diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/extend/ENV.rb b/Library/Homebrew/extend/ENV.rb
index 0eaa942552..273fa6e8ce 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/extend/ENV.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/extend/ENV.rb
@@ -440,6 +440,8 @@ class << ENV
   def userpaths!
     paths = ORIGINAL_PATHS.map { |p| p.realpath.to_s rescue nil } - %w{/usr/X11/bin /opt/X11/bin}
     self['PATH'] = paths.unshift(*self['PATH'].split(":")).uniq.join(":")
+    # XXX hot fix to prefer brewed stuff (e.g. python) over /usr/bin.
+    prepend 'PATH', HOMEBREW_PREFIX/'bin', ':'
   end
 
   def with_build_environment