James Hirsen
Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2003

Hollywood’s leftist tendencies were exposed recently in a big way. The story has to do with California’s recall election. And it involves one of the most prominent corporate power players in the entertainment biz, the influential Creative Artists Agency.

As they often do in Tinseltown, contradictions abound.

First, Arnold Schwarzenegger said that CAA was endorsing him for governor.

Then CAA said it wasn’t.

Next, the Schwarzenegger campaign identified CAA Managing Director Bryan Lourd as an economic adviser to the campaign.

Then Lourd’s spokesman indicated Lourd wasn’t participating.

Next, the New York Post reported that actor Tom Hanks, a CAA client, was irate that his agency was lending a hand to Arnold and that Hanks was part of a lefty cabal organizing against the Terminator.

Then Hanks issued a statement vilifying the N.Y. Post column.

Next, after CAA’s Lourd failed to show up for the first meeting of economic advisers, Schwarzenegger told the press, “They believe in me, they endorse me, and they will be behind me 100 percent.”

Then, later in the day, CAA issued a statement that read, “As official company policy, Creative Artists Agency does not endorse political candidates.”

Next, the super-agent’s name was stricken from the campaign’s press materials. And so it goes …

Apparently, CAA and Lourd have a different policy when a “D,” as opposed to a “scarlet R,” happens to follow a candidate’s name.

According to the Los Angeles Times, an aide to Gray Davis confirmed that, in the past, CAA had allowed its facilities to be used for political activity. In 1998, Davis rehearsed for debates at CAA’s building.

Federal records indicate that the power agency also gave an aggregate $50,000 to Democrat committees in 1999 and 2000. It gave $12,500 in 1999 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and $12,500 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. And in 2000, CAA wrote a check for $25,000 to the Democratic National Committee.

Lourd participated in the past, too. He gave $1,000 to Hillary Clinton’s Senate campaign in 1999. And he gave another grand to Dianne Feinstein in 2000. Other Lourd beneficiaries included Dick Gephardt and Teddy Kennedy.

The Left Coast Report says if you want to make it in Hollywood these days, guess you have to be prepared to take the Hypocritic Oath.

Di-Fi Gunning for Issue

At a press conference that was ostensibly held to drum up support for a permanent ban on so-called military-style assault weapons, Sen. Dianne Feinstein stood next to wanna-stay Gov. Gray Davis and called on Arnold Schwarzenegger to “renounce the weapons he has brandished on the screen.”

Feinstein whined that “his [Arnold’s] movies glorify these guns and might encourage young people to use them.”

The grand dame of Democrat demagoguery conveniently avoided mentioning the names of other prominent movie gun toters such as Woody Harrelson.

Oops, I forgot. He’s a lefty “assault weapons” cinema slinger.

The Left Coast Report remembers that not so many years ago Di-Fi bought a real handgun and got a real permit to carry it in California. Guess that little bit of real footage somehow landed on DNC’s cutting-room floor.

Arianna Loses Her Head Man

Poor Arianna Huffington. It’s getting harder and harder to take her campaign for governor seriously.

First, the author/activist was seen trying to shove her head into an Arnold photo op.

Then, after slamming corporate fat cats who use loopholes, the news came out that, in the past two years, she herself paid only $771 in federal taxes; this despite the fact that her Brentwood home is reportedly valued at $7 million.

On another note, Arianna has been outspoken against “high-priced lobbyists” and their influence on public policy. But after the Los Angeles Times reported that her campaign manager, Dean Barkley, was a lobbyist for major tobacco, gambling and waste-hauling companies, Huffington could respond only that she didn’t know that tidbit when she hired him.

Now Barkley (the same guy who guided the short-lived political career of former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura) has quit. His reason? He said that lobbying work for a major tobacco firm might interfere with Huffington’s fund-raising with the “Hollywood crowd.”

The Left Coast Report points out that Huffington has been working her Hollywood contacts pretty hard. “West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin, “Seinfeld” producer Larry David and singer Barbra Streisand are among those who have already coughed up moolah for her.

Angelyne Gets Body Work

For what seems like forever, the ample Angelyne has been on L.A. billboards. Now she’s running for governor.

But evidently on her hopeful hike to the governor’s mansion, Angelyne has also run into some trouble. And she’s temporarily unable to drive her trademark pink Corvette.

It seems that she was involved in a fender bender, and although she wasn’t injured, her car was seriously damaged.

While the vehicle remains at the body shop, she resorts to using a rental car.

The Left Coast Report doesn’t believe Angelyne should worry, though. If the car repair doesn’t work out to her satisfaction, she can always go for a Queer Eye episode.

Sounds of Hollywood Silence

You knew they couldn’t keep quiet for very long.

When it came to Arnold Scharzenegger’s run for governor, the trades were marveling at the Hollywood Left’s “wall of silence.”

Some thought that maybe the libs would give the gubernatorial hopeful a pass. After all, he’s married to a Kennedy, he’s socially liberal, etcetera, etcetera.

Well, recently the wall has been flaking a bit.

Pretend prez Martin Sheen gave a statement to “Access Hollywood.” He said that Schwarzenegger “got his marching orders from the Bush administration.”

Sheen also echoed Gray Davis’s Clinton-like speech, which slammed the California recall as “an effort to grab the state for Republicans.” He even compared it to the 2000 Florida debacle.

A spokesman for Woody Harrelson didn’t exactly shock the Western world when he revealed that “Woody is diametrically opposed to Arnold Schwarzenegger's political positions. He does not support the candidacy.”

And surprise, surprise – the usual lefty suspects, which include such notables as Barbra Streisand, Steven Spielberg, Warren Beatty, Susan Sarandon, Al Franken, Ed Asner, Mike Farrell and Rob Reiner, aren’t Arnold backers either.

The Left Coast Report observes it’s a sure sign that a candidate is moving in the right direction when the Hollywood libs start braying.

Arnold Debuts on Talk Radio

As GOP leaders were warning that Republicans had to unite behind one candidate or risk losing the race to replace Gov. Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared for the first time on two conservative talk radio programs.

The spots were the San Diego-based “Roger Hedgecock Show” and the syndicated “Hugh Hewitt Show.”

On Hedgecock’s program, Arnold quoted Ronald Reagan’s “shining city on a hill.” And he said that one of the first things he would do as governor would be to repeal the infamous car tax.

Arnold also said that, absent any emergencies such as terrorism or natural disasters, he would not raise taxes to solve the state’s fiscal crisis.

The Left Coast Report notes that it’s good to know Arnold is quoting the Gipper, but it’s even more reassuring to hear him incorporating some Reagan principles.

A Cybill Shepherd/Herman Munster Smooch

On Scharzenegger’s bid for governor, Cybill Shepherd went so far as to speak in apocalyptic terms.

The actress said that if Arnold were elected it would “be the worst tragedy in the history of California.”

In Cybill’s mind, Arnold is worse than a quake, a wildfire, a mudslide or a Jerry Brown.

Cybill also seems to have unearthed a peculiar sort of repressed memory. Curiously, she has remembered a passionate “From Here to Eternity” kiss that she had 36 years ago on a beach in Hawaii with the currently embattled California Gov. Gray Davis.

She shared the unappealing recollection with the San Francisco Chronicle and the world.

The Left Coast Report thinks most people would agree that’s one memory that’s better left repressed.

The Left Coast Report is put together by James L. Hirsen and the staff of NewsMax.

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Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
California Governor's Race
Media Bias

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