Cary Elwes Spoofs ‘Princess Bride’ in Water Commercial, Slights Robin Wright in Tweet

Lost in the haze of Sunday night’s Golden Globe Awards — the stars, the activism, the Oprah — was the fact that the advertisements were off the damn chain. First there was that L’Oreal hair care ad that glammed up Winona Ryder only to compare her career comeback to the plight of damaged hair. But there was also the ad for Culligan Water, a filtration company that decided to get into the ad game by resurrecting one of cinema’s most beloved romantic heroes.

So there was British actor Cary Elwes, playing a dad reading his daughter bedtime stories, drawing her a bath, fixing her ice cold lemonade, and repeating his catch phrase from The Princess Bride, “as you wish.” What else does his daughter wish for? Why, the clean, crisp water provided by Culligan, of course! Trading on nostalgia is not at all unusual for ads, but reviving Westley from The Princess Bride to shill for fancy water feels very extra.

You know who was very happy with the way that ad turned out? Cary Elwes. He’s been tweeting about the ad like a proud papa since it aired.

Okay, but can we pump the brakes on this for one second? “The best costar I ever had”? This has to be news to oh, I don’t know, Robin Wright, who was Elwes’s co-star and love interest in The Princess Bride. Hell, it’s probably news to Mandy Patinkin, Wallace Shawn, and the benevolent, ghostly spirit of Andre the Giant, who were all also Elwes’s wonderful co-stars in The Princess Bride. How dare you, sir! Also eligible to be offended that their contributions as scene parter were deemed inferior to a glass of water: Dave Chappelle from Robin Hood: Men in Tights; Alicia Silverstone from The Crush; Jigsaw from Saw.

Maybe Cary’s carrying (sorry) some residual jealousy that Robin’s career blew up while he is now making commercials for water? Understandable. But truly, that kind of passive-aggression is not called for, Cary.

 

 

Where to stream The Princess Bride