Has Seacrest’s mane question doomed Newsom?

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San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who is testing the waters for what everyone expects to be a run for the California governor’s office, may have inadvertently shot himself in the foot a week ago when radio host Ryan Seacrest asked him about the hair care product that keeps his hair slicked back like Andy Garcia’s in ‘Ocean’s Eleven.’

‘L’Oreal Total Control,’ he confessed, before promptly firing a second verbal round into the other foot: ‘And it’s the Clean Gel. It’s the Total Control Clean Gel, because they’ve got seven or eight products, and the other ones don’t work.’

He is apparently unaware that hair care is the third rail of political aspirations. One need look no further than Sen. John Edward’s YouTube primping before a fall or the curious case of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his beloved Paul Mitchell hairbrush known as ‘the football’ to see how these things tend to end.

Sure, we want our politicians to look well-heeled, but we prefer to labor under the misconception that they care more about holding powerful political office and less about the holding power of the assorted L’Oreal product line.

We actually hope Newsom does announce his candidacy -- if for no other reason than that we might see him in a pitched primary contest with another rumored candidate, State Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, whose ‘70s-era nickname -- Governor Moonbeam -- takes on a new meaning when paired with his now balding pate. Call it a potential battle between The Mane and The Moon.
-- Adam Tschorn