Hey, if entertainers can become politicians...
Sharpton's Next Role: Talk Radio? Reality TV?
By JIM RUTENBERG
WASHINGTON, March 7 - He may not have won many votes this primary season, but the Rev. Al Sharpton won credit from various quarters for often stealing the show at Democratic presidential debates, where his wit and sense of humor often made his opponents seem like, well, politicians.
Now, as he contemplates leaving the campaign trail, Mr. Sharpton, a onetime child preacher who went on to become a firebrand activist and presidential candidate, is talking about what he hopes will be his next incarnation: multimedia sensation.
While Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts is trying to ride his campaign momentum to the White House, Mr. Sharpton is trying to ride his into a career in television and radio, books and movies.
Mr. Sharpton, who retained the William Morris talent agency two weeks ago, said he wanted to be the host of his own cable news and radio programs, and his talent representatives said they were pursuing talks with all conceivable outlets.
But, perhaps unsurprisingly for a man who is running for president, Mr. Sharpton's media ambitions do not stop there. He has already had an informal discussion with Fox Television Studios about a possible reality television show, officials there said on Friday. And he recently met with Sid Ganis, the Hollywood producer who included Mr. Sharpton in the 2002 remake of "Mr. Deeds,'' to discuss future roles.
"For months they were saying to me from various parts of the media world that they wanted me to do a syndicated radio show, a syndicated TV show, and now these guys with a reality show,'' Mr. Sharpton said. "I said I wanted to wait for the end of the campaign. Now that we're halfway through, I told William Morris to go and complete some deals.''
Mr. Sharpton acknowledged that his attempts to become a media star could draw criticism that his presidential race was more about his own ambition than it was about his causes. But, he said, any such accusations would be unfair: his first priority was to use daily radio and television talk shows to further awareness of his civil rights causes in a media environment that he said is far richer in outspoken right-leaning hosts than it is in left-leaning ones.
"What the left has missed that the right understands is you need a mixture of policy and personality, because people tend to view and listen to people as well as to policy, and we have not developed the personalities,'' Mr. Sharpton said.
