I am putting this out to you, dear readers, because I am not sure about how deeply involved Hollywood is on the Kamala Harris campaign. We know it is significant. We know Netflix’s Reid Hoffman is a big donor who demanded Joe Biden step down. We know George Clooney wrote an op-ed demanding Biden step down. We know Jeffrey Katzenberg was essentially running Joe Biden’s campaign before that. We also know that many actors were gazing onto the stage last night, teary-eyed. I saw Ben Stiller. There were others. This, in addition to the many celebrities who appeared at the Democratic National Convention. I saw someone tweet that the producers of the convention should produce the Oscars and my response was, they already kind of do. They are the same organism in a way we’ve not seen since the 1950s. Hollywood has always been one with the Democratic Party in my lifetime, but never quite to this extent.
On the one hand, it has caused them problems with their business model. The Oscars saw their ratings cut in half after they “went political” in 2016. Taking a side against Trump and all of his supporters has hurt them at the box office, with ratings and with general attention to their product. In fact, most people I encounter on the Right don’t just ignore Hollywood; they actively hate it. When I heard that The Apprentice might go to Telluride and the fear was that “MAGA extremists” would go after them at the festival, my response was they should be so lucky. There is so little interest that they would not even bother to care. The only people who will be interested in that movie are people who are consumed by their imaginary war with half the country. That might drive some box office in an election year. But no one on the Right will see it as anything but more of the same.
What is kind of interesting, from a Hollywood perspective, is what this sort-of blind item might be about:
So it’s very likely this is Kamala Harris, right? But who would be the Tinseltown mafia involved here? I did notice she seemed to have been coached in between the coup against Joe Biden and her first public speeches. To quote my mother, “she doesn’t sound as nasally and she doesn’t cackle as much so now I have no problem with her.” I noticed a softer version of Harris compared to her firebrand speeches from 2019. Her pivot from “threat to democracy” to “joy” seemed also to be pre-planned and orchestrated. Whatever they did, it seems to have worked. People see her differently than they used to and is leading in the polls. Good old Hollywood. So what do you make of it? I find it a fascinating story, albeit one the media will very likely never tell.
A lord? Are Lords different from Sirs?
Anthony Hopkins
Ian McKellen
As far as Lords, I’ve come up empty.
I would bet some of these names might be of use: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Oprah, George Clooney, Jane Fonda, and Robert De Niro.
Any guesses?