Helping Stars Shine in Another Universe

I’d like to thank my agent, my producer and my co-stars Denzel, Whitney and Alicia. And I can’t forget my sound man, my makeup artist and my costume designer. Without my mother, I wouldn’t be here, so I thank her too. I love you all. I really do.

Speeches like that, all so typical during Hollywood awards shows, wouldn’t play too well in Washington. Try spewing out such ramblings in testimony before a congressional committee. Or to reporters assembled at the National Press Club. Or even to tablemates at a Georgetown dinner party.

Give a speech like that and C-SPAN, for once, might cut to a commercial.

But, celebs, fear not. A new consulting firm has been created to help entertainment mavens make the leap into the public policy world.

“Why not use celebrities to get people interested in the process?” asks Hollywood sound man Murray Siegel, a five-time Emmy Award winner who is helping to start up the firm. “I want to see people like Carroll O’Connor talking to congressional committees about stronger enforcement of drug laws. I want to see Julia Roberts talking about the way the United States has to protect children around the world. I’m trying to get celebrities to sell us something beyond Coca-Cola.”

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The goal of the firm, called m/associates, is not to churn out more crossovers like Ronald Reagan, but to help L.A. types adjust to the idiosyncrasies of Washington, a place where the head-turners at restaurants are people such as George Stephanopoulos and Alan Greenspan and heated conversations at trendy bars focus on health care reform and trade policy.

“You can’t expect celebrities to know everything just because they’re hip,” said Jennifer Laszlo, a political consultant who is helping to launch the venture. “The majority of Americans can’t name the vice president, the Senate majority leader and the speaker of the House. Isn’t it possible that celebrities don’t know those people either or aren’t sure what the separation of powers is all about?”

And she does not mean to imply that entertainers are dimwits. She already conducts intensive briefings for congressional aides, bureaucrats and journalists on topics ranging from how a bill really becomes a law to the ins and outs of welfare reform.

With so many issues, everybody occasionally needs a primer--even people such as Anthony Hopkins, Tom Cruise and Alicia Silverstone.

Laszlo, a former congressional candidate who knows her way around Washington’s power circles, admits that she could walk into Spago and not pick out a soul. So she is teaming up with Siegel, who has produced scores of sitcoms, feature films and award shows. He has been behind the scenes at the Academy Awards and worked on everything from “On Golden Pond” to the Psychic Friends Network infomercial to Playboy’s “Wet and Wild Video Party.”

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Of course, the idea of using celebrities to highlight causes is as old as Hollywood itself. Stars have beaten a path to the nation’s capital for years and caused sensations at congressional hearings, state dinners and press events. But as Roll Call, the congressional trade paper, recently quipped, “The halls of Congress are littered with tales of celebrity embarrassment.”

When stars stumble here, smug Washingtonians really guffaw, such as when Meryl Streep emotionally recounted how the chemical Alar causes cancer, which turned out to be false, or when Sharon Stone suggested that she fought off cancer by giving up caffeine.

“Celebrities are often handed a script and told to read it,” Laszlo said. “I want people to speak from the heart and come up with the speech themselves. I want them to stick with an issue and really get to know it, not just become the equivalent of the person who feeds the homeless once a year on Thanksgiving.”

So the new venture is offering to help pair celebrities with the causes they care about by preparing detailed background reports, arranging meetings with top officials, setting up congressional testimony and booking appearances on the Sunday morning talk shows.

“Because of your high profile,” the group’s promotional literature says, “you can be an influential part of the political process.”

With more and more people turned off to politicians, Laszlo sees celebrities, with their instant name recognition and huge followings, as the natural ones to fill the void. She compares her new role to that of a personal trainer--something Hollywood surely can understand. The only difference, though, is that her job is to help clients avoid working up a sweat.