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 In recent days, the actor Mandy Patinkin, who played the master swordsman Inigo Montoya in the classic 1987 film “The Princess Bride,” has received emails from friends alerting him to pictures on the Internet that show scenes taken from the movie with Ted Cruz’s face superimposed on top of his body. 
 
 “They Photoshopped his face right over my face!” Mr. Patinkin said last week when reached by phone at his home in New York’s Hudson Valley. “I said, ‘How can I stop this?’” 
 
 Mr. Cruz, the Texas senator who, according to polls, is now leading the Republican presidential field in Iowa, has long listed “The Princess Bride” as his favorite movie. As a Princeton undergraduate, he watched the movie repeatedly with his friends on the debate team and memorized a good chunk of the lines. 
 
 In the last few weeks, Mr. Cruz, who dabbled, at times disastrously, in acting at Harvard Law School, has started reciting the lines on the campaign trail, including at an Iowa Central Community College event, where he performed a version of Mr. Patinkin’s catchphrase in the movie: “Allo, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” 
 
 As Mr. Patinkin’s inbox became cluttered with videos of Mr. Cruz acting out scenes that he, Carol Kane and Billy Crystal had made famous (“He’s doing all of Billy’s lines!” Mr. Patinkin said), the actor began wondering how much of the movie Mr. Cruz really understood. 
 
 “I would like to be with Senator Cruz for a moment and I would like to respectfully ask him, since he quotes all the lines from ‘The Princess Bride’ and certainly all of my character, Inigo Montoya’s, lines, I would like to know why he doesn’t quote my favorite line?” That line, Mr. Patinkin said, was among the last his character utters in a movie that essentially taught that love conquers all. 
 
 But first, some plot for the uninitiated: While working in the service of Vizzini, a comically arrogant criminal mastermind played by Wallace Shawn, Inigo is bested by the movie’s hero, the mysterious Man in Black. 
 
 Soon after, Inigo and his fellow hired hand, played by Andre the Giant, join the Man in Black in his noble mission to rescue his true love, played by the “House of Cards” star Robin Wright, who has been forcibly engaged to the evil prince Humperdinck, who plans to strangle her on their wedding night. But Inigo’s true motive is to avenge the death of his father, slain decades earlier, by Humperdinck’s sadistic six-fingered lieutenant. He does so in the climactic rescue scene at the end of the movie, in which he magically overcomes mortal wounds to win a duel to the death. 
 
 “After the princess flies out the window and falls into Andre the Giant’s arms,” Mr. Patinkin said, “Inigo says to the Man in Black, ‘I have been in the revenge business so long, now that it’s over, I don’t know what to do with the rest of my life.’” 
 
 Mr. Cruz, in Mr. Patinkin’s heavily left-leaning worldview, is trafficking in the revenge business, appealing to anxious voters by saying of the Islamic State, “We will carpet-bomb them into oblivion,” and by exploiting fears about immigrants and Muslims. 
 
 “Senator Cruz, if you’re going to say those lines, you’ve got to say the other line, too,” Mr. Patinkin said. 
 
 Sounding increasingly vexed, he added: “This man is not putting forth ideas that are at the heart of what that movie is all about. I would love for Senator Cruz, and everyone creating fear mongering and hatred, to consider creating hope, optimism and love. Open your arms to these people, these refugees trying to get into our country, and open your hearts.” 
 
 Catherine Frazier, a spokeswoman for the Cruz campaign, said in an email that the senator was “a huge fan of the film and the actors in it.” 
 
 “Having some fun with a cult classic like ‘The Princess Bride’ should be something we can all get behind, politics aside,” she said. ||||| Ew, Dad! That’s gross! 
 
 With his two young daughters just feet away from him, Republican presidential contender Ted Cruz told the bizarre story of how he watched porn with Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. 
 
 THE ONE TIME TED CRUZ TRIED TO BAN SEX TOYS IN TEXAS 
 
 The Texas senator, his wife Heidi and their daughters — 8-year-old Caroline and 5-year-old Catherine — all took the stage at a CNN town hall Wednesday night, which also featured a strange story about Cruz's love of canned soup. 
 
 Before discussing his relationship with his wife and Caroline’s upcoming birthday party, Cruz discussed how he once had to watch porn as part of his duties as a law clerk for the Supreme Court, a strange tale he first recounted in his 2015 memoir. 
 
 Ted Cruz, his wife Heidi and their daughters spoke at a CNN town hall Wednesday night. (CNN) 
 
 “The chapter begins with me watching pornography on the Internet with Sandra Day O’Connor, which was a bit of a bizarre experience,” he told Anderson Cooper, adding that the court librarians prepared a lesson for the justices and their clerks to demonstrate how the abundance of Internet porn ahead of a case considering the regulation of such graphic material. 
 
 CRUZ CAMPAIGN RELEASES NEGATIVE RADIO AD TO RIP DE BLASIO 
 
 The librarians switched off Internet filters and quickly found hardcore videos by searching the term “cantaloupe,” he said. 
 
 “And Justice O’Connor — I still remember — she leaned forward, and she squinted, and she said, �?Oh, my!’” Cruz continued. 
 
 New York Daily News front pages on the presidential election 
 
 Little Caroline and Catherine were seated in the first row of the audience as their dad told the cringe-worthy story. 
 
 The retelling wasn’t the only awkward moment: Cruz’s wife and daughters had more strange stories to share about the family patriarch. 
 
 Heidi Cruz told the audience how her husband perplexingly bought 100 cans of soup after they returned from their honeymoon because he was afraid she wouldn’t cook. 
 
 “I was completely shocked to see that he arrived back at our apartment with literally 100 cans of Campbell’s Chunky soup,” she said. “We had a tough conversation about it. I said, �?You don’t buy 100 of anything, much less canned soup. We can’t do this. I’ll be making things.’ He said, �?No, I know you. You won’t be making things.’” 
 
 Cruz talked about the time he watched porn with Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. (T.J. Kirkpatrick/Getty Images) 
 
 The newlywed wife promptly returned the stockpile of stews and called her mother to gab about her husband’s strange shopping spree — but her mom told her she should have let Cruz keep his coup. 
 
 CRUZ RIPPED FOR HIS 'NEW YORK VALUES' INSULT IN THE BRONX 
 
 “So when Ted opened the pantry, I had to quickly tell him that I would go back and buy those cans again,” she added. 
 
 Cruz’s daughters also had some not-so-flattering stories about their dad. 
 
 Heidi Cruz also told a strange story about how her husband once bought 100 cans of soup. (BILL WECHTER/AFP/Getty Images) 
 
 Caroline — who turned 8 on Thursday — said she has a video of her dad in a pink feather boa and granny panties. The Texas dad put on the goofy getup as part of a dress up game at a father-daughter picnic, she said. 
 
 “It was on a videotape the whole time,” the oldest Cruz daughter said. “And that was a class video that they’re sending out to all the parents.” 
 
 Caroline also talked about her upcoming birthday party — a Build-a-Bear bash featuring a chocolate cake — and her love for Taylor Swift. Younger Catherine was mostly silent as she sat on her mom’s lap. 
 
 Sign up for BREAKING NEWS Emails privacy policy Thanks for subscribing! ||||| Mass murderer Nikolas Cruz is getting stacks of fan mail and love letters sent to the Broward County jail, along with hundreds of dollars in contributions to his commissary account. 
 
 Teenage girls, women and even older men are writing to the Parkland school shooter and sending photographs — some suggestive — tucked inside cute greeting cards and attached to notebook paper with offers of friendship and encouragement. Groupies also are joining Facebook communities to talk about how to help the killer. 
 
 The South Florida Sun Sentinel obtained copies of some of the letters showing that Cruz, who had few friends in the outside world, is now being showered with attention. 
 
 The attraction of women to prison bad boys echoes the fascination with killers like notorious cult leader Charles Manson. Lyle and Erik Menendez, the Beverly Hills brothers convicted in 1994 of murdering their parents, attracted a pair of brides while spending life in prison. So-called “Bundyphiles” sent bags of mail to Ted Bundy, the serial rapist-murderer who was electrocuted on Florida’s Death Row in 1989. 
 
 "I reserve the right to care about you, Nikolas!" wrotes a Texas woman in neat blue script in a letter addressed to the jail’s Post Office Box in Fort Lauderdale. The letter was mailed six days after Cruz murdered 17 students and staff and injured 17 others with an AR-15 rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14. 
 
 Supporters express devotion to confessed Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz in letters, greeting cards and on Facebook. The killer's fans cite his diagnoses with autism and other disabilities, mental illness, and that he was bullied and orphaned as reasons why he deserves sympathy. (Doreen Christensen, Brittany Wallman) (Doreen Christensen, Brittany Wallman) 
 
 The reverent note takes up all available space on the front and back of a kiddie-like greeting card showing a furry bunny holding binoculars looking out at the ocean. The inside of the card says, "Out of sight, but never out of mind." 
 
 A teenager wrote on March 15: “I’m 18-years-old. I’m a senior in high school. When I saw your picture on the television, something attracted me to you.” 
 
 The letter was mailed from Texas and tucked inside an envelope covered with hand-drawn hearts and happy faces. “Your eyes are beautiful and the freckles on your face make you so handsome.” She goes on to describe herself as white with big, brown eyes. “I’m really skinny and have 34C sized breasts.” She ends the letter with three preschool-rated jokes about gummy bears and peanut butter. 
 
 A woman from Chicago enclosed nine suggestive photos, including a shot of cleavage, another in a skimpy bikini eating a Popsicle and a tight shot of her backside as she bent over. Another girl sent photos with Hello Kitty Snapchat filters. 
 
 An 18-year-old from New York wrote: “No one else is dealing w/your demons, meaning maybe defeating them could be the beginning of your meaning, friend. I know you could use a good friend right now. Hang in there and keep your head up." The letter closes with hearts colored in pink ink. 
 
 "There's piles of letters," said Broward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein, whose office is representing Cruz. "In my 40 years as public defender, I've never seen this many letters to a defendant. Everyone now and then gets a few, but nothing like this." 
 
 Not all of the letters are from women. One card with a cat on the front is from an New York man sporting a bushy, gray, mustache. He enclosed photos of himself behind the wheel of his white, 1992 Nissan convertible. 
 
 Cruz has not seen the mail because he is on suicide watch, Finkelstein said. Customarily, inmates on suicide watch are locked in bare cells by themselves. 
 
 The jail opens inmates’ mail (except legal mail), according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office inmate handbook. Obscene mail or mail deemed to be a safety or security threat to staff is returned to the sender, the handbook says. 
 
 “We read a few religious ones to him that extended wishes for his soul and to come to God,” Finkelstein said, “but we have not and will not read him the fan letters or share the photos of scantily-clad teenage girls.” 
 
 Finkelstein said he worries “everyday boys and girls are starting to view him in an elevated way, looking up to his fame and notoriety.” 
 
 Confessed Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz appears in a Fort Lauderdale courtroom. 
 
 "The letters shake me up because they are written by regular, everyday teenage girls from across the nation,” he said. “That scares me. It's perverted.” 
 
 Jail workers have been busy screening letters, photos, greeting cards, postcards and the occasional book sent to Cruz, jail records show. 
 
 Cruz requested a Bible, according to jail records released by the Broward Sheriff’s Office, but it was denied because of the suicide watch, the public defender said. 
 
 Cruz also now has $800 deposited into his growing commissary account, apparently sent by fans, Finkelstein said. From Feb. 15 through March 5, $630 was deposited, jail records show. The county deducts $8 per day for “subsistence fees.” 
 
 Inmates can use the commissary account to buy snacks, personal hygiene products, radios and coffee. 
 
 Cruz’s fan club also extends to Facebook, with several groups of empathizers forming to talk about his case and how they can help him avoid the death penalty. 
 
 On the “Nikolas Cruz – the First Victim,” a now-secret group that until recently had 300 members, one young woman solicited photos for a collage to send to the killer. “I want him to see how many people love and care for him and all the beautiful faces,” she posted. 
 
 The page features a photo of Cruz wearing a baseball cap and glasses along with the hashtags #StopBullying and #OurBoy #NikFam. 
 
 The group describes its mission as “in complete support of Nikolas Cruz. Whether or not he did this, he was completely failed. He deserved to get the help he needs and he deserves a fair trial.” 
 
 “I want you all to know that Nikolas knows about us and he had the biggest smile on his face when he was told that we all support him,” a female commenter wrote on March 16. “Keep the letters coming because he can’t wait to finally get them.” She wrote that “hate mail is filtered out so no one can upset our boy!!! Haters gonna hate, potatoes gonna potate.”
– To Mandy Patinkin, it's inconceivable that Ted Cruz has been uttering lines from The Princess Bride along the campaign trail—and the actor, who played Inigo Montoya in the 1987 cult film, has had enough. "How can I stop this?" was Patinkin's reaction when friends started emailing him about images online that featured Cruz's face Photoshopped onto his character's body, he tells the New York Times. Cruz has long said the movie is his favorite, and he's committed a good portion of it to memory (including Patinkin's famous line: "Allo, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die"). But Patinkin isn't sure Cruz understands the film's subtext: namely that, despite the film focusing partly on his character's mission for vengeance, the real meaning revolves around the movie's hero rescuing his true love. "[Cruz] is not putting forth ideas that are at the heart of what that movie is all about," Patinkin tells the Times in a tone the paper describes as "increasingly vexed." Patinkin cites one of his character's final lines in the movie as one that should stand out more to Cruz: "I have been in the revenge business so long, now that it's over, I don't know what to do with the rest of my life." The 63-year-old actor's beef with Cruz is that he's too focused on that revenge, preying on voter anxiety by, as the Times puts it, "exploiting fears about immigrants and Muslims." Says Patinkin, "Open your arms to these people, these refugees trying to get into our country, and open your hearts." A spokeswoman for Cruz's campaign told the Times in an email that "having some fun with a cult classic … should be something we can all get behind, politics aside." In other words, no "as you wish" from Cruz. (Will Cruz pull out a Princess Bride quote during Tuesday night's debate?)