Vote of No Confidence

0

“Today, Snoop Dogg endorsed Ron Paul for president. Snoop said he likes Paul’s positions on everything from legalizing pot to legalizing pot.”
– Conan O’Brien, comedian

When it comes to politics, my Hollywood is liberal to an ironically militant degree.

Having represented celebrities from both ends of the political spectrum, most of the entertainment industry not only thinks conservatives are wrong, but are in fact downright evil. Declaring yourself a Republican in today’s celebrity climate is something you might want to do in secret or after you’re already successful.

Meanwhile, as we’ve entered the age of higher voter turnout for “American Idol” than electing a president, entertainers have an overwhelming influence (informed or not) as they endorse their favorite political candidates like soft drinks. I find this push-pull relationship of politics and entertainment whimsically ironic, considering from a PR standpoint that celebrities and politicians have the exact same needs – attention and money.

Politics and Hollywood have a longstanding relationship, and that history should at least be acknowledged. Liberal or conservative, Democratic or Republican, agendas and influence have been constantly battling, and even at times working together.

Seen as a champion of the poor, historian Steven J. Ross notes that going as far back as 100 years ago, silent-film star Charlie Chaplin “opposed all kinds of authority figures; he was an instinctual radical.” On the flip side, Ross also contends that “during the late 1920s, Louis B. Mayer turned MGM into a publicity wing of the GOP and a training ground for teaching Republicans how to use film, radio, and movie stars to sell candidates and ideas to a mass public well before Hollywood liberals entered the political fray.” At least nowadays, thank goodness that for every Fox News and Trinity Broadcasting Network, there’s a Logo and Lifetime Television – which in my mind, is truly fair and balanced.

When it comes to the weight of a celebrity’s political endorsement, frankly, it would be absurd to think that anyone with half of a brain would take political advice from the likes of Susan Sarandon or Ted Nugent. For one, anyone reading this under the age of 30 is probably asking themselves, “Who’s Susan Sarandon?,” and even conservative politicians think if Nugent were any crazier, he’d be Sarah Palin in drag. However, our 24-hour news cycle, along with a need to fill every minute with jibber jabber, tends to make every celebrity wanting to put their 2 cents in appear like it’s worth a buck and a half.

Medium is the message

While Kim Kardashian tweets about how impressed she was with a particular candidate’s speech, I can’t help but notice that the same Twitter posting also included three pictures of her. Politicians probably couldn’t care less about the political views of the celebrities that endorse them, but when George Clooney helped raise $15 million for Barak Obama’s re-election, no doubt he was all ears. Now that’s acting!

Of course, don’t think conservatives aren’t without their representation, as there is a little-known, clandestine cadre within the entertainment industry known as “Friends of Abe.” If you haven’t heard of them, there’s a reason for it. Let’s just say if you brought a bucket of chicken to a Friends of Abe meeting, you’d better make sure to only serve the right wings.

While the Rush Limbaughs and Ann Coulters are running around publicly claiming the sky is falling faster than Obama’s approval rating, Gary Sinise, Jon Voight, Kelsey Grammer and the rest of neoconservative Hollywood are meeting in secret, funding their candidates and coming up with new ways to advance a conservative agenda. Their advantage is that they already know that declaring yourself a Republican in Hollywood is like wearing a swastika to a B’nai B’rith fundraiser, and the last thing the Friends of Abe want is to spark a debate over B’rith control.

Having represented personalities on both ends of the political spectrum from Charlton Heston to Michael Moore, I’ve had a lifelong interest in politics and have remained politically involved my entire life. While I mentioned more people vote for “American Idol” than for president, thankfully I have gotten more in touch with my cynical side in the last decade and I’ve come to realize in my wiser years that voting for “American Idol” simply has more of an impact, and liberal Hollywood is not unsubtle about putting this message out.

As an independent myself, I seem to have found a unique way of getting along with both liberals and conservatives – a true politician. There’s always going to be room in a democracy for a healthy debate on points of view, but I do think that both parties should ask, Are our policies working?, before we devolve to, as comedian Lewis Black put it, “the party of bad ideas versus the party of no ideas.”

Michael Levine is an L.A. entertainment publicist. He has represented 58 Academy Award winners and authored 19 books.

No posts to display