"It's all about the money," was a mantra Beatty repeated during the talk.
Beatty represents a recent trend of pop culture figures, including Jesse Ventura, Donald Trump, and Cybill Shepherd, who are using their recognition to enter and affect politics.
Mickey Edwards, a former member of Congress and Adams Lecturer in Legislative Politics at the Kennedy School of Government, explained this recent phenomenon in an e-mail message. He wrote, "people who have achieved some measure of celebrity sometimes also achieve an over-inflated sense of their own importance."
Beatty also met with about 80 undergraduates prior to the speech at an informal Pizza and Politics discussion.
Micah T. Lewin '03, who attended the gathering, said of Beatty, "he's honest and not afraid to say what he believes,"
IOP Projects Committee Chair Marc Stad '01 emphasized that a grass roots desire among the undergraduates motivated the IOP to invite the actor. He accounted for this popularity because of Beatty's mixture of "politics and pop culture."