Keeping Stars Bright Politically

By the time Al Gore took the podium at the Democratic National Convention, actor Richard Dreyfuss had already met with the vice president.

In fact, the star of “Mr. Holland’s Opus” had scored even more impressive coups. There was his two-hour tete-a-tete with President Clinton and his lunch with key Middle East peace negotiators. He had traveled to Israel three times and met with then-Prime Minister Shimon Peres.

No one is expecting Dreyfuss to help restore Middle East peace. But talk about access.

Behind these forays onto the grand playing field of world events is West Hollywood power politico Donna Bojarsky, Dreyfuss’s personal political consultant.

A former aide to Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and a campaigner for Clinton and Gary Hart, Bojarsky is a pioneer member of a new breed of power-channelers who are becoming indispensable to the maturing new class of monied Hollywood elite.

Hollywood has had a hand in politics since the days when Will Rogers moonlighted as a political columnist in the 1920s.

But the new political gurus are seasoned professionals, veterans of presidential races and the White House, former staffers for elected officials or top lobbying organizations.

They brief celebrities on issues, guide them on contributions to charities and campaigns and identify the behind-the-scenes players on policies their clients care about. And in an election year, they sort through the myriad campaign season requests for celebrity appearances and political contributions, for which Hollywood has been extremely fertile ground. The salary range for the new political experts ranges from $75,000 to $175,000 for those who oversee charitable foundations and above $250,000 for those who count political outreach among their duties at a major Hollywood corporation.

The home-grown power brokers, some of whom guide estimable philanthropic foundations, work for an A-list that includes Barbra Streisand, Norman Lear, Robert Redford, David Geffen and Rob Reiner--a well-informed, socially active coterie that ensures an attentive reception from national political leaders.

In the frenzied final moments of the campaign, Hollywood political experts are besieged with requests to pitch in on a presidential race that is getting tighter all the time.

Margery Tabankin, the advisor for Streisand, is fielding calls from Democratic operatives. Planned Parenthood has asked Streisand to cut a radio spot on reproductive rights this week that is designed to get out the women’s vote, Tabankin said.

Richard Dreyfuss has already supported Gore in important swing states such as Michigan and New Jersey, and Bojarsky is helping him prepare a trip to Maine. Robert Redford’s political assistant is fielding a flurry of requests. And Rob Reiner’s political czar is organizing Reiner-hosted celebrity tours of get-out-the-vote rallies across America.

“You’ve got a lot of responsibilities if you’re Richard Dreyfuss,” said veteran Los Angeles political consultant Bill Carrick. “A lot of these people have enormous time demands. If you have an interest in politics and causes you have somebody organizing that part of your life. Someboy’s got to sort it out.”

And that somebody, in Dreyfuss’s case, is Bojarsky.

In mid-October, Bojarsky sent Dreyfuss ping-ponging from Michigan--for fund-raisers for U.S. Senate candidate Debby Stabinow and congressional contender Dianne Byrum--to New Jersey for House fund-raisers, including one for the reelection of Rep. Rush Holt at the home of “Jaws” author Peter Benchley.

He and Bojarsky have hourlong morning phone calls to brainstorm on what else he can do.

“Richard is exceptional,” Bojarsky said, over a decaf nonfat latte at a Mid-Wilshire cafe.

“He’s extremely well-read. Extremely intelligent. Articulate. Original. Passionate. Committed. His main message is that it’s vital to be involved,” said Bojarsky, an engaging dynamo whose electric persona defies the laid-back etiquette of the Westside milieu. It’s easier to imagine her in Manhattan.

But her setting is quintessentially L.A. Her office at Dreyfuss’ production company headquarters is in the former Old Hollywood United Artists studios of Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford.

Some see the bout of political engagement as the coming of age of a 1970s socially active generation.

“The young liberal types were serious back then, but they didn’t have as much power as they do now,” said Jodie Evans, a veteran Jerry Brown campaign chief who has a hand in celebrity politics.

And they want to make the most of it.

“If you’re doing one thing for a living and you do that very well, you want to be able to do your politics at the same level,” said Evans. “You’ll hire an expert. Politics isn’t just something they do as a hobby.”

Many advisors also have an activist bent. Tabankin, the former head of the now-defunct Hollywood Women’s Political Committee, organized protests against the Vietnam War, and later directed VISTA under the Carter administration. Now she helps Streisand disburse millions of dollars to environmental, AIDS and reproductive rights causes.

This Hollywood activism, Tabankin said, “is not like corporate Hollywood or Jack Valenti,” head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America.

“These are individuals who happen to be liberal politically and want to weigh in,” she said. “They have nothing personally to gain.”

But they can flex as much financial muscle as the corporate Hollywood lobby. The Democratic National Convention fund-raiser at that Shrine Auditorium on Gore’s nomination night--which Streisand headlined--raised $5.3 million.

“There is nothing frivolous about this,” Bojarsky said.

Washington and Hollywood have always had an on-again, off-again romance but they became a hot item during the Clinton administration.

Former Clinton staffers are sprinkled throughout Hollywood, from Creative Artists Agency to the set of “The West Wing”--a drama that Clinton White House veteran Tom O’Donnell views as the “zenith of the merging” of Washington and Hollywood.

Ex-Clinton Staffers Find Hollywood Roles

“It should not be a surprise that Hollywood should start importing political advisors to improve their ability to get their message heard,” said O’Donnell, the former chief of staff of the White House National Economic Council. “For years, Washington has been importing Hollywood-like image advisors to improve how they get their image across. It’s kind of a mirror image.”

Another Clinton crossover is Laura Hartigan, finance director for the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign, who now works for Fox Family Worldwide’s chief executive, Haim Saban--the entertainment industry’s largest individual contributor to the Democratic Party.

Chad Griffin, 27, went to work for Rob Reiner after he met the director while serving as White House liaison for Reiner’s 1995 film “The American President.” Griffin was headed for a State Department job when Reiner asked him to head up the Reiner Foundation, a pro-children charity. Griffin said he devotes half his time to Reiner political initiatives, from ballot drives to the presidential race.

For Marcia Hale, Gore’s convention manager, Griffin was an important conduit for recruiting entertainers to perform--and getting party operatives a meeting with Reiner.

“Having that trust and familiarity comes from his days in the Clinton White House,” said Hale, the former head of intergovernmental relations under Clinton.

Hale also counted on Andy Spahn, with whom she shared an office when they both worked for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in the mid-1980s.

Spahn is now perceived as the chief link between Washington and DreamWorks SKG, so Hale quickly arranged a Los Angeles dinner with Spahn and Gore fund-raising czar Terry McAuliffe.

As head of corporate affairs and corporate communications for DreamWorks, Spahn juggles a vast array of duties that includes overseeing a jumbo charity chest for issues ranging from AIDS to the arts.

Spahn said he advises the SKGs--Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen--on political campaign contributions, but “They make their own decisions. They’re very knowledgeable.”

In the old days, Hale said, an entertainer’s agent might help with political outreach, but now, “You find someone like Andy, who came out of the political world to lend their expertise to a new industry.”

And, as the media age has fueled requests for appearances, “it takes someone smart and sophisticated to sort through it all,” Hale said.

One initially skeptical Democratic Party heavyweight who worked with Chad Griffin during the convention was shocked at the kind of clout the twentysomething Griffin had with the titans of industry--in this case, Hollywood.

“I said to him ‘Chad, Find me a star. I can do for them what you do for Rob Reiner,’ ” said the bemused party operative.

Really?

“If I thought someone was genuinely serious about an issue I care about, like AIDS, I would work for them. If I found someone interesting who would give me a [lot] of money. What am I doing now that’s so wonderful?” the operative said, joking: “If Ricky Martin told me he needed one.”

Bojarsky is well out of the closet about her role, but other Hollywood politicos, like Robert Redford’s point woman for his environmental and political activism, Joyce Deep, prefer a low-key, behind the scenes role.

So does Cherie Simon, an advisor for Norman Lear, who handles his political outreach, strategy and advocacy work. Here, the pre-election run-up has meant calls seeking Lear’s support and advice from local, state and national political campaigns. Progressive organizations have sought his assistance on social issues, particularly civil liberties.

Bojarsky dates her own political involvement to the days when she passed out Bobby Kennedy buttons at the age of 8. When Dreyfuss asked her to work for him nine years ago, they knew each other because of a mutual interest in the Middle East peace process. He was also involved in pro-choice activities.

“I knew what his interests were,” Bojarsky said. “They were very similar to mine.”

One night, while she was still mulling it over, she walked into a Sunset Strip nightclub and there was Dreyfuss. She says neither of them ever went to nightclubs, so it must have been a fated encounter.

“He looked at me and said ‘Well?,” Bojarsky recalls. “That’s when I finally said ‘Yes.’ ”