Projo Politics Blog

If it’s not casinos Rhode Island’s politicians are obsessing about, it’s the movies.

Last week, Speaker Murphy went to Boston to pick up an “Imaginnaire” award. Given by a local industry magazine, the honor recognizes Murphy for helping establish film and television tax credits in the Ocean State.

Since the legislation was enacted, a number of movies have filmed in and around Rhode Island including 27 Dresses, the romantic comedy that opens this week. State officials say the credits have helped bring in more than $175 million in related revenue for Rhode Island.

But the show’s not over yet. The speaker has already set as a priority for the 2008 General Assembly session exploring whether Rhode Island could build a movie studio of its own to attract more film-industry business and the accompanying tax dollars.

Murphy himself got his first taste of the small screen this fall when the producers of the Showtime series Brotherhood invited him to do a cameo on the show.

His role? “Attorney General Murphy,” a local politician who has a brief interchange with the show’s star and supposed House Majority Leader Tommy Caffee, played by actor Jason Clarke.

House spokesman Larry Berman tells Political Scene that Murphy was not paid for the role.

“He’s been helpful behind the scenes so they said, ‘Why don’t you do a cameo?’ It was just a volunteer thing. He didn’t do it for the money.”

Besides, Berman said, “after watching his performance, [Murphy] said if he had been paid he would have given the money back.”

Unlike Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline, who had his own cameo in Season One of Brotherhood, Murphy’s name hasn’t found its way onto the Internet Movie Database ( www.imdb.com), which carries listings of all “actors” who’ve appeared in movies and on television.

No word yet if Murphy has collected a Screen Actors Guild card.

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