There are murmers afoot that the rightful heir to this illustrious lineage resides (sometimes) right here in New Orleans. Say it with me now: Mayor Brad Pitt.
Has a nice ring to it, no? And is it as far-fetched as it seems?
Well, probably yes.
It would be a stretch to call the Brad Pitt for Mayor campaign a “grassroots movement” or really an “organization” of any kind. It’s actually a couple of guys who had a conversation, printed up some T-shirts and unintentionally set the Butterfly Effect into motion.
The Butterfly Effect, of course, is a guiding principle of chaos theory that suggests the beating of a butterfly’s wings in Rio de Janiero could set off a series of random meteorological phenomena that could ultimately cause a tornado in, say, Nebraska.
Well, the butterfly in this case was Tulane art history professor Thomas Bayer. And what he set in motion was no meteoroligcal phenomenon but something much bigger, more uncontollable and even more random: Internet chatter.
Bayer recently posted a tongue-in-cheek list of 13 Reasons Brad Pitt Should be the Next Mayor of New Orleans. (“No.5: Publicity and photo opportunies will chase our Mayor instead of the Mayor chasing publicity and photo opportunities.”) Read more. Quite a funny article.