Paula Bennett is a bit like a soap opera actor. Not quite up there with the Kardashians. More like a member of the Osbourne family.

Bennett is not a person you would have naturally pointed your finger at as a natural fit for the job of Deputy Prime Minister. But that's what the conservative National Party did in December and it wasn't as though they didn't have other takers for the job.

It came as no surprise that our then Prime Minister John Key rooted for Bennett given that he knew she'd take over from where he left off, acting up for the television cameras, putting a bit of frivolity into into the serious business of politics. Certainly Bill English, try as he might with his latest rash of weird, self produced, videos doesn't cut the mustard.

We unfortunately live in an age of reality TV, where talking about policy is outweighed by performance, as cringe-worthy as that may be.

Performer Paula was live on telly the other night, hamming it up, giggling to the cameras, joking that her boss Bill didn't know she was making an appearance, adding that she doesn't know where he is and he doesn't know where she is, ending with a psst "Don't tell him."

This was well and truly orchestrated, just like the English spaghetti pizza, and the latest walk-run video which Bennett described as "adorable," claiming that she sends him out on his exercise. She was asked whether she got up to mischief when he's out of the office (more like when he's out of the country) and she chimed in - only when she's acting Prime Minister.

Acting to her, she says, is acting up!

The mind boggles, really. And on Donald Trump, Bennett said: "I gotta be really honest, we don't spend a lot of time talking about him." Honestly! If they don't they they damn well should. What's happening in Washington could certainly reverberate in Wellington.

But if Jacinda Ardern is the cosmetic surgery for Andrew Little, then Paula Bennett's the Key factor for English.

And that just goes to show how politics has changed in recent years. The former deputies of the major parties wouldn't rate on the thespian scale.

I can't imagine the old deputies - Don McKinnon, Jim Anderton, Michael Cullen, or indeed Bill English - acting up and overshadowing their leaders.

But then that probably says more about the current leadership and unfortunately, the current climate.