Fascism Crashes Party in Far-Off Land of the Stars

It isn’t always easy to conduct business as usual--or even pleasure as usual--if current events beyond your control hold any influence over the amount of time others may wish to spend with you.

A dinner party tonight at Werner Brandstetter’s residence in Los Angeles is to be simply that--a party, a convivial gathering of “Austrians in Hollywood.”

It is for actors, artists, creative people from all fields, bonding because of their shared Austrian heritage.

Brandstetter is the Austria consul general. He and his wife host a soiree such as tonight’s on an irregular basis, having done so once or twice each year since Brandstetter first arrived at the Wilshire Boulevard consulate in 1995.

“Austrians in Hollywood” is strictly a social affair, not a political function of any kind.

That is what the consul hopes will be clear--that tonight’s festivities have no connection whatsoever to Austria’s recent formation of a coalition government that includes the Freedom Party led by Joerg Haider, a far-right figure whose views have been condemned as fascistic by many, in and out of Austria.

“We will have actors, scriptwriters, stunt girls, computer animation specialists, musicians, entertainment lawyers, Austrians representing every element of the industry. We are quite happy with our guest list,” Brandstetter says of the 100 or so who have received invitations.

“No one from Austria’s Hollywood community is unwelcome. I know for a fact we will have guests in attendance who have been very critical of the government.”

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Cultural pursuits do have a way of catching backlash from political disputes.

For example, civic events in South Carolina have been called off, in protest of the continued flying of a Confederate flag. Many interests withdrew business from Arizona because of that state’s slow acceptance of Martin Luther King’s birthday as a national holiday.

Austria is in a similar pickle.

In certain circles an entire nation is being snubbed--ostracizing Austria, as it were--due to the outcome of a freely contested election. It is a protest over the presence in Austria’s new coalition Cabinet of the much-criticized Haider. He is the son of Nazi Party members and once praised Third Reich forced-labor methods as “a sound employment policy.”

On Feb. 10 in Vienna, diplomats representing France and Belgium boycotted a speech by Austria’s new foreign minister. Two days later, it was reported in Los Angeles that a petition had been handed to Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences foreign-language committee members, discouraging them from attending a screening of Austria’s award entry.

Musical artists such as Lou Reed and Sting have reportedly considered the cancellation of Austria concert dates.

And an invitation to the “Austrians in Hollywood” dinner was declined in a strongly worded letter by Theodore Bikel, 76, a Vienna-born actor who cited fears “that Austria is in danger of sinking back into the slime of neo-fascism.”

He was in no mood to socialize.

That’s all it is, though--a society event. “Whether for or against the new government, everyone we have invited to the party is welcome,” Deputy Consul General Harold Guenther says.

“I understand completely,” Brandstetter adds. “Mr. Bikel and I are still friends.” Bikel, who immigrated to Palestine at 13 to escape the Nazis, “has very understandable feelings. He is the only one to formally decline our invitation, however.”

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Hollywood has many esteemed figures of Austrian background, be they Billy Wilder, the great director, or Wolfgang Puck, chef to the stars. Best known is actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who in observing reaction to Haider has rued that “one man’s statements can taint world opinion of an entire country.” Due to a commitment in Ohio at a bodybuilding contest he sponsors, Schwarzenegger is unable to attend tonight’s dinner.

Austria’s political image was damaged in the 1980s, when former Austrian president and UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim was revealed to have once served with a Nazi intelligence unit involved in wartime atrocities in the Balkans.

Now there is Haider, whose face has appeared on a “Demagogue Wall” at the Simon Wiesenthal Center alongside the likes of Idi Amin and Saddam Hussein.

The faces at the party will be nothing like these.

“We’ll have one young fellow here,” Brandstetter says, proud of a fellow Austrian, “who did computer animation work on ‘Titanic.’ ”

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Mike Downey’s column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Write to him at Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053. E-mail: mike.downey@latimes.com