which means it's time for a story of the redemption and rebirth for Marvel's favorite son...sorta? Writer/Director Shane Black gets to board the Marvel train for his one and only entry in the MCU. Jon Favreau gets to spend more time in his trailer. Gwyneth Paltrow gets a new fitness regime. And this podcast gets to talk about the politics of being the president of a superpower when there are people with, you know, actual superpowers. Oh, and 2013's IRON MAN 3 also has a trio of villains (Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, and Ben Kingsley) that we should probably mention because they're pretty cool, too. Find us on Twitter (Fake_Presidents) and Instagram (Fake_Presidents) to join the conversation!  

After introducing the world to one of the greatest fake presidents in INDEPENDENCE DAY, director Roland Emmerich is back with not one, but TWO fake presidents in 2004's climate-themed disaster movie THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW. Also in this movie's oval office -- a really weird (and distracting) choice of houseplants. (See a photo of this movie's oval office here) Can Dennis Quaid save Jake Gyllenhaal and Emmy Rossum? (Yep!) Can he also save the world from an ice age? (Nope!) Does this movie have the most depressing ending for a massive summer blockbuster until that AVENGERS movie where half the universe dies? (Probably!) Find us on Twitter (@Fake_Presidents) and Instagram (@Fake_Presidents) to join the conversation!

Just in time for Halloween it's a SCARY MOVIE. The third one! The one that introduced Leslie-freakin'-Nielsen as an American president! What happens when uber-republican director David Zucker (of AIRPLANE fame) teams up with uber-democratic producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein (of getting arrested fame) to make a movie with a fake president? Let's find out... Also along for the ride: Anna Faris, Charlie Sheen, Regina Hall, Anthony Anderson, Kevin Hart, Jeremy Piven, Simon Rex, Pamela Anderson, and Jenny McCarthy in case one of those names will encourage you to download this, our most spooky episode yet! Find us on Twitter (@Fake_Presidents) and Instagram (@Fake_Presidents) to join the conversation!

Who knew there was a fake president in this 80s mermaid rom-com? Directed by Ron Howard, SPLASH made, um, waves at the box office. It also made Tom Hanks a movie star, Howard an A-list director, and Roger Ebert very angry.  Does this movie have actual politics for us to discuss? (Surprisingly, yes!) Does this movie have a surprise in the end credits? (Sorta!) Does this podcast episode have a surprise in our end credits? (Only if you want to know whether or not it's kosher to eat a mermaid!)   Find us on Twitter (@Fake_Presidents) and Instagram (@Fake_Presidents) to join the conversation!

When an assassin targets the SCOTUS, it's up to Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts to expose a POTUS.   Robert Culp is the nameless (but not blameless) President in this 1993 adaptation of John Grisham's most political thriller. Future fake president Tony Goldwyn is the person who really runs the White House. Stanley Tucci is the mysterious international assassin. And...nobody is the actual bad guy of the movie?   Join the conversation by finding us on Twitter (@Fake_Presidents) and/or Instagram (@Fake_Presidents)

Ben and Eric will take another dip into the Fake President's mailbag to answer questions about... - Who are their favorite fake first ladies? - What is the beef between Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman? - Why does James Patterson REALLY want to work with Bill Clinton? - What is Eric's favorite presidential fact he's learned making this podcast? - After the US, what country downloads this podcast the most?!? All that, including an email from...a screenwriter of one of the movies we've covered? Really? OKAY!   Find us on Twitter (fake_presidents) and Instagram (fake_presidents), or Email us at fakepresidents [at] gmail [dot] com to join the conversation!

Today we take a look at a fake president played by Morgan Freeman. No, not that fake president. The OTHER fake president played by Morgan Freeman, in 2019's ANGEL HAS FALLEN, the second sequel to OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN. Gerard Butler is back as the ultimate secret service agent, Freeman gets a nice promotion into the oval, and...well, that's about all the characters returning from the first two movies.    This time Jada Pinkett Smith, Tim Blake Nelson, Danny Huston, and Nick Nolte join Butler and Freeman as America finds itself, once again, facing an existential crisis that only one person can halt.   Why did we skip LONDON HAS FALLEN? (Same POTUS as the first movie that we already covered!) Why does no one in this movie remember the heroic deeds of Gerard Butler in the first two movies? (Because then the plot wouldn't work!) How does the Secret Service keep refilling its ranks so quickly after ALL of them keep getting killed? (ZipRecruiter?)    Find us on Twitter (@Fake_Presidents) and Instagram (@Fake_Presidents) to join the conversation.

You know what they say, "it's always Shark Week somewhere." This episode we take a look at President Marcus Robbins from the third entry of Syfy's SHARKNADO series, played by Mark Cuban. The movie is kind of a mash-up of WHITE HOUSE DOWN and JURASSIC WORLD with a little bit of DUE DATE and ARMAGEDDON thrown in for good measure. On SHARK TANK, Cuban always sits on the left, but where does this fake president sit politically in this schlockfest of a film?   Find us on Twitter (@Fake_Presidents) and Instagram (@Fake_Presidents) to join the conversation.

Bill Pullman stars alongside Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum in 1996's White House-exploding, #1 blockbuster: INDEPENDENCE DAY.   You know the president. You know the speech. But do you know his political party? We think we do! And we think we've figured out so much more...    Happy Fourth of July!   Find us on Twitter (@Fake_Presidents) to join the conversation, suggest movies, and be our best friends.

Writer/director (not to mention producer/editor/composer) Robert Rodriguez is back on our radar with another fake president, this time taking the form of an actor credited only as "Carlos Estevez." But who is Carlos Estevez really? (Charlie Sheen!) Are the hard R-rated MACHETE movies really just spin-offs of the PG-rated SPY KIDS franchise? (Danny Trejo thinks so!) In a film full of celebrity cameos, which cameo was the weirdest? (Elon Musk's!)    Envisioned as a 70s-influenced, "Mexploitation," action trilogy the MACHETE movies stopped at two (2010's MACHETE and 2013's MACHETE KILLS), but it wasn't for a lack of effort. Trejo, "Carlos Estevez," Jessica Alba, Lady Gaga, Sofia Vergara, Antonio Banderas, Walton Goggins, Amber Heard, Michelle Rodriguez, Vanessa Hudgens, Cuba Gooding Jr., William Sadler, and Demian Bichir all give this intentionally over-the-top schlock-fest everything they've got...and then some.     Find us on Twitter (@Fake_Presidents) and Instagram (@Fake_Presidents) to join the conversation and get a heads up about future movies.

Rob Reiner and Aaron Sorkin leave little to the political imagination in their 1995 romantic comedy, THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT. Michael Douglas, as the widower POTUS Andrew Shepherd, is without a doubt a pre-Tea Party, far right Republi--- Nope... Not at all... He's clearly a centrist Democrat. So instead of just talking about Shepherd's judicial courtships, we also dive into his domestic courtship of Sydney Ellen Wade of Virginia. And to help us out, we've got a very special guest -- relationship expert Damona Hoffman, the host of the Dates & Mates podcast!!! How should a single president go about procuring a date to a state dinner? (More delicately than Shepherd does.) How adorable is it when Michael J. Fox says the F-word? (Very!) Will Shepherd ultimately beat Bob Rumson? (You probably won't like our answer...)   Find us on Twitter (@Fake_Presidents) and Instagram (@Fake_Presidents) to join the conversation, get a heads up on future episodes, and suggest future movies for us to cover.

William Hurt is the Fake President in this 2008 political thriller in the vein of Rashomon. Sigourney Weaver is in yet another movie with a presidential body double, Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox are secret service agents, only one of whom is good at their job, and Forest Whitaker did such a bang-up job directing our last movie (First Daughter), he got cast as "guy who holds a camera" in this one.   Find us on Twitter (@Fake_Presidents) and Instagram (@Fake_Presidents) to join the conversation, get a heads up on future episodes, and suggest future movies for us to cover.

Michael Keaton is the empty nester fake president in 2004's FIRST DAUGHTER, starring Katie Holmes as a first family member who is definitely not Chelsea Clinton going to a college that is definitely not Stanford.   Is this fake POTUS legitimately funny, or is he just portrayed by a great comic actor? (Little bit of both.) How did this movie go from an idea in actor Jerry O'Connell's head to a theatrical release directed by Oscar winner Forrest Whitaker? (Lot of re-writes.) Which Bush daughter had a real-life conversation with her dad that could've been a scene in this movie? (Jenna!)   Find us on Twitter (@Fake_Presidents) and Instagram (@Fake_Presidents) to join the conversation and to get a heads up on future episodes.

Gerard Butler is back to save a Fake President. Or Not. Maybe the POTUS is a bad guy in this movie?  GEOSTORM is a 2017 action movie about weather controlling satellites and the politicians who love them. Gerard Butler plays the world's most brilliant scientist. Andy Garcia is the President. Ed Harris (his third FP appearance!) is a nefarious Secretary of State. Jim Sturgess is Ed's undersecretary and Butler's brother. Abbie Cornish is Jim's girlfriend and a secret service agent. THIS MOVIE HAS EVERYTHING. Except for a director (Dean Devlin) who approves of the final product. #ReleaseTheDevlinCut!   Find us on Twitter (@Fake_Presidents) and Instagram (@Fake_Presidents) to join the conversation and to get a heads up on future episodes.

The writer/director/producer of SIN CITY (Robert Rodriguez) casts the villain of HAPPY GILMORE (Christopher McDonald) as a very fake president in a very family-friendly movie. What really went through George W. Bush's head while he read that book to those elementary school students? What movie franchise has made 6 films with only 3 plots? How is Robert Rodriguez like Ralph Nader? Do we have the answers? YES WE DO.   Find us on Twitter (@Fake_Presidents) and Instagram (@Fake_Presidents) to join the conversation and to get a heads up on future episodes.