Jeb Bush and Michael Bay: Bad Boys for Life That time when the Florida governor helped the explosive director blow shit up.

How now, sea cow? Photo illustration by Ivylise Simones; Jeb Bush: Sue Ogrocki/AP; Thinkstock

It was the summer of 2002 and Michael Bay had a problem only Jeb Bush could solve. The blockbuster director was in Miami filming Bad Boys II and plotting a high-speed boat chase through the Miami River and Biscayne Bay. Only too late did Bay realize the chase would zoom across the protected habitat of endangered manatees—the ancient, 1,500-pound sea cows that laze about many of Florida's shallow, warm rivers and bays. The state limits boat speeds in those areas to protect the wildlife.
A boat chase at manatee speed simply wouldn't do in a big-budget action film from the man who would later smash box office records with the Transformers series. And the manatees had friends in high places—singer Jimmy Buffett, to be precise, the cofounder of Florida's influential Save the Manatee Club, which was adamantly opposed to the chase scene. But with much at stake for the $60 million production, Bay's crew couldn't afford to let a few old sea cows get in the way of filming. Bay had Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, but he needed a higher authority. He needed Bush, then the Republican governor of Florida.
Newly released emails from Bush's gubernatorial stint reveal the likely 2016 presidential contender's effort to help Bay in the battle of the manatees. And according to the emails, his office took steps to ensure that Bay could continue to blow stuff up in the state of Florida even as it tried to balance environmental interests with those of the film industry.
READ MORE:http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/01/jeb-bush-michael-bay-bad-boys-manatees