Beach Blanket Politics

Is Hollywood really run by a bunch of sex-crazed exploiters of violence determined to destroy what remains of American family values? That's what Pat Robertson and his Christian Coalition claim, and now Republican presidential candidates are trumpeting the same hysterical message.

As an encore to Dan Quayle's attack on Murphy Brown in the last election, the usually sober Bob Dole promises that "If I'm the president of the United States, I'm going to urge consumers to turn off their TV sets and not patronize these movies."

But the conservative crusade is bogus. Hollywood is driven by profit, not politics. The stuff it turns out relies heavily on sex and violence because that's what sells. This was true in the past, when most movie moguls, from Jack and Harry Warner to Darryl Zanuck, were staunch Republicans, and it's true today now that a few are Democrats. These guys go for demographics, not political ideology. Anyone who believes that Republicans don't exploit sex and violence hasn't surfed the channels lately.

Rupert Murdoch is an ardent conservative with a long record of financing right-wing politicians such as Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. Yet his Fox network has given T and A a prominence impossible during the decades when the three networks had a monopoly on taste. Not one of the older networks would have permitted a single airing of Studs, Melrose Place or that epitome of family values, Married With Children.

So who's the enemy? Pat Buchanan launched his presidential bid with a pledge to chase Hollywood's "purveyors of sex and violence back beneath the rocks from whence they came." I hope he's not going to go after Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone--Republicans down to their larger-than-life bones. True, those guys make violent movies, but they're no different from earlier Republicans John Wayne and Clint Eastwood--and nobody would call those two un-American.

While we're discussing patriotism and Hollywood, let's remember that since World War Two, Americans have been led into war by actors. John Wayne never experienced actual combat, but millions inspired by his film heroics did. For all the talk about leftists in Hollywood, the movie industry during the Vietnam war was also a major recruiter for the military. Wayne's The Green Berets was a big-budget action movie. Jane Fonda's Coming Home, about the dismal reception for a paraplegic veteran, wasn't made until three years after the war.

Nor is there any truth to the right-wing charge that Hollywood is out to undermine family values. That charge was leveled by Bob Dornan, another Republican presidential candidate, who claims that "we have a debased culture in Hollywood that ridicules and assaults religion and tears valor, hope and virtue out of our country." He must be talking about The Lion King, which gets a bit raunchy, and not Forrest Gump, which traditional-values conservatives loved. The right-wing National Review gave Gump an award for conservative values even before the film won any Academy Awards.

The entertainment business profits by allowing us to escape to lives we don't have. That's why Hollywood can't be at war with traditional values. Images of the perfect family were invented by the entertainment industry and continue to have no other existence. As Ben Stein, a screenwriter and former Nixon speech-writer, concedes, TV is "the primary teacher of family values in this country. Even the Bundys stay together. All the problems on TV are solved with human understanding and love. TV hasn't changed, really, since Ozzie and Harriet."

Hollywood would just as soon sell the Lord as the devil if it would win sweeps week or fill theaters. That's what George Vradenburg, a Fox executive vice president, tried telling a gathering of conservatives summoned by the National Review to denounce Hollywood. "We produce what will attract audiences. R-rated movies are significantly more profitable than G-rated movies. If movies are out of touch with America, why do Americans watch them? This business is driven by commercial considerations."

There was a time when politicians knew enough to look the other way when Hollywood gave Americans the movies they wanted. Back then, Republicans didn't worry about the Christian Coalition and didn't confuse Hollywood images with the real world. They took movieland celebrity for what it was: something to be exploited.

At the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California, I picked up one of my most treasured mementos: a coffee mug emblazoned with a picture of Richard Nixon and Elvis Presley shaking hands over the words The Prez and the Prince. Nixon liked that one so much that he had T-shirts made with the same image. The mug and T-shirts commemorate a terrific moment in political history, when Nixon appointed Elvis an honorary drug enforcement officer. That's class. Hollywood stars are royalty, and the president should pay homage. After all, the prime minister of England nods to the Queen, but that doesn't mean the Queen runs the country. And neither does Barbra Streisand.

Conservatives should follow the example of Ronald Reagan, who appeared in his share of T and A movies and had the good taste to invite Michael Jackson and his chimp Bubbles to the White House. Reagan also had a cozy relationship with MCA chief Lew Wasserman and made a video to honor him and his wife on their 50th wedding anniversary. Reagan knew who made him, not just as a movie star but as president. Similarly, George Bush made a big deal out of attending the premiere of My Stepmother Is an Alien because it was produced by his generous contributor and buddy Jerry Weintraub.

This gets at the source of the problem between the GOP and Hollywood. Recently, the moguls and stars have given more money to the Democrats, so the Republicans' gloves have come off. People who grew up loving Beach Blanket Bingo are suddenly yammering about the good old days when Hollywood made movies of value.

If the Republicans want to lecture Hollywood about values, maybe they should start with violence. Maybe Hollywood could cut back on blowing up buildings for a while. Come to think of it, perhaps when Bruce Willis campaigns for Republican candidates he should caution his audience that the car bombings featured in Die Hard With a Vengeance are not intended to inspire the ultraright wing.