DARK KNIGHT RISES: Patrick Leahy to Cameo

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The Dark Knight Rises is an Easter egg collector’s dream. Its marketing strategy has been as replete with hidden gems, hints and cameos as it has with overly elaborate CGI. Now it’s been confirmed that the latest – and final – installment of the Christopher Nolan Batman dynasty is going to get political.

United States Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont will be featured in the film. For Leahy, this is better than celebrating a Super Bowl victory at Disneyland.

For the Batman franchise, they couldn’t have chosen any other politician.

He may not wear it on his suit sleeve, but Leahy is a Batman fanatic. To look at this well-groomed, bespectacled silverback of the New England Democrat establishment, you wouldn’t guess it. The guy is a die-cut image of Northeastern propriety. But beneath the three-piece and power tie beats the heart of a dedicated Dark Knight nut, who’s done all he can to attach himself to his favorite DC titles.

When it comes to involving himself in Batman, Patrick Leahy started off pretty grassroots. He starred as a guest-voiced Governor of the Utah territory during the episode of Batman: The Animated Series “Showdown.” Ever since, whenever there was a casting call for a politician in a Batman production, Leahy showed up with head shots.

He popped into Batman and Robin, back in ’97, proving that no matter how shameless the depiction of his favorite costumed hero, Leahy would stand by the Master Detective’s side. Then Nolan fit him into Dark Knight, 2008, for the senatorial role that, reports from Deadline have it, he’ll be reprising for Dark Knight Rises.

Leahy’s devotion to the DC heroes extends behind the camera and beyond the Bat. He wrote the foreword for The Dark Knight Archives, a collection of the initial Batman stories, and an introduction for a Green Arrow collection. Reason being, he doesn’t just sport a Batman fixation – he’s an all-around hip dude when it comes to counterculture. Maybe this should come as no surprise when it’s the senior senator from Ben & Jerry’s home state, but Leahy’s just as involved and devoted to the Grateful Dead and U2.

So I, for one, am glad that The Dark Knight Rises passed up on featuring senators from Gotham’s actual state, New Jersey. Leahy’s my kind of politician: Not the kind you can kick back with for a beer and baseball talk – the Coca-Cola and comic book debate variety.