New Generation of Film Stars Leap Into Political Fray

Actor Rob Lowe is best known for his “Brat Pack” movie roles and romances with actress Melissa Gilbert and Princess Stephanie of Monaco.

But the heartthrob of the teeny-bopper set also is an active crusader against toxic waste.

He and other young screen actors such as Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Daphne Zuniga and Alexandra Paul are just a few of Hollywood’s new breed of celebrity political activists.

“They represent a new generation of artists who have, like athletes, a tremendous effect at being role models for young people,” said state Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica).

“They’re taken more seriously with Americans than politicians because people know them. . . . It’s a very healthy tonic for an apathetic generation.”

Hayden was a founder of Students for a Democratic Society, one of the most visible student radical organizations of the 1960s, and is the husband of actress Jane Fonda, another celebrity activist.

In 1985, the Haydens became curious about the true interests of the so-called Brat Packers, who had been labeled selfish and self-centered by critics. They invited a few to their Santa Monica home, including Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez, Gilbert, Nelson and Lowe.

Once the Haydens saw an interest was there, they formed Network, an educational group that explains political issues to actors and introduces them to politicians.

“They are incredibly effective at motivating and opening up your minds,” Sheedy said of the couple. “It’s not something where they’re trying to brainwash you in any way. There’s no pressure at all.”

Her involvement in Network prompted the young star of “WarGames” and “The Breakfast Club” to throw a mixer with Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) for her actor friends.

“It was so much fun. It was so exciting,” Sheedy said.

Another Hollywood activist group, Young Artists United, was formed two years ago by Paul, who starred in “Dragnet,” and film maker Daniel Sladek. The group gets young people involved in such social issues as teen-age suicides, drug and alcohol abuse, rather than political issues.

Some Young Artists United members include Sarah Jessica Parker, star of TV’s “A Year in the Life,” Eric Stoltz of “Mask” and most of the Network members.

Young Artists plans to put about 30 of the young actors on a bus caravan this April through Southland beach communities, urging young people to register to vote.

“I think there’s a major transformation going on in the people of this generation from the ‘me’ generation to the ‘we’ generation. They realize they can accomplish a lot united,” the 23-year-old Sladek said.

Fearful of alienating their fans, actors generally remained aloof from politics until the 1930s, when Hollywood threw its support behind President Roosevelt and his social policies.

Hollywood staged massive support for World War II, appearing at war bond rallies and entertaining the troops abroad. Some notables, especially Charlie Chaplin, supported the Soviet cause, and their activities would haunt them later.

The postwar period brought McCarthyism, when many careers were harmed or ruined through “blacklisting” by association with leftist causes. The reaction caused many actors to eschew support of any issues or candidates, and continued into the 1960s.

However, the civil rights movement brought out such actors as Marlon Brando on marches, sit-ins and rallies. The Vietnam War, environmental issues and women’s rights also rekindled Hollywood’s social consciousness.

This will be a busy year for Network, spokesman Patrick Lippert said. Members will start meeting presidential candidates at private meetings in the spring and will probably become active in the 1988 elections.

Last September, members of both groups worked against Robert Bork’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court by staging a postcard writing campaign.

In October, Nelson (“Billionaire Boys Club,” “The Breakfast Club”), Helen Slater (“Supergirl”), Esai Morales (“La Bamba”) and Mary Stuart Masterson (“At Close Range”) traveled to the Soviet Union to film a documentary for the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy.

Zuniga (“Spaceballs”) and Paul visited Nicaragua, where Paul rode in a Soviet-made helicopter with Sandinistas.

“Everyone was saying two years ago this is the most self-centered, selfish generation in years,” Lippert said. “But what you see is the most idealistic group of young people. You see them getting involved in so many things, and reaching out to their generation.”

However, not all Hollywood observers are jumping with praise for the political meanderings of Brat Packers.

“It’s striking that not one of these stars has a dissenting view other than what’s the norm in Hollywood,” said Michael Medved of Public Broadcasting System’s “Sneak Previews.”

“It’s absolutely nonsensical that Alan Cranston should follow Rob Lowe’s advice to vote against Robert Bork for the Supreme Court,” he said. “Rob Lowe, Daphne Zuniga and Gregory Peck (who did an anti-Bork commercial)--we take their position seriously because they’re pretty. It’s scary.

“I think they are sincerely interested in the issues. But part of burnishing your image is not to be written off as a pretty-face airhead. So you become politically involved.”

Also dabbling in politics are such Hollywood glamour girls as Morgan Fairchild, Donna Mills and Sally Field.

Field, a two-time Academy Award winner, was host of a pool-side party at her home that featured Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, a presidential contender. Mills, the scheming vixen of CBS-TV’s “Knots Landing,” talked politics with Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.), another presidential hopeful, at a gathering at her home.

Fairchild, who has testified before both the House and Senate on environmental issues, has given up needlepoint and instead spends her free time reading such weighty material as “Abu Nidal: Master Terrorist” or hefty medical reports on the deadly AIDS virus.

“I know that going in, a lot of people didn’t take me seriously,” said Fairchild, who has no intention of giving up her sexy image. “But I have a deceptively high IQ, and so when people sat down and started talking to me about some of these things, they started to take me seriously.”