Mitt Romney - newly professed fan of the iPhone, Snooki and sleeping in “as little as possible†- offered a lighthearted, humanizing glimpse of himself Friday morning in an interview with ABC's Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan, set to air Tuesday.
Sitting for a taping of the show with his wife, Ann, Mr. Romney indulged in a rapid-fire round of questioning, revealing facts like his guilty pleasure (“Peanut butter sandwiches and chocolate milkâ€) and his favorite actor (“Gene Hackmanâ€).
Asked who would play him and Mrs. Romney in a movie, he went with Mr. Hackman for himself, and Michelle Pfeiffer for his wife.
“That's actually perfect,†Ms. Ripa agreed.
The Romneys proved t hemselves adept consumers of pop culture, disclosing that “Modern Family†is their favorite television show, and that Mr. Romney prefers Snooki (of “Jersey Shore†fame) to Honey Boo Boo (of reality TV, child beauty pageant fame).
“I'm kind of a Snooki fan,†Mr. Romney said. “Look how tiny she's gotten. She's lost weight. She's energetic. Just her spark-plug personality is kind of fun.â€
Asked if they kept up with the Kardashians, Mrs. Romney replied: “Who keeps up with the Kardashians? Who can keep up with the Kardashians?â€
On their nighttime rituals, Mrs. Romney admitted that her husband snores - “On rare occasions, rare occasions,†she said - and Mr. Romney joked that his wife hogs all the blankets: “No question about that, that's Ann, that's Ann,†he said. “And she takes a lot more blankets than I do.â€
When Mr. Strahan asked Mr. Romney what he wears to bed, the former governor of Massach usetts asked, “Really? Really?†before offering up a risqué reply: “I hear the best answer is as little as possible,†he teased.
Asked for an embarrassing story, Mrs. Romney delighted the audience with a tale about the time she and Anita Perry, the wife of Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, were wandering around the White House and stumbled on President George W. Bush getting a massage.
“He was covered up, but I was so embarrassed that the next time I did see him I didn't know what I was going to say to him,†she recalled. “We were going down the elevator from the White House, going to an event together, and I walked up to the elevator and am just like blushing, blushing, blushing, and he looks at me and he winks as he does and says, ‘I look pretty good, don't I?'â€
Mr. Romney, ever the efficient former consultant, also revealed that his one pet peeve with Mrs. Romney is that she squeezes the toothpaste from the middle of the tube.
“He does n't like the way I squeeze the toothpaste,†Mrs. Romney admitted. “It's just random. It's random.â€
“She doesn't go from the bottom and work up, and she leaves the top off,†Mr. Romney added.
