Stars have Kerry in their eyes

Like a number of Hollywood activists, maverick producer Lawrence Bender says he has contributed the maximum amount allowed for Democratic presidential candidates Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards.

The producer of “Kill Bill: Vol. 1” and “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights” also hosted a fundraiser for Howard Dean -- and was impressed by Wesley K. Clark. But with those men out of the race, he sees the tide of Hollywood financial support turning toward Kerry.

While many others in Hollywood still plan to profess neutrality between Edwards and Kerry -- at least publicly -- until Super Tuesday, “at the end of the day,” Bender said, “who can get [President Bush] out?

“People are starting to realize it’s going to be Kerry.”

With defeating Bush at the top of the agenda, Hollywood Democratic political activists are predicting that the 10-state Tuesday primaries will awaken financial support in the entertainment industry and focus it on the front-runner.

That support has been something of a sleeping giant so far compared with the years when Bill Clinton established Hollywood as a fundraising mecca, and donations began to attain the gravitas of box office returns.

Chad Griffin, a former Clinton White House staffer who is now the political consultant for Rob Reiner, said the director and his wife also have written checks for the maximum $2,000 donation amount to Kerry and Edwards.

“They won’t commit until Super Tuesday,” Griffin said. After that, he predicted, “the majority of Hollywood donors and fundraisers will coalesce around one candidate. I haven’t seen so much enthusiasm for a long time about defeating a president.”

The Kerry groundswell, however, is already beginning.

A fundraising lunch with Teresa Heinz Kerry netted $200,000 on a rainy afternoon this week, drawing Hollywood activists who previously had backed other candidates. Among those mingling were Michele Reiner, a Dean supporter, and her husband, Rob, who had been Dean’s California campaign chairman.

Two weeks ago, a Kerry event serenaded by Carole King earned $250,000, according to the host, former Clinton fundraiser Daphna Ziman. “There is an emerging group of people who are finally joining the Kerry effort,” said longtime Hollywood politico Marge Tabankin.

DreamWorks honcho Jeffrey Katzenberg is also stepping into the fray, circulating a letter inviting people to a still-coalescing March 30 Kerry fundraiser, which is to start with a dinner hosted by a veteran Clinton fundraiser, supermarket magnate Ron Burkle. Organizers say they are trying to persuade Keanu Reeves and his band to play at an after-event at the Wiltern Theater.

“It’s going to be huge,” said Ira Reiner, an event co-chairman who until recently was California state chairman for the Clark effort.

Reiner said the wave of Hollywood support for Clark, which included Madonna, producer Jerry Moss and Richard Donner, director of Mel Gibson’s “Lethal Weapon” films -- “will virtually all go to John Kerry because he’s obviously going to get the nomination. It’s very late in the game, and the die has been cast.”

Norman Lear, who helped raise money for Clark -- and whose political consultant, Lara Bergthold, decamped to be national political director for Clark -- said a strong Super Tuesday showing would add to the Kerry bandwagon effect, “in the nature of all things show business.”

“My sense is, it’s moving to Kerry,” Lear said. “There’s a growing feeling that here is somebody who can beat Bush.”

If Kerry is a rising star in Hollywood, that doesn’t mean Edwards lacks commitment there. According to the newly published “The Buying of the President,” Hollywood producer and uber campaign donor Stephen Bing has given Edwards a total of $907,000 over the years.

With his liberal stands, his populist son-of-a-millworker background and his easy affability, Edwards is also being talked about as the perfect pick for a running mate, particularly if the less socially fluid Kerry rates lower with women.

“Edwards is a really good guy too,” said Lyn Lear, Norman’s wife, who cohosted the Republican-roiling event in Beverly Hills last December with environmental activist Laurie David to strategize how to beat President Bush in November.

“A Kerry-Edwards ticket would be great, with Wesley Clark as secretary of state or defense,” she said. “That would be a dream ticket.”

Donna Bojarsky, the political consultant to Richard Dreyfuss and others in the entertainment industry, said that while some Edwards backers still hope he can capture the nomination, others hope their support will help position him for the vice presidential slot.

“People are keeping their lines open to Edwards,” she said. However: “I think everyone assumes it’s going to be Kerry.”

At DreamWorks, however, David Geffen -- who raised as much as $20 million for the Democrats during the Clinton presidency -- is sitting it out. So is Steven Spielberg, according to DreamWorks’ Andy Spahn, though he said he believes Katzenberg has contributed to Edwards and Kerry.

“There is movement toward Kerry from the donor community,” Spahn said. “Both Clark and [Richard] Gephardt endorsed Kerry so that would have an impact on their donors, many of whom I’m sure are (donating the maximum) to Kerry. I have a feeling it will be more significant after the primary,” he said.

Hollywood donors were slow to warm to Kerry, according to fundraiser Ziman, a former writer-director who raised $250,000 at an event two weeks ago during which Kerry addressed people by phone.

Ziman said Hollywood did not initially warm up to Kerry as quickly it did to as some of the other candidates. “Hollywood is about the 10-second attention span and Kerry is not necessarily the kind of guy who buys into glib one-liners. He’s seriously speaking to every issue. It takes a while for people to see this is not somebody you can manipulate with the razzmatazz.”

At this point, “everybody has come around,” she said. “I think this is a time when the country wants a father figure and somebody who is strong and a hero. Somebody who can shoot an Uzi in black tie. Kerry ... makes them feel safe. And he’s elegant.”

Not to mention the fact that he came on strong in the primaries. On Wednesday, 200 people showed up to meet Kerry’s wife and hear her speak at the home of actress Cynthia Sikes Yorkin, who is married to Bud Yorkin, Lear’s longtime producing partner.

Sherry Lansing was a co-chair, and the guests were a study in boldface: Maria Shriver, along with Rita Wilson, Laurie David, Michele Reiner, Nancy Daly Riordan, Melanie Griffith, Kathleen Kennedy, Lily Zanuck, Lynda Resnick, Heather Thomas and Irena Medavoy.

Tickets were $1,000 each, though some paid $2,000, to mingle at the home built by gangster Bugsy Siegel, Yorkin said. “People are ready to get behind John,” she said. “People were kind of waiting because John was down and Dean was up. Everybody was not sure what to do.

“I think because John is obviously the choice now, people are going to rally for him,” added Yorkin, an experienced fundraiser who estimates that she and her husband gave $200,000 to Clinton and Democratic Party causes, and raised $250,000 for the Clintons’ legal defense.

Hollywood fundraising is not quite as simple now. Huge gifts such as Haim Saban’s $7-million donation to the Democratic Party in 2002 are now forbidden by law.

However, donors such as David were quick to embrace the newly formed “527 committees,” such as America Coming Together, a get-out-the-Democratic-vote effort that can legally accept larger donations.

Producer Bender -- who is helping to organize the March 30 Kerry fundraiser -- introduced Edwards to Hollywood circles early in his campaign, and helped raise money for Kerry and Dean.

“Dean created the fire that Kerry was able to capture, and I think Kerry is going to take it the distance,” he said. “To me, a Kerry-Edwards ticket would be 16 years of Democrats in the White House, because Edwards is presidential. It’s just Kerry’s turn now.”

At this stage in the political process, he said, fundraising is “incredibly important.” Hollywood activists are worried about the proposed cuts to Social Security, the threats to the environment and problems facing healthcare and education, he said.

“Bush has got this war chest. They’re going to be nasty,” Bender said. “And you raise as much money as you can to beat him. It’s B squared: Beat Bush.”