1) Actor Alec
Baldwin (The Shadow, Hunt for Red October, The Edge) has taken a
hiatus from acting to pursue liberal politics and is considering a run
for the Senate, saying that a House seat is beneath him. Baldwin now
serves as the President of Creative Coalition, a liberal celebrity
activist organization dedicated to pushing "campaign finance
reform."
The November
24 issue of New York magazine featured an eye opening profile of
Baldwin's most recent political activities. In the article, Baldwin
complained about how Democrats are not liberal enough: "Democrats
of the seventies and eighties are too tolerant, too open-minded, not
feral enough....I want to be the ferocious liberal."
Baldwin
offered an illuminating insight on how he views success, a bit of
reasoning which illustrates why Hollywood is so full of liberals. In
short, Baldwin believes that success comes from pure dumb luck, and
not from hard work, talent, or ambition. He excused his recent box
office bombs by reasoning: "To become Nicholson, Brad Pitt --
that's an act of God. It has nothing to do with your ability."
So, why shouldn't the wealthy pay higher taxes? After all, whether or
not a person is successful is only a question of luck -- life's a
lottery and the government must make those with luck pay for those
without it.
Baldwin's
attitude might well be blamed for his inability to reach the top.
Indeed, Baldwin even referred to the lottery analogy in explaining why
he moved away from Los Angeles to Long Island, New York:
"You had to pretend that you liked all these people and wanted to
be their friend....I fucking hate L.A....Rich and famous in L.A. is
more toxic than anything....I began to believe that winning the
Lottery meant just more face time with the people I found it
increasingly difficult to communicate with. You get tired of the
problems. I want to have a good time. I've had enough of difficult
situations."
When asked
about rumors that he is considering running for Congress against
Republican Congressman Michael Forbes of New York, Baldwin told the
magazine: "Could I run against Forbes next year and win? I think
I could beat the crap out of Forbes. Would I want to be a Congressman
from the East End of Long Island, and go to Washington and be one of
the 435 people down there in a Republican controlled Congress? No.
What's the job I want to have? I'd say Senate. Governor of New York.
It would be great."
New Yorkers
could actually do worse, believe or not -- they could get Alec's
brother Billy, also an actor. A December 8 New Republic piece
chronicled a bus trip taken by the two brothers to Massachusetts to
push for campaign finance reform. The magazine's Stephen Glass
recounted a conversation with Billy:
"I ask him if the current campaign finance hearings will spur
reform and, if so, what kind of reform he would like to see. Without
missing a beat, he tells me that the scandals are for the most part
'crap.' He then says the real scandal was in 1980, when soon-to-be
Vice President Bush allegedly went to Paris to delay the release of
the hostages until Reagan had won the election."
2) Contrast
Alec Baldwin with TV star Drew Carey. The November issue of Reason
magazine featured an interview with the star of the popular ABC sitcom
"The Drew Carey Show," Wednesdays at 9pm ET/PT on ABC. Carey
does not believe that big government is the solution to all the
world's ills, quite the opposite, as this interview revealed. Carey
has little in common with the elite Hollywood left who parade their
causes-du-jour. In fact, he is quick to point out the hypocrisy of the
Hollywood Cause-culture:
"Everybody in Hollywood loves symbolic gestures....Hollywood
people are filled with guilt: white guilt, liberal guilt, money guilt.
They feel bad that they're so rich, they feel they don't work that
much for all that money, and they don't...."
Talking later
about doing Comic Relief, Carey charged: "[it was] all
gourmet-catered, all the drinks were free, not a homeless guy in
sight. Everyone in Hollywood comes to these things and then says,
'Look how we cured homelessness.' They feel guilty if they party and
there's not a good reason for it....Still, I wish there were more
organizations like [Comic Relief]. Then the government wouldn't step
in all over the place. Then you could decide for yourself to help the
homeless or not to help the homeless...."
Asked about
his attitude towards government, Carey reasoned to Reason: "The
less the better....You should never depend on the government for your
retirement, your financial security, for anything. If you do, you're
screwed....P.J. O'Rourke once said the government has passed enough
laws, it should just stop. It oversteps its bounds so often. Giving it
a little bit of power is like getting a little bit pregnant."
3) A couple
of times this season Dick Wolf, Executive Producer of NBC's Law and
Order, has inserted his personal political views on gun control and TV
ratings into the otherwise usually politically balanced show. Aired
Wednesday nights at 10pm ET/PT, the show follows two New York City
detectives as they solve a crime and then the program shifts to shows
the prosecutors in action.
In the
November 5 episode the detectives track down some men who held up a
bank and discover that the culprits belong to a militia group. When
the police find the militia group's arsenal of weapons during a raid,
one detective says to the other: "Enough guns to take over Staten
Island. Take a picture and send it to Charlton Heston." Heston
now serves as spokesman for the National Riffle Association.
Wolf has made
his position on gun control quite clear. In an ongoing debate over the
new descriptive television ratings system, Wolf has attacked Sen. John
McCain (R-AZ) for "forcing" networks to comply with the
system (NBC so far has refused to adopt the new ratings system), while
being "weak" on gun-control. In an August 4 op-ed for the
Los Angeles Times, Wolf remarked: "We all know that politics
makes strange bedfellows. But how can organizations such as the
National Education Association, the National PTA and the Children's
Defense Fund willingly align themselves and utilize Sen. John McCain
as their surrogate in the Senate? McCain obviously has no moral
dilemma about being the senatorial voice supposedly protecting the
children of America from those murderous 30-inch Sonys, when during
the 102nd Congress he voted against the five-day waiting period for
handgun purchases, and in the 103rd Congress, voted against the Brady
Bill."
Wolf charged
that the ratings system "is a classic example of fear and
political expediency replacing rational thinking." The October 15
episode reflected that view. A female Navy pilot is suspected of
killing a married Navy man with whom she was having an affair. Her
attorney appears on a Larry King-like talk show and says: "This
is not about a military necessity. This is about big government trying
to legislate morality, not just in sexual matters, but in every area
of our lives, including what you can and cannot watch on
television."
4) Some short
items: Hollywood hosted Clinton; Ice-T defended cop killer song,
Michael Keaton praised Clinton's effectiveness -- and Carter too; Judd
Nelson demanded more NEA spending; and Colonel Klink blasted right
wing crazies for trying to destroy Clinton.
Clinton
Courted Hollywood for Weekend of Fund Raising. President Clinton
stayed at the Malibu Beach home of film producer Jerry Katzenberg
during a November weekend of appearances and fundraising. The November
16 Los Angeles Times reported that Clinton dined that weekend with
Hollywood celebrities and politicians. Among those at one dinner were
Tom Hanks, Kevin Spacey, David Geffen, and Barry Diller, as well as
Mayor Richard Riordan (R), and a former Cabinet official, the just
indicted Henry Cisneros.
Rapper Ice-T:
No apologies for "Cop Killer" Album. During his November 13
appearance on the nationally syndicated Keenen Ivory Wayans television
show, rapper Ice-T had no apologies for his most infamous album
"Cop Killer", which encouraged listeners to kill police
officers. Keenen asked: "Now your most controversial was
Cop-Killer, of course. The most controversial record that you made.
How did that affect you. All the back-lash, and all that."
Ice-T
replied: "I was like, wow, they buggin' over this record, because
the record had been out over a year...I mean, the attitude I have for
the record hasn't changed really, because that record was really a
protest record. It was written a year before the uprising in Los
Angeles, and it was the way people was feeling in Los Angeles, people
were basically saying 'If these cops do not change, we going to bring
it to 'em.' And they did. So I had done nothing wrong, and I don't
apologize for that."
Michael
Keaton on Clinton: "An Amazingly Effective President." Actor
Michael Keaton was in Washington in November to co-emcee the Jefferson
Awards to honor Americans "who have made a difference through
public service." The award was created by Jackie Kennedy and Sen.
Robert Taft. While in town, Keaton made an appearance on CNBC's
Hardball. Host Christopher Matthews asked Keaton who in government had
done a lot to help the country. Keaton answered:
"I think of guys like Jimmy Carter, who was the real deal
man....you know it's weird because he may be looked at, people at some
point may look back and think he was a great President, I know a lot
of people don't think he was....sometimes you have to look back from a
perspective, I think like, for instance, I think Clinton will leave,
and on paper, people will say this was an amazingly effective
President. While it's happening I don't think they see it necessarily.
And by the way, you know, I voted for him, and I'd probably vote for
him again...."
Backing the
National Endowment for the Arts. In a December 9 discussion about NEA
funding on ABC's Politically Incorrect, Judd Nelson, star of NBC's
Suddenly Susan sit-com, argued in favor of government supported arts.
"I think that any kind of measure of any cultural society are
these myriad of interests in the arts, I mean, I think that's
wonderful that with government support, this country has grown by
leaps and bounds....Maybe government should learn to do more than just
what is necessary, but to do what is visionary, to do what is
altruistic."
Colonel Klink
blasted right-wingers. Werner Klemperer, who many will remember as
Colonel Klink from TV's Hogan's Heroes, complained on the December 10
Politically Incorrect about conservative criticism of Clinton:
"What is this pathological, totally pathological craziness of the
right wing to just destroy the man [Clinton] and his wife?"
