He was first known nationally for cracking ACORN with a pimp suit and fur shrug. Now, his telephone technician characters have propelled conservative filmmaker James O’Keefe back into the spotlight for his recent high jinks at the office of Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La.
But back in 2008, O’Keefe dropped the costumes for a more eccentric bid at his “new age journalism.”
Like a scene out of “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry” O’Keefe and his friend Ben Wetmore attempted to legally marry in the commonwealth of Massachusetts for “insurance purposes.” But unlike the 2007 film, the two made it clear to city workers and O’Keefe’s hidden cameras that they were not gay, and had girlfriends. They said the marriage was merely for benefits and the two intended to divorce.
“I just want to make sure, is it OK that we’re not gay?” O’Keefe asks in the video.
When Yeas & Nays asked O’Keefe for comment on the video, he said, “Ben and I were investigating the way soulless government bureaucrats treat the institution of marriage in Massachusetts. ‘It’s just a piece of paper, right?'”
But while O’Keefe said he regards his undercover practices as the future of journalism, when catching up with O’Keefe about his video collection he mentioned the names of journalists he believes are guilty of journalism malpractice, specifically what he described as libel, when reporting the story of his arrest in Landrieu’s office.
While media exposure has made O’Keefe a household name, will he continue to star in his films?
“Are you kidding me?” he said. “Of course.”
