President Bush has nominated actress Tori Spelling to be the next education secretary, replacing Rod Paige who stood down earlier in the week.

Spelling, best known for her role as Donna in Beverly Hills 90210, and for only appearing in shows produced by her father, Aaron Spelling, will now assume responsibility for educational policy and delivery across the United States.

The actress appeared undaunted by her new position telling the press “my dogs – Mimi and Leah – and me are very excited about this new role, and so is my father.”

In response, President Bush commented that “I’ve admired this young lady’s work for many years,” before quipping that “it’s about time we had an education secretary who was good at spelling!”

Spelling - more than just an ugly face

The President confirmed that a key challenge for Spelling would be continuing his No Child Left Behind education initiative initially started by Paige, but which ran out of steam after the former secretary accidentally left one of his children behind at the Epcot Centre last summer.

It’s understood that the Paige Boy was brought up by wolves during the eleven-month period between his loss and his being noticed – a piece of parental careless which is understood to have lost Rod Paige his job.

The nation's largest teacher's union, the National Education Association, which had a frosty relationship with Paige, called Spellings' nomination "a great opportunity for the administration to change the tone of its discourse with the education community."

Ms Spelling commented that she had no idea what any of that meant, but again noted that “my dogs – Mimi and Leah – and me are very excited about this new role, and so is my father.”

Shannon Doherty was unavailable for comment.

Posted by damian at November 21, 2004 04:07 PM | TrackBack