As the race for the U.S. Republican nomination steers further and further into ‘Shit You Could Not Possibly Make Up’ territory, front-runner Ted Cruz has pulled a campaign commercial, after learning that its lead actress has a background in erotic films.
The Cruz campaign recently began running a national commercial called ‘Conservatives Anonymous‘, in which Republican voters sit around in a staged, AA-style meeting, complaining about the lies they’ve been told by politicians.
“Maybe you should vote for more than just a pretty face next time,” says a woman to the group, just as a man enters, wearing a t-shirt for Cruz’s rival Marco Rubio.
The ad is really no more or less groan-inducing than any other political campaign material in recent memory, but Amy Lindsay, who plays the woman in question, has found herself at the centre of a media firestorm.
Lindsay, it turns out, has previously been the star of such “non pornographic erotic films” as Confessions Of A Call Girl and MILF; per her IMDB page, she also appeared alongside Nicole Kidman in Jane Campion‘s 1990s adaptation of The Portrait Of A Lady.
Lindsay is (or was) an avid Cruz supporter, describing herself in interviews as a Christian and a “conservative Republican,” but the Cruz campaign, who are currently pursuing the evangelical vote in the southern states, don’t think much of her.
After deciding to pull the ad, the campaign told media:
“The actress responded to an open casting call. She passed her audition and got the job. Unfortunately, she was not vetted by the casting company. Had the campaign known of her full filmography, we obviously would not have let her appear in the ad. The campaign is taking the ad down and will replace it with a different commercial.”
Lindsay recently Tweeted that she is “extremely disappointed” by the Cruz campaign’s decision, and in a CNN interview, said she has had “a lot of support” from those who think Cruz acted hastily, and added “people like me vote too.”
Extremely disappointed the #TedCruz campaign pulled the national television spot I had a role in… @CNN @Foxnews #moretocome #myvotecounts
— Amy Lindsay (@amylindsayLA) February 12, 2016
This has been just another day in 2016’s batshit crazy race to the White House.
