Gavin Newsom ‘desperately’ wants to appear on ‘Veep’

“’Well who is it?’” he asks himself, doing his best Louis-Dreyfus impression.

“’It’s the lieutenant governor.’”

“’Lieutenant governor? Why would I waste my time with him?’ Something along those lines.”

A scene isn’t the only thing Newsom has been busy mapping out. The 45-year-old businessman was at Washington’s Jefferson Hotel last week celebrating the release of his new book, Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government.

He was feted Friday by a group of high-profile friends and colleagues, including former Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and “Meet the Press” executive producer Betsy Fischer, at a party hosted by Tammy Haddad, Ted Greenberg, former Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), Constance Milstein and J.C. de la Haye St. Hilaire.

Newsom, tie-less and with his hair slicked back, says through the book he’s “raising awareness and the alarm bell because we’re still having our industrial bureaucracy — a one-way conversation with the taxpayers. You vote, I decide.”

He adds, “That’s no longer going to work, particularly with this net generation.”

Newsom, a self-described tech junkie, interviewed more than 60 people (former President Clinton, former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter co-founder Evan Williams were just a few) for the tome.

It took about a year-and-a-half for the former San Francisco mayor, who’s dyslexic, to pen the book. But he says the challenges he faces from dyslexia may have actually helped him, “I’m not capable, truly, of sort of the traditional thinking and that traditional lens because of the struggles.”

One thing that won’t be a burden for Newsom: what to wear when he walks the red carpet at Sunday’s Academy Awards. His wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, is nominated for her documentary, “The Invisible War.” Saying he’s “so proud” to be married to an Oscar nominee, he cracks, “Luckily I won’t have to wear a dress. My job is easy. I just hold her hand.” 

It sounds as if no hand holding will be necessary if Newsom gets his wish for that “Veep” role. He reiterates to ITK that he’s ready to start filming: “I’m good to go. And I’m cheap. It’s just my favorite show.”