It's All About the Benjamins

By Amy Hart in News on Dec 2, 2005 4:36PM

Chicagoist has a confession to make. Sometimes we sit around and think about what actors will star in the George Ryan trial made for TV movie. We’re hoping it will be on CourtTV and star Brian Dennehy as Ryan. Scott Fawell would, of course, play himself.

But now we’re not so sure that Dennehy could pull off Ryan since we now picture the former governor as an O.G. It wasn’t helped much by testimony from another Ryan bodyguard saying that Ryan never visited ATMs or banks, yet always walked around with a money clip filled with wads of hundreds. The same witness also said that Ryan had a gambling problem and frequented riverboat casinos. It is amazing he found the time to serve as governor.

Also in court yesterday, jurors were told about how Ryan failed to report all of his income on three previous tax returns. Some of the income he “forgot” about was from his work on the Phil Gramm presidential campaign. (Oh yes, the ho-down throwdown. Good times.) Ryan amended the returns in 2002, saying he didn’t know how to report the income at the time. Ummm… isn’t that what H&R Block is for?