the repulclusive, closed society so often in the news:
While it is true that the ratio of Obama-to-McCain bumper stickers in West L.A. is about 250-to-1, there are untold closet Republicans in the entertainment industry who dare not advertise their beliefs in movie studio parking lots. (Unfortunately, car keying is a tactic wielded liberally by the self-described “tolerant.”)
But in this land of superficiality and augmented assets, the inconvenient truth is that, in Hollywood, absolute conformity to the Democratic Party is a well-constructed facade. The environment is not so much unfavorable to the Grand Old Party as it is utterly totalitarian. There’s simply no lifestyle choice that receives a worse response at dinner parties.
Convicted murderer? Has anyone optioned the rights to your story?
Avowed Marxist? Viva la revolucion!
Scientologist? Do you take Visa or Mastercard?
Syphilitic drug abuser? Let’s talk!
Conservative? You should go.
Only proclaiming one’s self a practicing Christian is met with greater disdain – making Christian Republicans the gold standard in Hollywood pariah status. Fortunately, their Savior – that dude from Mel Gibson’s highest-grossing blockbuster that was shunned by the major studios – wrote the script on how to live with an unpopular point of view.
Hey, it sounds a lot like Burlington, VT.
Comment by nikkolai on 7/14 @ 2:26 pm #
Scratch a thesbian. Find a fascist?
Comment by ghostcat on 7/14 @ 2:40 pm #
Dan,
Been there, etc. (Ex-pat Vermonter … and UVM ‘65 for bonus points.)
Comment by mcgruder on 7/14 @ 2:40 pm #
having the views i do, and working in NYC media, i often find myself feeling this way.
then again, I’ve noticed that as my successes multiplied, people became sharply less concerned about my politics.
I now conclude that MSM isnt nearly as hostile to conservative thought within its own ranks as its made out to be, its just that no one ever says anything to the contrary inside newsrooms.
I guess if you can play the game, no one cares what t-shirt you wear underneath.
Comment by happyfeet on 7/14 @ 2:45 pm #
Well, what atrophies is their ability to criticize Democrats. That’s why Arnold very cunningly acts and talks and makes policy like one.
To succeed in Hollywood to where they trust you in positions where judgment is involved you have to be able to read that and say it’s George Bush’s fault gas prices are so damn high.
Oh. I found cigarettes in my cigarette-getting pants is what happened.
Comment by happyfeet on 7/14 @ 2:47 pm #
Oh. If you work out though it helps mitigate things a lot.
Comment by happyfeet on 7/14 @ 2:55 pm #
To be really honest though I don’t really know any conservatives here. I imagine meeting one would be awkward. Like you were under a lot of pressure to be super best friends or something.
Comment by MayBee on 7/14 @ 3:04 pm #
To be really honest though I don’t really know any conservatives here. I imagine meeting one would be awkward. Like you were under a lot of pressure to be super best friends or something.
Ha.
I was walking my dog the other night when I came upon a man that was walking and listening to the radio- not even using earphones. I asked him which game he was listening to and he told me he was listening to Mark Levin. Have I ever heard of him? He’s a conservative radio host.
I knew that his non-earphoneness and his telling me it was Levin without knowing anything about me was a little act of defiance. In this neighborhood, that takes guts.
Having said that, if I ever run into Angie Harmon or Gary Sinese at the grocery store, I think I’ll end up making a fool of myself. I’ll be all trying to exchange email addresses with them and stuff.
Comment by Challeron on 7/14 @ 3:09 pm #
Yeah, Angie Harmon was one of the reasons I watched Law&Order (well, it was also written better then); and since she declared herself to be a Conservative, I haven’t seen her in anything else….
Comment by kelly on 7/14 @ 3:12 pm #
Well, hf, you could face the other conservative a few paces away and take the toe of a foot and make an arc in the sand and then see what happens. From what I understand, it’s some sort of a signifier. But be careful. If the other person does the same thing and makes a fish symbol, they may just be asking where the nearest seafood place is.
Comment by CArin -BONC on 7/14 @ 3:13 pm #
I recently read an article where Maynard said he refused to tell people who to vote for (last election) because he was basically just a stupid artist, and what does he know? He is liberal, but I can forgive a lot simply because of the song “Parabola.”
Comment by CArin -BONC on 7/14 @ 3:14 pm #
Oh, and sorry. I just realized I was a tad cryptic in #10. But, I figure who doesn’t know the lead singer of Tool by their first (nick) name?
Comment by happyfeet on 7/14 @ 3:20 pm #
Also though I think conservative can just mean they’re willing to shop at Wal-Mart. You have to be on guard for false positives I think. For real though I find making a show of recycling things buys me a ridiculous amount of goodwill. You’re not as conservative as you like to think is something I hear a lot. Bless their hearts.
Comment by thud on 7/14 @ 3:25 pm #
In England I live in century long socialist stronghold…in America..the bay area…I’m well buggered…well not literaly.
Comment by MayBee on 7/14 @ 3:27 pm #
Angie Harmon is on record as being a McCain supporter, so there is that. OTOH, Reese Witherspoon got labeled a conservative for saying things like she thinks it’s crazy for people to put their babies in “PORN STAR” t-shirts.
FWIW, I’ve seen one McCain bumper sticker in all of CA that I’ve been in. No Hillary, even during the primary. A few Ron Paul. I see Obama stickers everywhere, though. The Obama campaign feels comfortable enough to call people up at work to ask for donations.
Comment by kelly on 7/14 @ 3:47 pm #
Having just spent four days in Santa Monica, I can say I was a tad disappointed. I only saw maybe a half dozen O! stickers on cars. I attribute the dearth mainly to fact that every other car was a brand new BMW or Benz or Lexus and the owners/lessees couldn’t bear to sully up the exterior…yet. I have it on good information, however, that that “new-car smell” has been officially renamed eau de O! in CA.
(Not surprisingly, focus group testing rejected eau de BO!. eau de BHO! was considered off limits because of the “H”.)
Comment by happyfeet on 7/14 @ 3:51 pm #
I’m not sure if it’s a Baracky thing or what, but the Pacifica station here used to have a big problem with double parking, and now their lot is usually half-empty, and the cars that are there are much much nicer. They really like their stickers though.
Comment by McGehee on 7/14 @ 3:52 pm #
I ran into a guy from eastern California who gave me a lift, and I thought his new car smelled a little… different. I asked him what that smell was, and he said he bought the car, if you can believe it, in a ghost town near Mono Lake. I said, Oh, Bodie eau de O!”
Comment by kelly on 7/14 @ 4:24 pm #
But what are you trying to signify, McG?
Comment by ahem on 7/14 @ 4:50 pm #
I suspect that, in Hollywood, it is actually a matter of image more than conviction. Image is everything. Who wants to look un-cool? Much better to be acceptable–especially if you don’t have much going on upstairs to debate with anyway, right?
Comment by McGehee on 7/14 @ 4:53 pm #
I don’t know what it signifies, but the smell was kinda groty. It was groty Bodie eau de O!
Comment by kelly on 7/14 @ 4:58 pm #
Oh.
Comment by Rick Smith on 7/14 @ 5:53 pm #
ahem-
I agree. I look on the Hollywood crowd as a large highschool clique where even he dropouts are considered cool. I believe it comes from their constant search for recoqnition and acceptance that would reinforce their considered opinion of themselves.
Comment by Spiny Norman on 7/14 @ 8:05 pm #
The fact that the Number One action star in Hollywood, Bruce Willis, can’t gin up any interest whatsoever in a movie about “Deuce Four”, the 24th Stryker Batallion in Mosul that Michael Yon wrote so vividly of (because it portrays the US military in a positive light?) tells me there’s something rotten in the movie business.
Comment by Jamie on 7/14 @ 8:27 pm #
Is Gary Sinese a Republican?? That’d be so very cool, because it’d mean I could love him for more than just the fact that he’s a dead ringer for my husband! (True. My husband once had to produce his driver’s license to prove he WASN’T Sinese.) (Though less true now than it was ten years ago, I must admit, because my sweetheart has grown a little “my job is sitting at a desk” belly… Still, his last “Sinese sighting” event was just a couple of months ago.)
McGehee, bwahahahahah!
Comment by MayBee on 7/14 @ 11:44 pm #
I don’t know if Sinese is a Republican, but he is really supportive of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and their families at home.
Comment by adk46er on 7/15 @ 3:47 pm #
Dan,
I can’t imagine why you think Burlington VT is liberal. I know we have a Prog mayor but come on we’re not exactly
Hollywood or Berkeley are we? On Monday I was reading this weeks’ edition of Seven Days and I like the balanced approach used by cartoonists Ted Rall, Lloyd Dangle, et al. I’ve also enjoyed the past several side splitting Andy Borowitz offerings both of which focused on Cindy McCain. I can only assume sometime in the near future he’ll be writing some equally hilarious stuff about Michelle Obama.
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