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Waiting for a Gordon double

LONDON: Nobody, it seems, looks like Gordon Brown. That is a big problem for artist Alison Jackson, whose so-far futile U.K.-wide search for a lookalike has brought her to the streets of London.

Ms. Jackson desperately needs a Brown stand-in for her cutting edge photos and films in which she pokes fun at celebrities in compromising positions. She has been trying to fill Mr. Brown’s shoes — and conservative dark suits — for more than six years without success.

She held an open casting call at London’s Metropolitan Hotel on Monday in search of a breakthrough. It was faintly comic as Brown wannabes in special makeup made their way through the lobby while the real Prime Minister held meetings in India.

Ms. Jackson and her assistants have become so desperate that they routinely spend hours scrutinising pedestrians on London’s crowded streets in hopes of finding a match for the bluff Scot. It has not worked.

“It’s exasperating,” she said after perusing the streets in vain. “I’m not exactly sure why it’s so hard. I’m exhausted, I’ve run up and down the country but nobody looks like him.”

Some of the actors at the audition bore a strong resemblance to Mr. Brown — especially when touched up by makeup professionals —but there was no one who seemed to capture his essence.

Artist Richard Wade came close, especially with the help of tape placed behind his ears to make them stand out a bit.

There is good money to be made if Ms. Jackson can find her man, but her hopes are fading, especially because few people have even bothered to show up for recent auditions in Glasgow and other cities. One recent audition drew only five applicants — a very low turnout for what could be a lucrative job.

Some glamorous celebrity lookalikes earn more than $500,000 a year, Ms. Jackson said, although Mr. Brown’s body double is not expected to make that much.

Ms. Jackson has been travelling throughout Britain in a van called the “Gordon-mobile,” decorated with artwork of the Prime Minister, who took over from Tony Blair seven months ago. — AP

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