Lieberman in Hollywood: Will He Be Welcome?

N E W   Y O R K, Aug. 10 -- When Al Gore arrives in Los Angeles next week for the Democratic National Convention, the red carpets will be rolled out and Barbra Streisand will sing. The vice president will surely get a welcome rivaling the best of Hollywood extravaganzas.

The same may not be said, however, of Gore’s running mate, Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman. Privately, there has been mixed reaction to Gore’s selection of the senator, a vocal critic of Hollywood and what he sees as its excesses of violence and sexual content in movies and television programs.

“When Lieberman runs around the country and says that people in this town are morally vacuous, people don’t respond well to that because it is not true,” says one longtime Hollywood producer, who asked not to be identified. “And [Lieberman] knows it is not true.”

But Tinseltown has a long history of supporting Democratic candidates, and while many in the industry say they do not agree with the senator’s views, he is likely to be accepted merely because he is the running mate to Gore, a candidate many want to see in the White House.

Tough, But Independent

“[Lieberman] is a tough but independent man of great integrity,” says Andy Spahn, a Democratic fund-raiser in Hollywood and a spokesman for Dreamworks, owned avid Democratic supporters Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg. “He doesn’t pull his punches — including the ones that have come our way.”

Democrats have had little trouble wooing over Hollywood. Although the GOP courts names like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Selleck and Pat Boone, the entertainment industry tends to be overwhelmingly Democratic. On the money trail, Gore currently outpaces George W. Bush, with $900,000 to the Republican’s $700,000, in donations coming from show business sources this election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The last Democratic convention held in Los Angeles, in 1960 for the nomination of John F. Kennedy, was awash in celebrity. Stars like Henry Fonda and Harry Belafonte stumped for the candidate on television. Years later, Bill Clinton would usher in a whole new era of Hollywood-infused politics. Much of the relationship that Clinton stoked during his two terms in office has carried over to Gore.