AMBRIDGE - He demurs like a coy celebrity, but he sure sounded like a coy candidate, or at least one trying out for the role.
Legendary Lothario Warren Beatty flirted again last night with the notion of running for president of the United States, bringing what has become a stump speech to the school named for the politician he said inspired him, although one, he noted, he refused to play in a movie.
Beatty came to the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University dressed in a gray mock-turtleneck and a stylish, loose-fitting suit, fearing that if he wore the standard blue suit, white shirt, and red tie, he would look like a candidate and ''tend to frighten people.'' And when asked by a polite freshman named Ben whether he was running for president, Beatty replied with ''ummms'' and ''ahhhs'' before spitting out, ''I'm not sure. Next?''
Former Senator Alan Simpson, now the director of the Kennedy School Institute of Politics, introduced Beatty as a ''true believer,'' an activist as well as an actor, only offhandedly mentioning that Beatty was also toying with the idea of running for president.
Beatty noted that he once refused President John F. Kennedy's request to play him in a movie about the former president's career as a PT boat hero, characterizing his refusal as his ''`first dissent.'' Now, Beatty said, the time has come to dissent again.
And then, without a teleprompter, he fired off a list of statistsics he said are often overlooked in the hype about the booming economy:
One-third of children in Los Angeles live below the poverty line.
Homicide is still the leading cause of death for children under 18.
There were 56 percent more layoffs in 1998 than in 1997.
CEOs' salaries have gone from 42 times to 419 times that of the average working person's.
''Do we belong to a party that sort of sweeps this stuff under the rug, that says, `Things are going right in America?''' he asked. Then, using lines he has used before, Beatty asked, ''Where is the dissent? We don't need a third party; we need a second party.''
Beatty continued railing as he has in past speeches against the ''cancer'' of big money that he says has spread across government, allowing the financial services sector to grow recklessly unchecked, keeping millions of children without health insurance. He criticized Vice President Al Gore and former Senator Bill Bradley for limiting their proposals for public campaign funding to the general election, which would still allow big companies to donate in the primaries. ''Isn't that a little like asking the public to pick up the check after the rich companies have ordered the dinner?'' he asked.
If they had heard the lines before, that didn't stop the audience members from clapping at some of Beatty's most often-repeated statements. The actor and director had joined students from the school for pizza before his speech, and the crowd of mostly students at the forum listened intently and politely.
But Beatty also found a tougher audience than the Hollywood A-list he spoke to last month in Los Angeles. In questions that ranged from gun control (''I'm for it'') and the death penalty (''scares the hell out of me'') to his reputation as a lady-killer, the toughness of the queries was surprising. When one freshman woman asked how he could criticize the salaries of CEOs but not actors, Beatty blushed and said, ''Very good, very good. You've mentioned it. Done. Good for you.'' Then, beet red, he added, ''I promise never to take another nickel.''
Still, Beatty gave few firm statements about whether he would actually run. To one freshman who raised the question, Beatty replied, ''Do you like any of my movies? I like to be organized; I'm a good organizer. If I was running for president at this point, I'd be well organized. I've only tried to state the issues. ... What I'd like to do is affect the agenda.''
Yet Beatty also insisted he's more than just a blow-dried celebrity, and that's what fueled the interest in his candidacy. ''If you're just famous, people don't put up with you for more than a day or two.''
''You've got to spend your popularity.'' he said. ''If you can get people who are well-known, who are entertaining, to change the culture, you should do it.''
