Hollywood Ponders Ties to Democrats

Serenaded by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, President Clinton and congressional Democratic leaders will gather at a hilltop mansion in Beverly Hills on Saturday for a political fund-raising dinner that is expected to generate more than $1.5 million in contributions from heavyweights in the movie, television and recording industries.

About 100 entertainment industry figures are expected to gather on the grounds of Greystone, overlooking the sprawling Los Angeles Basin, for the lavish event hosted by DreamWorks founders Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. Tickets for the dinner are priced at $25,000, $50,000 and $100,000 per couple and will go to aid “Majority 2000,” which will fund various Democratic congressional and senatorial campaigns in the next round of national elections.

The fund-raiser arrives against a backdrop of strained relations between Hollywood and Washington, as both the political and entertainment communities assess the causes and blame for youth violence after the Columbine High School massacre last month in Littleton, Colo.

For its part, Hollywood cannot understand why the Republican-controlled Senate on Wednesday rejected background checks for buyers at gun shows by a 51-47 vote, while voting 98-0 to require a federal investigation into the impact on children of violence in video games, movies and music.

“I have no problem with people looking at these things,” said movie and record mogul Geffen, “[but] I find it kind of astounding that people who have criminal records, or who are crazy or who are child molesters can get a gun.

“I think people who are looking for an easy answer will look to video games, music and movies to pin some of the blame on because they are unwilling to look at what the real problems are: easy access to guns, lack of parental control in the homes,” he continued. “I deplore excessive violence in music and video games, but having said that, I don’t think it’s responsible for the behavior of children in these recent tragedies.”

TV producer Norman Lear called the Senate votes “another example of American lunacy.”

“This is sweeps week for the Senate,” Lear said. “They trot out the ideas they are not going to mess with for the rest of the year in the hopes that their ratings go up.”

Clinton’s appearance in Hollywood comes only days after he hosted a White House conference on youth violence searching for answers in the aftermath of the tragic school massacre in Littleton. The president made a point to say at the conference that he was not assigning blame to the entertainment industry but urged Hollywood to consider the consequences that violent song lyrics, movies and TV shows have on America’s youth.

Over the years, Clinton has not been shy when criticizing Hollywood for portraying gratuitous violence, even though he’s raised millions of dollars for his campaigns here. But his actions have stopped short of government regulation. Instead, he pressured the TV industry to adopt a voluntary rating system for its shows and backed the implementation of the V-chip in television sets so that parents can screen out violent programming for their children.

But government regulation is another matter.

“The whole idea of using the government as the regulator of what gets into our children’s conscience is a very interesting concept,” said entertainment attorney Tom Hansen. “Everybody’s attitudes and morals are so different. One thing that is offensive to one family may not be to another on all sorts of grounds.”

David Horowitz, who as head of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture has been a staunch critic of Hollywood liberals, said Thursday that the Senate vote is only an outgrowth of Hollywood’s continuing inability to criticize Clinton.

“A terrible, terrible precedent was set when Clinton summoned the heads of the industry to Washington a few years ago and said, ‘I don’t like what you are showing, and if you don’t do something to change it, I’m going to change it.’ ” Horowitz said. “There was no protest. That’s where this battle was lost.

“It’s because everybody is a ‘friend of Bill,’ ” he continued. “If Richard Nixon had dared to do something like that--hold all the power of government over the media--the liberal community would have gone ballistic, and rightly so.”

Industry Looks Ahead to the Election in 2000

To be sure, Hollywood Democrats have sensed they have more to fear from a Bob Dole or Dan Quayle than Clinton and Gore. Indeed, even now many liberals are lining up to support Gore in the 2000 presidential election.

“Actually, I think the administration has been very good on this [violence in the media] issue,” said Andy Spahn, the head of corporate affairs at DreamWorks.

“Every time I have heard the president speak in the last couple of weeks on this, he has offered very constructive, balanced comments,” Spahn added. “I think he realizes what a difficult issue this is to tackle, and any solution is going to have to come from all of us: families, parents, teachers, religious leaders, gun manufacturers and the entertainment industry.”

In general, Hollywood executives and celebrities have been staunch supporters of Clinton and the Democratic Party, and many of Clinton’s biggest supporters are expected to back Gore when he runs for president in 2000. Former Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.), while well thought of by Democrats in Hollywood, has yet to garner widespread backing, Spahn noted, although Disney Chairman Michael Eisner appears to be an early supporter.

Spahn said the three DreamWorks founders are now committed to seeing Gore elected president in 2000, although they have not yet organized a fund-raiser in Hollywood for his approaching campaign.

“We haven’t sat down--the four of us--and talked it through yet,” Spahn said. “Right now, we are sort of focused on Saturday.”

But Lear said Hollywood is becoming disenchanted with Democrats. “I don’t think Hollywood supports [Clinton and Gore] or the Democratic Party with the kind of faith that it did 20 years ago.”