The last word: Hey, is that George W. Bush?

Nope, it’s a Bush look-alike named Brent Mendenhall—whose services are suddenly far less in demand. Writer David Roth explores a strange corner of show business where looks really are everything.

The waiter had been staring for some time before he finally approached the table where Brent Mendenhall was eating a late-evening meal in London. The waiter apologized, but he had to ask: You’re not by any chance …

The usual conclusion to that sentence is “George W. Bush.” Mendenhall is a dead ringer for the 43rd president, right down to the what-me-worry lines on his forehead. But in this instance, the Indian-born waiter recognized Mendenhall for who he actually is: the man who played a comic-relief W. in the Bollywood action film Mission Istaanbul. He might also have recognized him as a comic-relief W. in Uwe Boll’s Postal, or as a comic-relief W. in The George Lopez Show. In fact, Mendenhall’s filmography is composed entirely of roles in which he played the president, and that doesn’t include his appearances as W. in numerous television commercials and at innumerable corporate and private events.

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