ECONOTES : Now Appearing: a Devil’s Advocate

Is Hollywood becoming a propaganda machine for environmentalists, grinding out simplistic movies and TV dramas that exaggerate the environmental crisis?

That was the question last week for a series-opening forum titled “New Perspectives on Hollywood and the Environment: Myths and Realities.” “We think it’s appropriate for Hollywood to deal with environmental themes, but we also think there’s a dangerous tendency to simplify them,” said Steve Hayward of San Francisco’s Pacific Research Institute, greeting the audience of about 100 at the Bel Age Hotel. “The world is not as simple as ‘Captain Planet’ makes it seem. We want to play the devil’s advocate.”

Speaking to that role, economist Terry Anderson and writer Patrick Cox deplored the political polarization that leads to movie and TV stereotypes of good-guy liberal environmentalists versus bad-guy businessmen polluters.

And they suggested that the creative community has swallowed too much of the eco-disaster mythology (acid rain and aerosol CFCs were among examples cited) and could benefit from better research. Third speaker Bill Bradley, a Sacramento political analyst, evened up the debate by defending Hollywood for taking on serious subjects at all.

Hayward pronounced the evening, co-sponsored by the American Forum in Hollywood, a success. Next up: “Doomsayers and the Global Warming Debate” on Tuesday. Information: (415) 989-0833.