Republican Candidate Scrutinized for Role in Gay ‘Porn’ Films

Anthony Sabato Jr. (Joe Raedle / Getty)
Joe Raedle / Getty
Adelle Nazarian

Soap opera star and Calvin Klein underwear model Antonio Sabato Jr., a candidate for Congress in California, is under fire for participating in a movie role that shows him simulating sex with a man and for appearing nude — both of which, critics and rivals say, disqualify him from representing the Republican Party.

Sabato Jr., an early and vocal supporter of President Donald Trump, announced in May that he is challenging Rep. Julie Brownley’s (D-CA) in California’s 26th congressional district. Sabato reportedly noted that he was “blacklisted from Hollywood” because he came out as a conservative and for his support for Trump.

“His behavior is inconsistent with anything I would want from a congressional leader,” Ret. Air Force Maj. Jeffrey Burum, a rival Republican in the race, told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s also inconsistent with a party which has always favored traditional family values, which do not include porn,” Burum said. He reportedly deemed the movies “pornography” and said Sabato should drop out of the race.

Sabato appeared in the movies in question, Testosterone and Deadly Skies, over 10 years ago. He played the role of a gay man in both films. The movies are not considered pornographic.

“I’ve done many movies. I’ve done things I’m proud of and things I’m not so proud of, that’s just the way any actor works,” Sabato said in response to the attacks on his past, according to the Los Angeles Times. “They don’t know what kind of congressman I’ll be, the work ethic I have.”
Sabato is not the first actor to enter politics with a controversial on-camera past. The Los Angeles Times notes:

Republican Scott Brown was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature and the U.S. Senate many years after he posed nude, shielding himself with his arm for Cosmopolitan magazine’s “America’s Sexiest Man” contest in 1982.

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger acted in many love scenes and appeared partly nude during his long acting career. He briefly appeared fully nude onscreen — blurry and shot from a distance — in the first installment of the “Terminator” franchise. He was regularly seen wearing little clothing during his bodybuilding career. And during the 2003 campaign, a two-decade-old Playboy video emerged that included footage of Schwarzenegger dancing provocatively with scantily clad women at Carnival in Brazil.

Schwarzenegger was elected governor twice — the last Republican to hold statewide office in California.

 Adelle Nazarian is a politics and national security reporter for Breitbart News. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

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