“CLINT EASTWOOD FOR MAYOR?”
As Told By: Chris Hardy
Written By: Justyne Gurley
PHOTO BY: CHRIS HARDY
1986
Clint Eastwood was running for Mayor in Carmel, CA. He didn’t want to speak to any other press other than local, but the local press was so small that he branched out to the San Francisco Examiner as well. We were walking around, and I could see in the distance that there was a guy, obviously very “paparazzi-like”. He starts shooting, and I thought to myself, “well this is gonna be great, I'm gonna end up in a magazine in Italy. “ So, as we were walking, and the photographer is standing like straight in the center of the sidewalk. And as we got closer to him, he was still there, but we kept walking. Clint doesn’t pay any attention to him—just keeps walking. The photographer gets down on one knee to keep shooting. I thought to myself, “this guy... he’s gonna get run over.” And sure enough, Clint just stepped over him, just like dog poop on the sidewalk or something. Just stepped over, didn’t even break stride. The photographer went right over backwards, still shooting.