The stunt presenter at the GOP convention was Clint Eastwood, who played a doddering, crotchety, ill-natured but loveable old coot talking to an empty chair. In the actor’s new movie, Trouble with the Curve which opens tomorrow, Eastwood plays a doddering, crotchety, ill-natured but loveable old coot who talks to baseball players.

It doesn’t take much of a stretch to realize that Eastwood saw the offer to appear before a national audience as major promotional opportunity for the father-daughter baseball story, which once again showcases Clint in the same light as his most recent roles in Million Dollar Baby and Gran Torino  (doddering, crotchety, ill-natured but loveable old coot) and sort of like his doddering, crotchety, ill-natured but lovable young coot Philo Beddoe in Every Which Way But Loose and Any Which Way You Can, but opposite Amy Adams instead of an orangutan. Though they both have red hair.

(Turner Movie Classics saw an opportunity with Clint’s convention appearance and ran his spaghetti Westerns those whole weekend after the convention to capitalize on the the Empty Chair momentum, reminding us of what a crotchety young gunslinger he once was).

CNN’s The Wrap explains:

In an online survey conducted by ticket broker Fandango earlier this month, 61 percent of respondents said that they would be more inclined to see the film in the wake of his appearance with “the invisible Obama.” His occasionally rambling ant-Obama diatribe set off a storm of social media responses, most negative…

For potential filmgoers, it probably doesn’t hurt that the growling, obstinate crankiness displayed by aging baseball scout Gus in trailers and commercials for “Trouble With the Curve” doesn’t seem such much of a stretch for the 82-year-old Eastwood.

Eastwood made short work and corned beef out of his GOP appearance, telling Extra:

I figure if somebody’s dumb enough to ask me to go to a political convention and say something, they’re gonna have to take what they get.