bubbles-obama

All the hype around the “Mad Men” season premiere has taken away from my primary TV love: “The Wire.”  So let’s get back on track with this anecdote about Barack Obama delivering a shout-out to Bubbles (the smack-addict snitch with a heart of gold) on his inauguration day:

[Filmmaker Anthony Hemingway] was in Washington, D.C., for Inauguration Day. And he was sitting with actor Andre Royo (“Bubbles”) and Royo’s family, about six rows back, as Barack and Michelle Obama made their way along a rope line, shaking hands.

Knowing that Obama was an avowed “Wire” fan, Hemingway urged Royo to stand up and draw Obama’s attention. Royo was reluctant, but eventually he did stand up… just when Obama was directly down front.

As Hemingway tells it, Andre Royo’s rising brought Barack Obama’s eyes up. Then Obama pointed at him and said: “You’re my dude from ‘The Wire.’ ”

“It made Andre’s life,” Hemingway told us with a laugh. Royo’s daughter was like, “Daddy, the president knows who you are!”

Granted, Obama will never be totally forgiven for liking “Entourage,” but dammit if that isn’t a cool story.  I don’t think I’d be able to recognize Bubbles without his nappy hair and scabby face; the fact that Obama picked Royo out of a crowd on a day when hundreds of thousands of people were in town to see the new president is pretty impressive.  It’s like the President of the United States is a good people person or something.

UPDATE: Correction!  This actually happened in Prague in April.