'The Princess Bride' cast is reuniting to raise money for Wisconsin's Democratic Party, and Ted Cruz — a megafan of the movie — is furious

• The cast of "The Princess Bride" is reuniting with a virtual table read of the movie to raise money for the Wisconsin Democrats.
• Senator Ted Cruz — who is a superfan of the movie — objected on Twitter to "Hollywood politics" ruining a "perfect movie."
• Cruz has quoted the movie numerous times on the campaign trail himself.
• Mandy Patinkin, who plays Inigo Montoya in one of the senator's favorite scenes, previously told him that he is missing the "heart of what that movie is all about."

Sen. Ted Cruz has reacted to news that the cast of his favorite movie, "The Princess Bride," are reuniting in a fundraiser for the Democratic Party.

The cast of the 1980s cult hit will gather for a table read of the movie and Q&A on September 13, which can be viewed on Zoom by making a donation to the Wisconsin Democratic Party.

"Anything you donate will be used to ensure that Trump loses Wisconsin, and thereby the White House," reads the event page.

Most of the major names from the cast, including Robin Wright, Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Billy Crystal, and Wallace Shawn, will take part in the read-through.

The situation has irked Cruz, whose love for the movie is well-known.

He even quoted from it in a tweet objecting to the read-through, where he talked about the "ultimate suffering" of seeing a "perfect movie" become politicized.

(The tweet adapts a line spoken by Inigo Montoya — played by Mandy Patinkin — to Fezzik, played by the late Andre the Giant.)

—Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 5, 2020

Cruz frequently does impressions from the movie in his own campaigning.

Appearing on a TV interview for Republican candidates in 2015, he acted out a scene in which one of the main characters, The Dread Pirate Roberts, is revived from being "mostly dead."

And in 2015, at an Iowa town hall event, he recounted one of the movie's most famous lines: "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

Patinkin, the actor who played Montoya, criticized the senator in a 2015 essay for Time for missing the spirit of the movie and — perhaps ironically — for using it "as a political tool."

Montoya's story arc, which ends with a message about the hollowness of revenge, was not suited to Cruz's politics, Patinkin suggested.

"This man is not putting forth ideas that are at the heart of what that movie is all about," USA Today reported Patinkin as saying. "I would love for Senator Cruz, and everyone creating fear mongering and hatred, to consider creating hope, optimism and love."

Following Cruz's tweet about the upcoming fundraiser, Cary Elwes, who played the hero Westley, responded to Cruz by suggesting he get out of the "fire swamp" — a deadly location in the movie.

—Cary Elwes (@Cary_Elwes) September 5, 2020