NEW YORK – Add Hillary Rodham Clinton to the pantheon of luminaries immortalized in Madame Tussauds' wax museum.
A life-size figure of the former first lady-turned-senator was set to be unveiled Thursday, complete with a campaign-style balloon drop, flags and a full-throated rendering of "Hail to the Chief."
A Clinton figure had been on Tussauds' visitor request list for "a long, long time," museum manager Janine DiGioacchino said. But the looming Presidents Day holiday and the buzz surrounding Clinton's possible 2008 presidential bid sped up her addition to the collection.
The Clinton statue, crafted at the original Tussauds museum in London, will take its place in a wing dedicated to presidents and other public figures known as "the gallery." There, the likeness of the Democratic senator will join statues of Presidents Bush, Reagan, Kennedy, and her husband, Bill Clinton.
The new Clinton display will also feature an interactive kiosk, asking visitors to respond to questions including "Would you ever vote for a female president?" and "Will Hillary Clinton be the first female president?"
The museum in Manhattan's Times Square holds 182 figures, including depictions of hip-hop singer Beyonce, Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong and actress Teri Hatcher. Before the Clinton figure, the most recent addition to the Tussauds collection — a Rockette — came in December.
Sen. Clinton, who avoids publicly discussing her potential presidential ambitions, had meetings scheduled in Washington and was not expected to attend the unveiling.
"We invited her," DiGioacchino said.
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