Hollywood walks a fine political line
Election '08: Featuring a cast of thousands
|
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama took center stage during their pre-Super Tuesday debate, but reaction shots revealed an Oscar-worthy supporting cast, as CNN made certain that prominent actors, directors and producers -- Steven Spielberg, Diane Keaton, Pierce Brosnan, Rob Reiner, etc. -- occupied prime locations whenever cameras panned the Hollywood crowd, relegating Democratic Party officials to the theater's upper tiers.
It was the glamorous image the network clearly wanted to convey as well as one that doubtless had GOP strategists salivating -- eager as they are to depict Democrats as catering to limousine liberals, pampered stars that preach about global warming while they hopscotch the globe aboard corporate jets.
"The Daily Show's" Jon Stewart summed up the way those visuals must have looked to much of middle America by honoring the night's "most visibly concerned celebrity," and quipping that the next debate would be billed as "the battle in the bathhouse."
Given how difficult it is to distinguish cable news from "TMZ," the lure of injecting celebrity into politics is too powerful to resist. Never mind that the same news outlets and commentators capitalizing on that wattage mock candidates for grasping stars' coattails and chide actors for daring to stray off script. Hey, why let a little hypocrisy interfere with a good story?
George Clooney, for one, inherently gets this. He told Time magazine last year that he informed his preferred contender, Obama, " 'Look, I'll give you whatever support you need -- including staying completely away from you.' Actors have done a lot of damage to candidates lately."
ASSIGNING VALUE to celebrity endorsements is hardly an exact science, but they surely offer ripe fodder for satirists such as the Onion, which immortalized Oprah Winfrey hitting the campaign trail on Obama's behalf with a story headlined, "'Oprah' viewers patiently awaiting instructions."
"In these complex times, it can be frightening to have to go three weeks without any guidance from a television personality," the mag quoted a fictitious "homemaker" as saying. "But we must remain true to Oprah's vision. ... She will not leave us to make decisions for ourselves."
Being famous, of course, doesn't require forfeiting the rights possessed by other citizens, and many stars have drawn much-needed attention to issues such as the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. Moreover, at a moment when newscasts shamelessly pander to tabloid impulses by leading with Britney Spears, it's no surprise that Robert De Niro backing Obama qualifies as "breaking news."
That said, based on recent history it's naïve not to recognize Clooney's point. Conservatives gleefully leverage affiliations with Hollywood to paint Democrats as, to borrow a line from Woody Allen, "left-wing, communist, Jewish, homosexual pornographers," and dangling suggestions like "Secretary of State Sean Penn" to agitate their base.
MANY PUNDITS overreach in their lust to wed politics with pop culture, assuming those on the left submissively take orders from favorite stars. They'd also have you believe every entertainment selection is fueled by relentless partisanship and that if a Penn movie flops or Alec Baldwin's series struggles ratings-wise, it's a referendum on his outspoken progressive views.
Even respected news outlets aren't immune to such questionable leaps, as the Wall Street Journal demonstrated in an exhaustive piece that linked declining tune-in for Fox's "24" to shifting political winds and distaste for the Bush administration's apparent sanctioning of torture.
It's a provocative theory that overlooks a more obvious culprit -- namely, the program's qualitative nosedive, as last season's mess of a story sputtered out around episode 18.
Perhaps appropriately, this election cycle has sparked renewed interest in John F. Kennedy's legacy, inviting comparisons to Obama's youth and inspirational qualities. Yet Kennedy's relationship with Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack is also illustrative, inasmuch as Sinatra worked tirelessly to get JFK elected, only to see the president distance himself from the star at the urging of advisers concerned about Sinatra's more unsavory acquaintances.
Granted, that's an extreme case, but it speaks to the inherent perils when Washington intersects with Hollywood, where celebrities can easily become entangled by the fine line between being useful and just plain being used.
