‘Cultural Elite’ Charge Fuels Ire in Hollywood : Culture: Producers, writers see Vice President Dan Quayle as out of touch with the real world of TV and film audiences.

While network executives steadfastly refused to comment, Hollywood producers and writers have reacted with a mixture of anger and amusement to Vice President Dan Quayle’s charges earlier this week that Hollywood represents a “cultural elite” out of touch with American values.

“Hollywood is such an easy knee-jerk target,” said Barry Diller, former chairman of Twentieth Century-Fox. “But I would take the values of ‘Northern Exposure,’ ‘The Simpsons,’ ‘Cosby,’ ‘Grand Canyon,’ ‘City Slickers’ and certainly, certainly ‘Murphy Brown’ over this wildly cynical, smug man.

“It’s so unfortunate when Republicans politicize values and go to it like a talisman,” Diller continued. “ . . . If he wanted to have a serious discussion about values, how come he’s starting now?”

Following his charge last month that the Murphy Brown character’s decision to have a baby out of wedlock was in part responsible for the disintegration of the traditional family, Quayle told a group of 15,000 Southern Baptists Tuesday that a “cultural elite” lurks in “some of our newsrooms, sitcom studios and faculty lounges” and that “the cultural elite’s reaction to my talk about values has been outrage, ridicule and scorn.”

“Talking about moral principles is considered a gaffe” in those circles, Quayle continued. “I wear their scorn as a badge of honor.”

CBS entertainment president Jeff Sagansky, whose network airs “Murphy Brown,” refused comment, as did his counterpart at ABC, Robert Iger. Executives at NBC and Fox Broadcasting did not return calls requesting comment, but a prominent former network chief had plenty to say.

“There’s a Spiro Agnew quality to what he is saying; you could say he has become a ‘nattering nabob’ himself,” said former NBC chairman Grant Tinker, now an independent producer. “I think it’s very calculated.

“He talks about this community as if it came from Mars. A lot of the people here came from a different situation; they could be the people who probably grew up living next door to Dan Quayle.

“I don’t know that any of us has been living in this hothouse all of his or her life, and many of us bring with us values that even Dan Quayle would approve of. I think he’s badly advised to continue to pursue this in terms of media people, and particularly entertainment.”

Joe Eszterhas, screenwriter of “Basic Instinct,” said, “It’s clear to me that Mr. Quayle’s fulminations are the result of political desperation . . . he is trying to distract the American public from the policy disasters of the Bush Administration.

“A movie I recently wrote grossed more than $100 million in this country, and was the most successful R-rated film in American history. What that says to me is that the vice president is woefully out of touch with America in the ‘90s.”

Tri-Star Pictures chairman Mike Medavoy objected to Quayle’s implication that all of Hollywood thinks alike. “Not everybody in Hollywood wants to be put in the liberal camp against the conservative,” he said. “Most people in this town would consider themselves fiscally conservative; I, for one, feel those labels are no longer valid.

“I know that (Quayle) is bright. If he’s just talking about family values, I’m sure everyone agrees with him. But I don’t quite get it--I’m not sure what he’s talking about. As far as I can see, he is carving for himself the conservative position.

“I think the more attention we give this, the more time we don’t spend on the important issues.”

Bob Young, co-executive producer of ABC’s “Dinosaurs”--a series that often satirizes traditional family values and politics--said that Quayle’s comments are “so silly that they will blow over”--but not until election day. “Until then, it’ll be battered around because it’s a fun topic to talk about.”

Young said he believes that TV and movies have become too violent, but criticized Quayle for targeting unwed mothers instead of violence. “They are the very ones we should have the most sympathy and compassion for--it is the very policies of his Administration that put people in the welfare lines,” he said.

Don Bellisario, creator-producer of NBC’s “Quantum Leap,” said he expects Quayle’s comments will have no effect on the viewers or the producers. “There are very few Norman Rockwell families in this country,” he said. “Plus, I see some of the statements that he makes are Christian statements. How many people in this country are Jews or Muslims or of other faiths?”

Besides, added Bellisario, if the statements came from “anybody but Dan Quayle, we might take it more seriously.”

Several Hollywood figures associated with the Republican Party were not available for comment.