“Mini-Me” to Tour State With Bryson Campaign

Verne Troyer, the small actor best known for playing Mini-Me in the Austin Powers movies, has been hired by the Jim Bryson campaign to portray Phil Bredesen in a series of mock debates to be held around the state. Bryson’s hiring of the diminutive Troyer comes on the heels of a controversial television ad in which a towering Bryson holds a pipsqueak Bredesen look-alike in the palm of his hand to make some vital issue-oriented point about the gubernatorial election. “I’ve seen the makeup job they’ve done on Verne to get him to look like Bredesen, and it’s phenomenal,” says a GOP insider. “This is going to be an entertaining campaign.” At campaign appearances, Bryson will hold five or 10-minute scripted “debates” in which the Bredesen-suited 2-foot-8 actor will haplessly defend the governor’s record against Bryson’s snappy rejoinders. There are also plans to have a child made up as a giant tick attack the miniature “Bredesen” as a finale at campaign stops. “We’ve tested this kid-in-the-tick-suit thing with focus groups, and it goes through the roof,” the Bryson spokesman says. “This is why we had those religious conservatives praying for the governor’s recovery—so we could do this gag on the trail.” When asked why Bryson went all the way to Hollywood to cast the “mini-Bredesen” role instead of using a tiny Tennessean, a spokesman defends the choice. “Little Jimmy Dickens wasn’t available due to his Opry commitments. But Verne has great connections to Tennessee. Remember he played Lee Greenwood in that TV biopic a couple of years ago.”