Dubya replaces Arkansas glitz with down-home Texan style

AUSTIN - Goodbye Barbra, hello Bo. Move over Hollywood and Arkansas, make room for the World Series and Texas. George W. Bush is coming to town.

When the new President is sworn in on January 20, he will bring to Washington simple tastes and few pretensions.

His favourite foods are peanut butter and jelly sandwiches - with the crusts cut off - and coconut-cream pie.

The last movie he saw in a theatre was Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, but he watched Saving Private Ryan on video and pronounced it among the best films he had seen.

He says he does not watch television news very often but likes to catch ESPN's Baseball Tonight when his schedule permits it.

A former part-owner of the Texas Rangers team, he can rattle off baseball trivia with the precision of a drill sergeant but has never been to a World Series game.

He hasn't touched alcohol since his 40th birthday 14 years ago although, by his own account, he certainly used to. He doesn't much care for parties now, although it is well documented that he certainly used to.

He rises early and likes to be in bed well before midnight.

Unlike President Bill Clinton, Bush, a Republican who has lived most of his life in Texas, does not have a coterie of Hollywood friends and would be highly unlikely to try to cultivate them, since they are mostly Democrats.

"The socialising will be less flashy," predicted Lloyd Grove, social diarist for the Washington Post, in a television interview.

"I think it's going to be more of a friendly and companionable socialising."

About the only major name from Hollywood on the campaign trail for Bush was Bo Derek, best known as the nubile star of the 1979 hit film 10, hardly a match for the candle power of Barbra Streisand, who held soirees and raised millions of dollars for Clinton at her Malibu home.

Bush claims ageing martial arts action star Chuck Norris and several country and western singers as pals.

But his state dinners and other events are more likely to be dotted with sports luminaries such as baseball sluggers Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, as well as business acquaintances and longtime Texas friends.

"It's not going to be as exciting as it has been under the Clintons," Grove said. "George and Laura Bush are not flashy people ... The social scene will perhaps move from the salons of Georgetown to the suburbs of Northern Virginia."

When the Bushes entertain, guests can expect a touch of Texas but also a large dash of elegance. Laura Bush is an unassuming but stylish woman with refined taste.

While White House entertaining and state dinners demand formal dress at times, Washington can expect the new President to lean more towards casual events.

Among the 1500 formally attired guests at a dazzling champagne and black-tie salute from fellow Republicans in Washington this spring, Bush was tuxedo-less.

Dressed in a dark suit, he prefaced his remarks with a joke about the apparent sartorial faux pas, one that parodied the infamous "no new taxes" pledge of his father, former president George Bush, ending with the punch line, "No new tuxes."

But it turned out he didn't want to be photographed in a tuxedo because, as he said later, he believes black tie symbolises a kind of elitism that did not sit well with his campaign as a different kind of Republican.

But Washington and Washington society are nothing if not chameleons.

"We became Arkansans for a while," said Sheila Tate, former press secretary to first lady Nancy Reagan. "Now we're going to be Texans."

- REUTERS

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