Studio Chief Is DNC's Secret Weapon

By CLAUDIA ELLER and JAMES BATES

Aug. 16, 2000 12 AM PT

Alan Horn doesn’t line his Warner Bros. office shelves with framed photos of himself with Bill Clinton, Al Gore or other top political figures.

But he certainly could. The studio president plays an increasingly important role in Hollywood’s Democratic fund-raising circles. Horn’s lack of affectation sets him apart, just as it keeps him below the radar. Few people outside the inner circle of the Democratic National Committee realize the rising influence of Horn, 57, and his politically active wife, Cindy, a Gore delegate.

It’s not that they’ve raised the most money. Their tally falls way short of the huge sums the DreamWorks SKG partners have mustered.

It’s that, as head of one of Hollywood’s few major movie studios, Horn has access to the checkbooks of rich celebrities and industry heavyweights. He uses his clout cautiously, walking a fine line between his political activism and the corporate constraints of parent company Time Warner Inc. and its soon-to-be owner, America Online Inc.

Unlike other Hollywood couples, the Horns haven’t spent the night in the White House, nor have they shared their breakfast cereals with the first family after hosting a sleepover. Their names are rarely, if ever, mentioned in the same breath as billionaire activist David Geffen and his DreamWorks partners, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg, who have been ground zero for Democratic fund-raising in recent years.

Nonetheless, Horn and his wife have become important links to the industry for the Gore campaign, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s New York Senate bid and environmental causes.

The Horns have hosted fund-raisers at their Bel-Air home for Gore’s presidential bid as well as Clinton’s Senate campaign. The Horns have also chaired and co-hosted a number of other fund-raisers, including a dinner honoring Gore and his wife, Tipper, as well as another this fall at the home of director Rob Reiner, where he expects to raise more than $1 million.

Of the people running Hollywood’s major movie studios, Horn is among the most politically active. He and his wife have now joined the club of Hollywood heavyweights, such as the DreamWorks trio, Lew and Edith Wasserman and Seagram Co. scion Edgar Bronfman Jr., who contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars every year.

And although much of that club has been joined at the hip to President Clinton, the Horns can now be counted as among the first Friends of Al.

Other Hollywood Democrats quietly fume about Gore’s newly chosen running mate, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, an outspoken critic of the entertainment industry for serving up a heavy diet of sex and violence. Horn, on the other hand, is delighted.

“Of course I believe in the 1st Amendment and creative freedom, but how can anyone argue with a guy who advocates social responsibility?” said Horn, who vows not to green-light movies with gratuitous sex or violence.

“I am a father of two young children, and it’s certainly a factor in my decision-making process,” said Horn, who has two daughters, Cody, 12, and Cassidy, 10. “There are some lines I won’t cross in the pursuit of dollar bills. I’m sure I wouldn’t have made ‘Natural Born Killers,’ ” a graphically violent film that Warner Bros. financed and released, “even though I really like and respect [director] Oliver Stone and think he’s brilliant.”

In the world of political fund-raising, Horn believes that Republicans have an easier go of it because traditional big business, which benefits more from conservative administrations, “has always found it in their own self-interest to give money.”

That said, added Horn, Democrats have been able to tap predominantly liberal Hollywood, a relatively small community that offers quick access to huge dollars and unmatched media attention through celebrity power.

“This is a place where Democratic candidates can come to raise a lot of money relatively easily because people are understanding and supportive of them on the issues and have the money to write the checks,” he said.

The competition for those Hollywood dollars can be fierce. Some Democrats are riled that convention week fund-raising events for the Clintons--his library and her Senate campaign--will siphon badly needed funds from Gore.

“I noticed a number of events not all directed at the presidential bid, but I don’t feel any cynicism about it. We’re going to concentrate our efforts on the presidential race and, secondly, on Hillary and not the president’s library in Arkansas,” Horn said.

If there is any trend in Hollywood fund-raising today, Horn observed, “It’s an increasing recognition that in order to raise the kind of money necessary to run these races, the base of support needs to be broadened.” Horn added that although young Hollywood “may not be able to write $25,000 or $50,000 checks, they’re smart, active, informed and need to be brought into the process as early as possible because they’ll play an increasingly important role as they grow in our business.”

In his year-old job as Warner Bros. president, Horn is particularly careful not to wear his political passions on his sleeve.

“He is acutely aware of it and is extremely cautious so it doesn’t seem like he is trying to use his position,” said Terry New, a Gore fund-raising consultant in Hollywood.

That reflects in part the sensitivities of his boss, Time Warner chief Gerald Levin. Time Warner has plenty of business that is conducted in Washington, not the least of which is its huge pending merger with America Online, which is now before regulators for approval.

“There is a stone wall between what we do as individuals and what goes on in the company,” Horn said. “Jerry Levin and [AOL chief] Steve Case are in Washington now pleading the sense of the merger, and the last thing they need or want is to have Alan Horn out in Hollywood espousing political philosophy about this or that.”

This week, there will be many convention-related events at Warner Bros.’ Burbank lot, but they are paid for by their respective hosts, not the studio. That reflects the cautious approach of Levin, who had at one time considered doing away with Time Warner’s political action committee. He has, however, recently banned the company’s involvement in giving the kind of unregulated “soft money” so many corporations contribute.

Still, Horn is realistic about his new fund-raising clout.

“I do find that in a position like this, I have an opportunity to try to advocate a position, whether it’s for a candidate like Al Gore or to help Dianne Feinstein get elected again. I can at least send out letters and do what I want to do, and more people know me than knew me before. That’s helpful.”

It was easy for Horn to call George Clooney, the star of Warner Bros.’ summer hit “The Perfect Storm,” and ask him to lend his name to a recent environmental fund-raiser, easy too to invite Kevin Costner to the event.

“Well, if I were a steamfitter, working in some plumber’s union, I’m not going to get Kevin Costner on the phone.”

In contrast to a lot of Hollywood fund-raisers who have been political junkies all their adult lives, Horn came to it late in life, unexpectedly and in an unorthodox way. A Harvard Business School graduate, former Air Force captain and Procter & Gamble assistant brand manager, Horn was politically apathetic even as the college campuses he attended exploded with activism in the 1960s. Indeed, it wasn’t until going to work in the 1970s for TV producer and liberal activist Norman Lear that Horn began paying attention to politics.

Horn become more involved after marrying his wife in 1983, but what really launched the couple’s activism was something entirely more personal: the pregnancy of his wife with daughter Cody in 1987. Concerns about the environment’s potential effects on her pregnancy catapulted the Horns into action. They co-founded the Environmental Media Assn. and became active in the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Horn’s early apathy reflected his family’s apolitical attitude and feeling of powerlessness to influence politics. Growing up in Queens and on Long Island in New York, Horn’s family struggled financially with both parents holding down two jobs.

He studied economics at Union College in upstate New York, where he lived at the home of his school’s admissions director and worked as his maid and nanny. Well aware of the activism going on around him, Horn said he was no rebel. “I certainly wasn’t going to be in any sit-in about to be carried off by the police, who were authority figures to me,” he said.

Horn joined the Air Force, returning in 1969 to start Harvard Business School. Out of place with his military haircut and tie, Horn said he was “struck by how difficult it was to reenter society and not only not be respected but criticized” for having served his country.

During his first job at Procter & Gamble, he got off the elevator and went to his office and sat at his desk only to realize that the pictures under its glass top were not his pictures and that he had gotten off on the wrong floor. “I thought, this is too compartmentalized; this is not for me,” Horn said.

A friend introduced him to A. Jerrold Perenchio, a powerful agent and entrepreneur who now heads Spanish-language network Univision. Perenchio was just starting a cable TV marketing service. A staunch Republican, he hired Horn and brought him out to California in 1972 to work with him, Bud Yorkin and Norman Lear at Tandem Productions.

Lear at the time was leveraging his success from such socially pioneering programs as “All in the Family” to become one of the entertainment industry’s most outspoken liberal activists. “I would often go to Norman’s house and would listen to what he had to say, and I found him to be a powerful influence on me. He was the leading force in the Hollywood community during the decade of the 1970s,” Horn recalled.

Lear believed that he could have an impact working through politics. Horn would listen as Lear often told how his father would write letters to the president and get answers back about issues of the day. It was a revelation for Horn, who grew up feeling powerless politically.

In 1987, Horn went into business with yet another liberal activist, director Reiner, who starred in “All in the Family” and became one of Horn’s four partners in film and TV producer Castle Rock Entertainment.

“For the person who started at the age of 15 believing that what went on in the election frankly was not something that I could in any way impact, I now feel that I can at least throw in my two cents and, along with many, many, many others, do what I can to accomplish the objectives of the party,” he said.

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Democratic Money From Hollywood

Haim Saban leads the pack of Democratic Party faithful who are willing to show their support with cash. Behind him are Alan Horn and other well-known big-dollar contributors and their spouses, according to Democratic Party reports for the period Jan. 1, 1999, through June 30, 2000.

Biggest Individual Contributor

Haim Saban, chief executive of Fox Family Worldwide, is by far the largest individual contributor to the Democratic Party in the entertainment industry.

$631,600

The Second Tier

Alan Horn, left, president of Warner Bros. Studios Shown with Vice President Al Gore, Horn’s wife, Cindy, and their children, Cody, 12, left front, and Cassidy, 10.

$210,750

Lew Wasserman formerly of MCA

$285,100

Jeffrey Katzenberg DreamWorks SKG

$246,000

Steven Spielberg DreamWorks SKG

$228,000

David Geffen DreamWorks SKG

$223,000

Michael King CBS Enterprises

$219,000

Edgar Bronfman Jr. Seagram Co.