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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Carragher who wrote (18586)	12/4/2003 9:15:18 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793799

Hollywood loses control of the political script By Collin Levey Special to The Seattle Times Almost anyone in show business will tell you that technique can be learned, but comedy is a gift. This week, various B-list stars and political functionaries gathered in the Beverly Hilton to discuss the important role they will play in choosing the next president of the United States. In one narrow sense, the crowd was certainly "gifted" — though not necessarily intentionally so. Dubbed the "Hate Bush" rally, the "mandatory" pow-wow was headed by the wife of Larry David, the man behind "Seinfeld" and more recently "Curb Your Enthusiasm." "This is the most important meeting you can attend to prevent the advancement of the current extremist right-wing agenda," Laurie David wrote in a letter inviting attendees to the gathering. Now, political action and fund raising have a grand history in Hollywood: Frank Sinatra and John Wayne were known for rubbing elbows with commanders in chief. And certainly, Bill Clinton's glory days did wonders for the relationship: Aging actresses got gravitas to go with their cleavage and metrosexual leading men (Warren Beatty, your BlackBerry is vibrating) could up their mental profile with policy talk. In the event, Harold Ickes (a top Clinton fund-raiser), the Sierra Club and the founder of "Emily's List" were in the house at the Hilton on Tuesday night. No report on whether Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston were able to take time out from fixing the Middle East peace process to attend, but others did. What brought out the stars is a major menace: Losing access is serious business in Tinseltown, and have you seen many stars gracing White House events lately? The millions of dollars in "soft money" Ickes has been gathering from show-business types is proof of a rare degree of political angst in Hollywood — symbolized by the humiliation of having its high-cost biopic of the Reagans, which had been headed for primetime CBS, banished to cable after the "right wing" worked the e-mail. Amid such painful social demotion, no wonder Hollywood liberals are taking the lead in poking holes in the campaign-finance "reforms" that Hollywood liberals usually champion. Ickes aims to raise a whopping $80 million with his Media Fund, and by all accounts he's off to a good start. More to the point, he explicitly, in so many words, invited attendees to help get around the new campaign-finance restrictions that Democrats themselves fought to enact. The avowed goal of these rules might have seemed aimed right at Hollywood — after all, isn't the purpose of finance reform to curb the influence of the rich in politics? Of course, Hollywood rationalizes it isn't really "rich" — not in the sense of the slavering exploiters seen in typical movie portrayals of the upper classes. Hollywood may technically be rolling in more money than the average American can imagine, and is suitably immune from the concerns and constraints that living on a budget entails. But Hollywood's heart is pure working-class — at least in its own mind. There's another, more amusing subtext to Hollywood celebrity distaste for the current occupant of the White House: They don't think he earned his position of power. In other words, he reminds them of themselves. People's Sexiest Man Alive and erstwhile hotel-room wrecker Johnny Depp remarked that the president is "dumb. Like a dumb puppy... aggressive." Sean Penn, who has recently been planning to write a column for the San Francisco Chronicle, sees Halliburton and Cheney connections behind every rock — another Hollywood stereotype drawn more from movies than reality. Anybody who actually knows anything is aware that government is so bound up in rules and oversight as to make laughable the idea that the vice president could award a billion-dollar contract with a phone call. But the most alarming revelation is the apparent belief by Hollywood that people out there are actually influenced by celebrity views on politics. What must be Tinseltown's image of the average American? The evident loss of touch with reality is frightening in a class of people who assume they are the country's natural leaders. But then, isn't loss of touch with reality the nature of their profession, beginning with the very idea that so many botoxed and moisturized millionaires actually identify themselves as "artists"? There are many talented and highly trained actors in the world, but most of them spend their lives as unknowns, working in summer stock and Off-Broadway productions. Hollywood's elite is beautiful and lucky, but the few who are actually talented, creative and disciplined (see Dustin Hoffman) are a small category. You'd think they'd work on improving their own output before pretending to know how to run the country. seattletimes.nwsource.com