WASHINGTON — Aaron Schock says he was “shocked and amazed” by reaction to his unexpected television cameo.
The freshman congressman, walking to the House chamber for a vote, was caught off-guard when a reporter approached him with a Sony camcorder, compared him to ex-fashion model Brody Jenner and asked him about D.C. night life.
The footage was shot by TMZ, the celebrity gossip website and television show, which cheekily suggested the unmarried 27-year-old must have “an impressive stimulus package.”
And while Schock managed to blurt only that he is “all work, no play,” the airing of the brief encounter this month landed the Illinois Republican on the front page of the Peoria Journal Star and on several local newscasts.
“I’m not Britney Spears or Paris Hilton,” he said. “I was totally caught off-guard.”
Harvey Levin, TMZ’s founder, says politicians are now prime targets for his roving band of ambush artists.
Levin said sprinkling a little celebrity dust on individual lawmakers might give them more of a platform for their views.
Besides, he says, “how many stories can you do about Lindsay Lohan?”
