Hollywood, America & Election '08

[Greg Strangis]

Chair
DENNIS DOTY and

Event Chairs

CHUCK FRIES & LEE MILLER

Invite You To

A SPECIAL CAUCUS EVENT

HOLLYWOOD, AMERICA AND ELECTION ‘08

The Caucus invites you to the last word before the final ballot!

In the dying days of a long campaign, a chance to engage

And vent with your colleagues.

As they- and – you discuss what has been, what is and what is likely to be,

after the longest election in our nation’s history.

Panel Chair, Lionel Chetwynd invites you to
Meet and Greet Caucus Members and Friends
Monday, October 27th 2008
Beverly Hills Hotel
11:30 – No Host Reception Noon – Lunch 12:45 PM – Panel Discussion
Tickets: $75/person $750/table of 10
Seats are limited. Reservations are a must!

Please use the form provided.

PANELISTS:
Lionel Chetwynd
– Executive Producer, Writer & Co-Chair of The Caucus Steering Committee




Patricia Heaton


– Actress/Producer, Four Boys Films

Frank Luntz
– Ph.D, Polster

Harry Thomason
- Executive Producer, Writer, Mozark Productions

(Additional Panelists to be Announced)

[Greg Strangis]

Hollywood, America and Election ‘08
October 27, 2008
Beverly Hills Hotel

11:30 AM – No Host Reception
Noon – Lunch 12:45 PM – Panel Discussion

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For Producers, Writers & Directors

An Alliance of Television & New Media Content Creators

Post Office Box 11236, Burbank, California 91510-1236
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FAX: (818)-846-2159 www.caucus.org (http://www.caucus.org)

[Greg Strangis]

From today's Hollywood Reporter (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i28df3fc9f6707d14460f4bedad4a506b):


In a room full of television industry executives, no one seemed inclined to defend MSNBC on Monday for what some were calling its lopsidedly liberal coverage of the presidential election.

The cable news channel is "completely out of control," said writer-producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, a self-proclaimed liberal Democrat.

She added that she would prefer a lunch date with right-leaning Fox News star Sean Hannity over left-leaning MSNBC star Keith Olbermann.

Olbermann was criticized by many who attended Monday's luncheon sponsored by the Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The event was dubbed "Hollywood, America and Election '08."

Bloodworth-Thomason and others seemed especially critical of the way MSNBC -- and other media -- has attacked Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin while demeaning her supporters.

"We should stop the demonizing," she said, adding that Democrats have been worse than Republicans as far as personal attacks on candidates are concerned. "It diminishes us," she said of her fellow Democrats.

Bloodworth-Thomason even suggested a defense of Palin and her supporters should be written into TV programming, just as she went out of her way to portray Southern women as smart in her hit TV show "Designing Women."

Attendee Michael Reagan, the radio talk-show host and son of President Ronald Reagan, said he no longer will appear as a guest on MSNBC because "I actually get death threats."

"I'll stop sending them," joked Larry Gelbart, the writer, producer and director best known for the "M*A*S*H" television series and such movie screenplays as "Tootsie" and "Oh, God!"

Pollster Frank Luntz, a regular guest on the Fox News, joked that MSNBC is "the only network with more letters in its name than viewers."

On a more serious note, Luntz said it's a problem that the electorate chooses to watch news programs not for information but to confirm already-held beliefs, and that applies to viewers of CNN and Fox News as well.

Luntz predicted a Barack Obama victory and said that one of the many reasons the Democrats have been more effective with their message is because, while Republicans dominate talk radio, Democrats have begun to dominate the Internet.

"I'd rather have the Internet," he said.

Obama also gets credit because he's a better communicator than past Democrats, Luntz said, comparing the previous Democratic presidential nominee, John Kerry, to one of those trees that threw apples at Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz."

Actress Patricia Heaton noted that Hollywood workers too often just assume everyone they work with is a like-minded liberal. When those around her belittle John McCain or Palin, she politely reminds them that she's a Republican.

"That's what you have to do in our town," she said.

Actor Beau Bridges lamented that there is "too much entertainment" in elections nowadays. "Just put 'em in a room -- like we are now -- and let 'em talk about the issues," he said.

Some of the most spirited debate came from the panel's moderator, outspoken conservative Lionel Chetwynd. The writer, director and producer passionately defended the Iraq War and Palin, whom he called "the ideal Jeffersonian political figure."

Chetwynd's performance prompted Gelbart to joke that Chetwynd was the most "immoderate moderator" he had ever seen.

"It's a liberal organization," Chetwynd said of the Caucus. "But I'm trying."

[Greg Strangis]

From today's Variety (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117994771.html?categoryid=18&cs=1):


About an hour into an industry panel on this year's election, pollster Frank Luntz (http://www.variety.com/profiles/people/main/659393/Frank%20Luntz.html?dataSet=1) made an announcement: Sen. Ted Stevens (http://www.variety.com/profiles/people/main/980377/Ted%20Stevens.html?dataSet=1) of Alaska had been convicted of violating ethics laws, including the disclosure of gifts and home remodeling work.

"He's under house arrest -- renovated house arrest," quipped panelist Larry Gelbart (http://www.variety.com/profiles/people/main/30299/Larry%20Gelbart.html?dataSet=1).

Such acerbic wit flowed freely at the event, a sometimes raucous, sometimes eloquent forum that may be the closest thing the entertainment industry has to a debate on the historic election. Sponsored by the Caucus for Producers, Writers and Directors, the confab brought together politically minded figures from both sides of the partisan divide.

Moderator and organizer Lionel Chetwynd (http://www.variety.com/profiles/people/main/53099/Lionel%20Chetwynd.html?dataSet=1), a longtime supporter of Republican candidates, was joined by Luntz, Gelbart, Patricia Heaton (http://www.variety.com/profiles/people/main/42563/Patricia%20Heaton.html?dataSet=1), Beau Bridges (http://www.variety.com/profiles/people/main/33923/Beau%20Bridges.html?dataSet=1) and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason (http://www.variety.com/profiles/people/main/193317/Linda%20Bloodworth-Thomason.html?dataSet=1), with Gil Cates (http://www.variety.com/profiles/people/main/31707/Gilbert%20Cates.html?dataSet=1) in the Beverly Hills Hotel (http://www.variety.com/profiles/Company/main/2010359/Beverly%20Hills%20Hotel.html?dataSet=1) audience to add a comment or two.

The conversation grew most lively and heated on the subject of Sarah Palin and the war in Iraq. There were few conflicts, however, over the state of the race, with little sense of optimism for John McCain (http://www.variety.com/profiles/people/main/33952/John%20McCain.html?dataSet=1) and even the Republican Party on Nov. 4.

"The Republican Party, until it gets a message that empathizes and connects with hard-working and middle-class Americans, the party will not be back to where it is today," Luntz said, adding that McCain is "the worst communicator the Republicans have had."

"Stevie Wonder reads a teleprompter better than John McCain," he quipped.

With the news of Stevens' conviction, which throws his re-election into jeopardy, the chances of Democrats reaching 60 Senate seats, Luntz said, were now "50-50."

Securing those 60 seats would please plenty of people who were in the room.

Barack Obama (http://www.variety.com/profiles/people/main/781627/Barack%20Obama.html?dataSet=1) dominates Hollywood when it comes to campaign contributions. Obama has collected $5.8 million to McCain's $964,271, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Cates said that it comes down to a matter of "trust."

"I like John McCain. I think he is a great American hero. I think he is a wonderful guy," Cates said. "But I don't trust him. He seems to be arthritic. He seems to be unwilling to accept new ideas. He seems to be absolutely bound to go in a way that is proven to be a disaster to us."

Yet Chetwynd defended McCain's record and experience and cited Palin's reform efforts in Alaska, among other things, that make her an "ideal Jeffersonian figure."

"We know much less about Barack Obama than we know about Sarah Palin," Chetwynd said. "She is accused of being inexperienced, but it seems there is a better book on her than the top of the Democratic ticket."

The panel agreed on the need to improve public discourse, as the public increasingly seeks likeminded outlets as their news sources. There was talk of the derisive comments aimed at Obama at McCain campaign events, and the mockery of Palin's speech and use of pejoratives when describing her.

Bloodworth-Thomason said that even though she disagrees with Palin politically, she is dismayed by personal attacks. "It's made me angry, and it's made me angry on behalf of women," she said.

Yet Bloodworth-Thomason criticized Palin herself -- generating the most spirited moment of the event when she took exception to Palin's comment praising small towns as "wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America."

Bloodworth-Thomason, who has rural roots in Arkansas, said, "Sarah Palin absolutely says, and I am the biggest defender of small-town women, she absolutely says that we who are the real Americans, we here in the little towns, wink wink, we are the true American people -- and it is so divisive."

"No, it is not divisive," Chetwynd shot back. "That is a defensive position of the people who are in the flyover states who are constantly belittled and made fools of by the intelligentsia and the cognoscenti of Hollywood."
Bloodworth-Thomason responded, "I am totally with you on this, but to me you don't go on the campaign trail and disparage everyone else ... because implied in that is they are not Jews. They are not blacks. They are not feminists....

"That is not what she said," Chetwynd interjected.

Finally, as the debate descended to the tone of cable news commentary, Cates stood up and said, "Hold it!"
The tactic worked, and this time around, most everyone laughed.

[Greg Strangis]

From Daily News (http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_10840963):


On the surface, it would seem like I would have very little in common with someone like filmmaker Lionel Chetwynd, a staunch conservative in a town known for its liberal learnings.

But as a gay man in a mostly straight world, I know a thing or two about being in the closet, finding your voice, then coming out strong. I guess you could say we both have our war stories.

"The worst was during the Reagan years," Chetwynd told me Monday. "They hated Reagan as much as they hate Bush and it was very lonely. There was me and Chuck Heston, as I recall. Now, there are a few more of us, so I have more comfort in numbers than I had then."

Chetwynd and actress Patricia Heaton were at the Beverly Hills Hotel representing the conservative point of view during a witty and often raucous panel presented by The Caucus For Producers, Writers and Directors.

Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, Larry Gelbart and Beau Bridges were the liberals on the panel and things got so heated at times - especially on the topics of the Iraq (http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_10840963##) war and Sarah Palin - that the lunch took on the feel of "The McLaughlin Group."

Despite being different from so many of the others, Chetwynd has long remained true to himself. For that, I admire him. He has refused to compromise and has continued to work in movies and television on his terms. He's not alone in that.
"Most of my friends are very liberal," said Heaton, a two-time Emmy winner for "Everybody Loves Raymond."

"I feel all my colleagues have always been very respectful. I think here in Hollywood, often the bottom line is: `Are you making a good product?' And if you're making a good product, that's what people care about - if you're good at what you do."

The actress said she sometimes finds herself having to come out as a Republican (http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_10840963##) in the most unlikely of places, including recently at one of her son's soccer games when one of the other parents was disparaging GOP vice presidential nominee Palin.

"That's what you have to do in this town because everyone assumes you are a Democrat (http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_10840963##)," Heaton said.

She tries to ignore the criticism, though, and stick to her principles.

"There's always hate mail, but you have to just stay away from the Internet if it affects you," said Heaton, who last season starred opposite fellow conservative Kelsey Grammer on the Fox sitcom "Back to You."

You wouldn't know Heaton's politics from her roles, but Chetwynd's work ("The Hanoi Hilton," "DC 9/11: Time of Crisis," "Ike: Countdown to D-Day," "To Heal a Nation") has often been patriotic and an endorsement of conservative ideologies.
But he also wrote, directed and produced the Emmy-nominated PBS documentary, "Darkness at High Noon: The Carl Foreman Documents," about a film producer and screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses in the 1950s.

"I've survived a long time," Chetwynd said. "I've survived longer than most people who hide. It does get personal. The option is to either agree with everyone and go with the flow or shut up or be true to yourself and what you believe. And if you do that, it's gonna get personal. But if you don't go away, people are ultimately going to respect you.

"I think, in general, I enjoy the toleration - if not necessarily the respect - of my colleagues."

Clearly, Hollywood favors Barack Obama over John McCain in the presidential race. All you have to do is follow the money: According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Obama (http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_10840963##) has raised $5.8 million from Tinseltown. McCain? A mere $964,271.