Analysis: Hollywood-GOP love-hate story?

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- After a convention week in which President George W. Bush and the Republican Party aimed a number of zingers at Hollywood, it is tempting to conclude that the GOP holds the entertainment industry in contempt. But the party's true feelings about celebrities are more complicated than that.

It is probably an overstatement to describe the party's regard for Hollywood as a love-hate relationship. There was not much love in Madison Square Garden for the entertainment industry, and hate is a strong word that may already be in the process of getting worn out from overuse in U.S. political rhetoric.

But the 2004 Republican convention displayed notably conflicted attitudes toward the Hollywood crowd, delivering a stream of derision that was only broken occasionally -- when, for example, the party turned the rostrum over to action-star Arnold Schwarzenegger or Emmy-nominated actor Ron Silver.

The last word most conventioneers and TV viewers heard on the subject of Hollywood at the 2004 gathering was Bush's invocation of a comment Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry made at a fundraiser in July, when he told a lineup of celebrity supporters that they "convey the heart and soul" of America.

"If you say the heart and soul of America is found in Hollywood," said Bush, "I'm afraid you are not the candidate of conservative values."

Elizabeth Garrett, a law professor at the University of Southern California and the director of the USC-Caltech Center for the Study of Law and Politics, told United Press International the president's comment was standard Republican rhetoric.

"It was the old use by the Republican Party of the 'liberal' label as a harmful label," she said, "and tying that to the Hollywood label -- which I think is supposed to be a shorthand for dubious values."

However, Garrett said the convention's handling of the Hollywood issue was "full of tensions and contradictions," particularly in light of Schwarzenegger's high-profile speaking slot and the actor's mention of Hollywood icon John Wayne as one of his heroes.

"So it's not as if the Republicans don't have their own Hollywood stars," she said.

On the final night of the convention at a party sponsored by the GOP for outgoing Motion Picture Association of America President-Chief Executive Officer Jack Valenti, an entertainment executive told the Hollywood Reporter the Republican Party and the entertainment industry are a comfortable fit.

"Hollywood is big business, and Republicans like big business," the executive said. "Hollywood's a powerful economic engine that exports a lot and hires a bunch of people."

Robin Bronk, executive director of the Creative Coalition -- a non-profit, non-partisan group sponsored by entertainment-industry professionals that advocates for freedom of expression and First Amendment rights -- said the president's remark was "a bit jolting." Bronk said it is inaccurate to lump all of Hollywood into one characterization, as it would be to lump all politicians together.

"I have the privilege of working with people in the Hollywood community who have committed a lifetime to preserving what's good about America and what's good about American democracy," she said. "Those activists who are part of the Hollywood community ... what they're doing is practicing community involvement, which is what every American should be doing."

In a way that is not so obvious to casual viewers, even though it is plain to see, both parties have embraced a core Hollywood product: production value. The conventions have come a long way from the precision-timed balloon drops of former President Richard Nixon's 1972 Miami Beach convention -- Bush's acceptance speech segued into a spectacular display that included rear-screen projected special effects of fireworks.

The increasing reliance on showbiz techniques is largely a product of increasingly skimpy network TV coverage of the conventions. Garrett said the squeeze is forcing political pros to make the few hours of coverage they still get as impactful as possible.

"That's why Schwarzenegger got into prime time," said Garrett.

Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales made a similar point in his wrap-up of the GOP convention telecast.

"The Republicans clearly have the right idea about modernizing and streamlining conventions for 21st-century media," he said. "It's a truism to say the conventions are just infomercials now."

Shales said, however, that development raises the question: "Does an effective presentation automatically involve shading and twisting the truth, or can truth actually be a part of the show?"

Garrett said another response to the increasingly limited network TV coverage of conventions is a tendency to rely on symbolism more than substance in shaping and delivering messages to voters.

"Shorthand symbols, unless you're very effective, you can use them at cross purposes," she said.

The conventions are over, but the showmanship never stops for the political parties. The campaign now proceeds from Madison Square Garden to Madison Avenue.

Between now and Election Day, voters will be exposed to an incalculable number of TV ads -- messages shaped largely by the same advertising industry that routinely collaborates with Hollywood in the exploitation of persuadable consumers.

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