The Hollywood Club of Progressives: John Stossel’s exploration into why entertainment is so politically left
Not all that long ago in the not so far away land of Los Angeles I gave Jennie Garth and her children a private bullwhip demonstration much to their delight and fanfare, when a question about George W. Bush’s presidency came up. Jennie is the former star of Beverly Hills 90210 where she played Kelly Taylor. She’s done other things, but she will always be known for her work on that popular Fox television broadcast during the early 90s. The Bush question was related to the American policy in Afghanistan and was an invitation to “vet” me of my political beliefs—which I made very clear. Prior to the discussion I was the star of the party—the “expert bullwhip handler” from Cincinnati, Ohio. After the discussion people stayed politely distant as the politics in Hollywood is standardized to the far left. Many actors and actresses like Jennie in one on one discussions agree with Midwestern logic—but in a town where projects are “green lit” based on political affiliation—stars wanting work, or to have the opportunity to appear on television and radio to promote their work must toe the line of liberalism with a religious-like fervor. To say that one supports something that George W. Bush did as president is like saying that global warming is a myth, poor people became that way of their own making, or labor unions are filled with communist sympathizers—or that God is making baloney sandwiches for his many mistresses in the next incantation of Mt. Olympus called Heaven. The statements may have truth to them or be completely rhetorical—but because they take on a religious quality—are taboo to even speak about in the light of day—especially for those who want to work in Hollywood and make the kind of money that only that industry produces for essentially being paid spokesmen for progressive causes. This was a very good topic that John Stossel recently covered in the following video segments. The show was very excellent, very true—and paints a rather clear picture of the problem in Hollywood. All these clips should be watched.
Ayn Rand warned of this infestation of Hollywood by communist insurgents in the 40s, 50s, and 60s with her Screen Guide for Motion Pictures that was put together with the support of people like John Wayne and Walt Disney. CLICK HERE TO REVIEW. These days nobody calls them communists primarily due to the McCarthy Hearings—but the new term is progressives. If there is any doubt on the matter, read that Screen Guide written by Rand in 1947 and the situation becomes quite clear. When I was visiting with Jennie it wasn’t out of desperation to work in the industry. I personally love Hollywood and the filmmaking process—I love the art that has come to human culture through film—but I’m an old Hollywood kind of guy, a John Wayne, Errol Flynn, Douglas Fairbanks, Walt Disney type—not the new age of Hollywood that Jennie represents. I was invited to the table of Hollywood a few times because of my talents—with the little show for Jennie Garth being the last time. But the cost of that invite is to sit on your beliefs—like most actors do—and go with the flow like the paid mouthpiece that they really are as actors.
Actors are paid to say and do what shows up on a written page. So it is not hard for them to become spokesmen for causes that are progressive when their paychecks depend on it. It’s a game in Hollywood that the participant must be willing to play—and that deception ends up directly in the living rooms of nearly every American home through magazine tabloids, entertainment oriented television, or some other form of trivia. I saw a day or two ago that Pam Anderson known for her platinum blond appearance and large breasts was now going to color her hair into a brunette. This account actually made top news on Yahoo over stories like the impending budget crises in Washington, or the further failures of government health care. That’s how powerful Hollywood is, and how it has the ability to shape our culture.
Stossel’s work on this issue was particularly good even for him. I have watched Stossel’s reporting for years and used to watch 20/20 just to see his hard-hitting reporting. This is a topic that affects nearly everyone in the world because of the power that Hollywood has over the human being with its trivia producing factory. Some of that trivia I like, some of it I despise—and so do most actors—including Jennie Garth. Away from the cameras and all the tabloid photographers who follow her everywhere—she is just a mom who watched my whip performance with the same bright-eyed wonder that most people experience when they see it. Like me, she and her celebrity friends love old Hollywood and the romance of that era which is so wonderfully captured in Disney’s Hollywood Studios amusement park in Florida. But they know what it takes to get projects off the ground in the modern Hollywood, so they usually keep their opinions to themselves and do a bit of acting to sell their projects to investors—and a hungry public.
When Stossel gave Harrison Ford a rough time for his rainforest public awareness piece as being hypocritical because the Indiana Jones star is a very dedicated pilot who has 7 airplanes of his own—in private Harrison Ford and Stossel are likely to have many more similar beliefs than opposite ones—Ford likely sees the hypocrisy when he lends his image to a “green friendly” cause—but he’s an actor and can justify it to himself by taking one of his big planes to get a hamburger just to even things out in his head. There’s a reason Ford moved to Wyoming and built a ranch—it was to be away from the constant pressure to put on a mask for progressive causes and to actually relax—which is nearly impossible to do in Hollywood—where politicians seek desperately to have their photos taken with celebrities to bolster their image. As a box office juggernaut even Ford has to play the game to get work in Hollywood, and for him a little rain forest message is no skin off his back if it keeps him on the invite list—because after all—who is against the rainforest? Even developers are pro rainforest—because if they are all cut down—what will those people do for work. Lumber companies tend to be some of the greatest conservationists—they actually replant trees so that twenty years from now they can cut them down again. Trees actually grow; they are not a finite resource. Plus they eat a lot of the emissions that are given off by Ford’s airplanes. So it’s a win/win situation.
Stossel had some interesting ideas on why Hollywood was so liberal, and I think there is a lot of truth to them. But he’s only scratching the surface on the cause. Actors and actresses like Jennie Garth are paid to play someone else, so it isn’t difficult for them to put on their acting hat and take up a cause for the cameras when they are told to do so. They might say in private during bullwhip demonstrations away from cameras, producers, and money men what they really think, but when it’s time to act, they do—and in Hollywood it is progressive causes that keep actors and other entertainment professionals employed. Rather, it is the labor unions that most entertainment professionals belong to which sets the standard of liberalism. That is what an actress like Jessica Alba has in common with a machinist at Boeing in Seattle—they both belong to labor unions with a fundamental communist outlook at the world marketplace, and they will bend their belief system around the way they make money for themselves. Most machinists working at Boeing are solid blue-collar truck driving Americans—who love to watch Chuck Norris and Clint Eastwood films—of rugged independence. But when it’s time for a union vote—they meet at the union hall and rant and rave about the inequities of management versus the worker—or otherwise the proletariat versus the bourgeoisie—the roots of the behavior are in communism imported into America through the labor unions—setting up shop in the entertainment industry just as Ayn Rand warned—who was a screenwriter herself working for Cecil B Demille prior to the infestation.
Communists wanted Hollywood as an obvious strategic platform to project their philosophy of global equality to the entire world—and they came through the back door of the labor unions. The result is that people like Jennie Garth become the gate keepers of the next generation of Hollywood hopefuls. After our get-together and my comments in support of George W. Bush the warm reception I had in Hollywood went cold quickly. Flying into LAX the reception was warm, the dinners were frequent, and company was robust to say the least. Civility ruled the day and the rest of my meeting was cordial—subtly so. But when I left Los Angeles that time the car that picked me up at the hotel had nobody in it but the driver—unlike when I arrived. I was treated well, but uneventfully dropped off outside the airport as promised—but nothing more. When I arrived home, phone calls were no longer received, emails unanswered and the trail had gone cold on the projects we were working on. A stunt coordinator who had introduced Jennie and I told me nearly two years later—“no offense—but you’re too much Cincinnati. There’s a reason they call them ‘flyover’ states.” It doesn’t matter that Steven Spielberg, Tom Cruise, and George Clooney are all from Cincinnati—what matters to Hollywood is that the Midwestern charisma is kept, but the acceptance of progressivism is advanced. Failure to advance progressive causes means a failure to work—even for Steven Spielberg. Spielberg would NEVER come out in favor of a future presidential candidate like Rand Paul, or even Ben Carson—because in so doing, the industry would turn on his projects and his reviews would be terrible. He’d be blacklisted in a worse way—through the critical appraisal network which can cost a production company millions of box office take. Just look at what happened to Jerry Bruckheimer after The Lone Ranger. The safe bet is to stay tight-lipped and hope that people learn something from their films—such as in the movie Lincoln where it was obvious that Republicans worked on behalf of freeing slaves and Democrats wanted to continue the practice. Spielberg did this film while trying to help Obama bolster his image with private advice.
Shortly after that incident I decided to start this blog because I figured that as things were, I wouldn’t do any work for Hollywood anyway—at least during this progressive era. So I might as well be unique and make my opinions about things known. I knew it would cause me to become blacklisted in certain business and entertainment circles, but so what. I have other things I’m good at in life, and I can use those things to make money—I don’t have to dance in a monkey suit for progressive causes just so my projects can get funding—which is all the liberalism in Hollywood is really about. The labor unions keep progressivism alive for the benefit of the communist roots that was injected into Hollywood prior to the start of World War II. And it is those labor unions which keep Hollywood radicalized and liberal for the benefit of Socialist International and other global organizations intent to finish the spread of global communism to every nation on earth. It is because of that game that even mentioning George W. Bush in Hollywood is a dangerous thing to do, but to speak about Nelson Mandela—the great pacifist of South Africa—and communist—will lead to bottles of wine, and escorts back to the airport—and returned phone calls even if a person lives in Ohio. Often people—especially actors—shape their opinions about things not around their actual beliefs—but in what fills their bellies, and pays their bills. And in Hollywood where the opportunity to make millions of dollars with lifelong security is at stake—many people will alter their personal beliefs for the trade of financial security—99.999999999999999% of the time—I just happen to be one of the .000000000000001 who won’t.
Rich Hoffman
