PORT TOWNSEND — The winners of this year’s Port Townsend Film Festival Guess the Guest contest tabbed actor Bruce Dern after the second clue was released.
Charlene Freeman of Edmonds, a credit manager for a lumber company, and Denise McGuire of Bothell, a teacher, worked as a team to decipher the clues.
The festival office received about 200 guesses, said Executive Director Janette Force, with two other correct guesses submitted after the winning entry.
The first clue, “The favorite movie of one of this Special Guest’s characters could have been ‘Rooster Cogburn,’” wasn’t a reference to John Wayne but to a quirky character, Big Bob, that Dern played in the 1974 film, “Smile.”
In that film, Dern’s character is an officer of a Jaycee-like organization whose bizarre initiation ceremony involves kissing a rooster’s hindquarters.
The second clue, “Our Special Guest could have been a Kennedy, given these high-level political connections” referred to Dern’s political pedigree.
Freeman said this clue led them to the correct answer after they found references to Dern’s political connections online.
Chicago native Dern’s grandfather George Henry Dern was governor of Utah and later became President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Secretary of War.
The actor’s godfather was Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson, and Dern’s godmother was Eleanor Roosevelt.
The final clue, “Our Special Guest probably wasn’t weirded out or hopping mad — although filmgoers may have been — when our guest saw a close relative star in this twisted tale,” referred to his daughter Laura Dern’s role in “Blue Velvet.”
As their prize, Freeman and McGuire will have their picture taken with Dern at the festival.
“We come every year,” Freeman said. “It’s a great festival, and Port Townsend is a great town.”
Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
