BURBANK, CALIF. (AP) - Jay ate the apple.
First lady Michelle Obama cajoled Jay Leno into nibbling on some fruit on the “Tonight Show,” breaking his long-held aversion for all-things-healthy in his diet.
Leno once told a magazine he hadn’t eaten a vegetable since 1969, and he told the first lady he gave up apples in 1984.
Earlier, Obama poked at him in a Twitter post, hinting she’d “get Jay to eat some veggies.”
The first lady urged him to dip it in honey made from beehives in the White House garden: “It will help it go down easier,” she assured him.
“White House honey? That sounds bad,” Leno told her. “You know, with a different president that could mean a whole different thing, `a little White House honey.’”
The first lady is on a two-day swing through California where she’ll promote her “Let’s Move!” campaign promoting fitness and healthy eating for kids, while helping Democrats raise money at two events for the upcoming elections.
She told Leno she’s not doing anything special to prepare for what’s expected to be a tough re-election campaign for her husband, President Barack Obama.
“You know, there’s really no way to mentally prepare for it. You take each day as it comes,” she said.
Republican Mitt Romney has been ridiculing the White House and might face the president in November, but the first lady gave the former Massachusetts governor’s singing voice a diplomatic endorsement. Romney surprised supporters in Florida with an on-pitch version of “America the Beautiful” on Monday, and Leno asked the first lady for her opinion.
“It’s beautiful,” she said with a laugh and raised eyebrows. “And it is America’s song, and it’s a song that’s meant to be sung by every American,” the first lady said in a taped appearance for the NBC show.
Leno told her, “That is right, regardless of political affiliation.”
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