Mellencamp’s fans want him to run for office

February 20, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

INDIANAPOLIS — An online effort to draft Hoosier rocker John Mellencamp to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Indiana’s Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh is building up steam.

Twitter is abuzz with the rumor and three separate Facebook groups have been set up, with the largest boasting about 2,000 members.

Mellencamp is no stranger to politics. In 2008, he recorded a radio commercial supporting Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and requested that Republican candidate John McCain stop playing his songs, including “Our Country” and “Pink Houses,” at his rallies.

Mellencamp’s songs often have political or social themes. He is a co-founder of Farm Aid.

Jackman attempts song in Chinese for new movie

SHANGHAI — He’s mastered the role of a mutant with metal claws — but foreign languages are a tall order for Hugh Jackman.

The Australian actor who rose to fame by playing the superhero Wolverine in the “X-Men” series is currently in Shanghai to shoot scenes for director Wayne Wang’s “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan,” in which his character breaks into song — in Chinese.

Jackman, who plays a nightclub owner, joked that his pronunciation was lost on the movie’s ethnic Chinese producer Wendi Murdoch — the wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

“I sang it and the very first couple of syllables she was like, ‘great,’ and then gradually she said like, ‘what?’” he told Associated Press Television News in an interview late Thursday.

“But I think I got at least one take,” Jackman added.

The movie is based on Lisa See’s novel by the same name, which follows the friendship of two women in 1800s China.

Today’s birthdays

Actor Sidney Poitier is 83. Jazz-soul singer Nancy Wilson is 73. Singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie is 69. Actress Sandy Duncan is 64. Guitarist J. Geils of The J. Geils Band is 64. Actress Brenda Blethyn is 64. Actor Peter Strauss is 63. Singer-bassist Walter Becker of Steely Dan is 60. Country singer Kathie Baillie of Baillie and the Boys is 59. Actor Anthony Stewart Head (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) is 56. Actor James Wilby (“Gosford Park”) is 52. Bassist Sebastian Steinberg (Soul Coughing) is 51. Actor Joel Hodgson (“Mystery Science Theater 3000”) is 50. Singer Ian Brown of Stone Roses is 47. Actor French Stewart is 46. Model Cindy Crawford is 44. Actor Andrew Shue is 43. Actress Lili Taylor is 43. Singer Brian Littrell is 35. Actress Lauren Ambrose (“Six Feet Under”) is 32. Actor Jay Hernandez (“Crazy/Beautiful”) is 32. Guitarist Coy Bowles of Zac Brown Band is 31. Actress Majandra Delfino (“Roswell”) is 29. Singer Rihanna is 22.