Anti-Toxics Measure : Prop. 65 Gets Top Billing in Stars’ Caravan

Even for a state accustomed to the dazzle of celebrities, California went wide-eyed this weekend at the sight of 39 Hollywood entertainers in one big look at that! pack, cruising down the environmental campaign trail for Proposition 65.

Not since war bond drives of the 1940s, organizers happily declared, have so many Celebrities gone on the road together for a cause.

You just about needed mirror sunglasses to handle the massed star candlepower, and rubber ear plugs to dampen the shrieks that greeted their Greyhound bus caravan at 15 stops in nine cities during 2 1/2 high-energy days.

From Campuses to Parties

From Jane Fonda to Michael J. Fox, from Chevy Chase to Whoopi Goldberg, the Celebrities covered 700 miles on the highways on behalf of the toxic discharge initiative. Their tour took them from San Diego to San Francisco, from college campus rallies to hotel lobby garden receptions and, of course, to ballroom rock ‘n’ roll parties.

They matched their allure against the ability of corporate and agricultural opponents of Proposition 65 to spend millions of dollars in campaign advertising.

“P. T. Barnum once said the way to get people to come to the circus is get the biggest elephant and the biggest bass drum,” actor Charles Haid of “Hill Street Blues” explained. “That’s what we’re doing; that’s what we’re best at.”

The ballot proposition is sponsored by environmentalists and Democratic political leaders. It is designed to restrict discharge of toxic chemicals into drinking water, increase penalties for polluters and permit citizens to seek enforcement of the law through court suits.

‘They’re Killing Our Babies’

Some of the environmentalist Celebrities signed up for just part of the caravan and others the full trip. But all of them seemed convinced that the proposition was more a matter of life and death than mere politics.

“They’re killing our babies!” That was actress Patti D’Arbanville speaking about Proposition 65’s opponents at the tour’s fund-raising rock video party Friday night at MGM studios.

“This is a law-and-order effort. Those people who violate our drinking water will be punished.” That was actor Judd Nelson with his knock-em-dead leer, lecturing trembling, shrieking teen-agers at a street corner voter registration booth Saturday in San Luis Obispo.

“The bottom line is that your children are going to die!” This was Goldberg warning a San Diego neighborhood block rally. The site was in front of the Big Kitchen restaurant where the actress worked five years ago as a dishwasher.

“I want to be able to drink the water without risking my life or the life of my children.” That was Jane Fonda, crammed in a bus seat rumbling up and down the state. She and her husband, Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), were chief sponsors of the caravan.

Increased Political Activism

Aboard the three buses was a Hollywood scene that lived up to its lively, indulgent stereotype--and also defied it. And several thought it might be a sign of increased political activism in Hollywood.

Consider first the stereotype: Actor Peter Fonda, in a window seat, baring his rump and “mooning” the San Onofre nuclear power plant. Take that!

Or how about actress Bonnie Bedelia conducting a back-of-the-bus flashdance that drew a roar for the breathtaking peek of shirtless flesh along with the flash.

Or how about Jane Fonda, queen of the modern health/fitness movement, leading a bus-board mutiny to protest the gourmet cheese and fruit lunches packed for the trip?

“Hello, this is Jane Fonda,” she said over the caravan walkie-talkie. “We want Big Macs. We’re stopping for Big Macs. We were promised Big Macs.”

They, of course, got Big Macs. Fonda ate two.

Stopped by CHP

And then there was California Highway Patrol Officer P. E. Davis, whose duties brought him into contact with the caravan along U.S. 101 in Central California. It seemed there were reports that young actors Rob Lowe and Daphne Zuniga, among many, had opened the emergency hatches on the roof of one bus and had pulled themselves up on top for a breath of fresh 60-m.p.h. air.

On went the flashing red light, and the loudspeaker command, “Pull over and stop.”

Officer Davis’ knees quickly went weak. His face assumed the waxy and unblinking stare of someone who had just come eyeball-to-gorgeous-eyeball with Morgan Fairchild while being hugged and kissed by Jane Fonda and surrounded by two dozen other screen images who shockingly materialized before his eyes. On his shift. On his freeway.

The shutters on the cameras recording the event sounded like a dollar slot machine paying off in cash.

No Citation

In the end, because there was no actual proof of the alleged rooftop indiscretions by the bus riders, no citation was written. CHP Officer Davis was released only slightly shaken to try and explain that little highway adventure to family and friends.

But antics were only a small part of the story. Surely the most moving moment of the tour came when the caravan arrived in Santa Clara on Saturday and met Lorraine Ross. She is a mother who has joined the Proposition 65 campaign because her daughter was born with a heart defect. She said her youngster’s ailment was part of a cluster of birth defects that occurred in her Silicon Valley neighborhood as a result of industrial solvents in the drinking water.

Since her case was publicized in Proposition 65 television ads, Ross said she said has come under attack in her community by opponents of the initiative. She was accused of the worst imaginable kind of politics--exploiting her own family.

Show of Support

The Celebrities gave her a spontaneous show of support she will never forget--a sustained standing ovation. And this from people who know exactly what it feels like to receive one. Tears and goose bumps welled up as if it were backstage at the Emmy awards.

Ross said the proposition would change the rules so that chemicals “are no longer innocent until proven guilty.” She and other Proposition 65 campaigners in the valley use this slogan: “Don’t do your business in our water.”

Electronics manufacturers in the Silicon Valley, along with farmers, are among the initiative’s leading opponents. Both groups are heavily dependent on the use of chemicals, and they fault Proposition 65 as a politically tainted overreaction to pollution. At several stops on the tour, farmers mounted small protest demonstrations, the most vocal in San Diego on Friday. There, about a dozen “No On 65” signs were sighted.

Unusual Move

In a move highly unusual in the rough-and-tumble of campaign politics, the Hollywood troupe welcomed one of the protesters up onto their stage in San Diego to make the case that the restrictions would cripple farming.

Crowds at the public stops along the way typically numbered in the thousands. That’s both people and decibels, a tribute to the screech-power of armies of teen-age girls drawn by the contingent of some of Hollywood’s best, and youngest, actors.

The audience here in San Luis Obispo, in fact, was so overwhelmingly pubescent that actor Robert Walden of “Lou Grant” sounded worried that the campaign message might be missing its intended target.

“Why don’t you put pressure on your mothers and fathers, your aunts and uncles--anyone who is 18 years old--to vote for Proposition 65?” he shouted.

‘Something in the Air’

Aboard the buses, many of the Celebrities wondered if the caravan was more than a fluke, a sign of greater political stirrings in Hollywood, especially young Hollywood.

“You probably couldn’t have done this two years ago. But there’s something in the air,” said producer Craig Zadan, one of those who conceived the idea of the caravan. “For this many stars to give up three days like this, it’s unbelievable.”

True, several of the Celebrities confessed that they never even registered to vote until this year.

But Morgan Fairchild, who has been active in several recent political campaigns, said that she, for one, intends to be around for awhile. And she proved it by being one of the tour’s most inquisitive actor/politicians, seeking out political reporters and professionals at every opportunity.

‘Sexiest Thing on TV’

“What got me started was what I saw as a strait-jacketing of the mind. . . . Mega-million bucks of political TV advertising, all assuming that people are stupid,” she said.

Fairchild said she was willing to meet opponents on whatever terms are effective. “I like to talk about the issues, I like to know the issues,” she said. But then again, playfully, she added that if she has to, “I can say, Jerry Falwell hates me and I’m the sexiest thing on TV. So vote for Proposition 65. That’s using their own power and cynicism against them.”

Up-and-coming actress Alexandra Paul, flashing her melt-you-to-the-ground smile, relaxed on a bus and said, yes, she has heard enough of how Hollywood was self-consumed.

“My mother says Hollywood is superficial. But I’ve never seen bus loads of dentists go on the road for something they believe.”