Washington + Hollywood = Wallywood

Ok, so we all know that Richard Nixon's henchmen came to Washington from the public relations arm of the California entertainment industry. And we all know that Ronald Reagan, before he became Governor of California, was a radio personality and then a "star" in unspectacular movies, who divorced his first wife, Jane Wyman, because she was a bigger star than he.

And, finally, we know that the monopolistic studio system that characterized the glory years of Hollywood has fallen on hard times, succumbed to the competition marshaled by the shorter attention span pleasing television industry.

So, how did we miss that maestros of the Hollywood mega spectacle, the big budget, and the packaged risks found a new frontier on the political scene?

During a recent retrospective of Charleton Heston, he was asked about his signature statement on behalf of the National Rifle Association--"From my cold dead hands"--and he explained that he was "acting." Somehow this triggered a train of thought which has now brought me to the realization that the entertainment industry shares something with economists--instead of tending to their own business, they aim to shape the environment in which they have evolved.

Wallywood isn't at all like the Bollywood with which you may or may not be familiar. Bollywood represents an adaption of Hollywood culture to Indian cinema. Wallywood, on the other hand, is the fictionalization of the political culture of Washington. And it's not just the myth-making part. Upon close inspection, it's apparent that the political organization and funding, as well as the selection and preparation of candidates has been taken over by the strategies relied on by the monopolistic studio-based movie industry.

In a sense, a movie like The Candidate, starring Robert Redford, was self-referential, in the way that so much Hollywood product is, in that the script-writers, in castigating the corrupt party system, created a prescription for how they'd like the world to be. Mainly, they'd like to be in charge and now, thanks to the machinations of people like Harry Thomason and his wife, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and the efforts of pollster/publicist/campaign operatives like Mark Penn, they are.

Perhaps the so-called "travelgate" scandal, which some Republicans seem inclined to revive, has obscured the central role the Thomasons played in the creation of the Bill Clinton persona.

What Maureen Dowd and Frank Rich perceived as tensions in 1991

The convention extravaganza, designed to create the themes for Mr. Clinton's fall campaign, has been filled with tension between the worlds of Hollywood and politics.

Harry Thomason and his wife, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, Clinton cronies who produce the New Age-Bubba television shows "Evening Shade" and "Designing Women" and who are helping produce the convention, have chafed under the restrictions of network news divisions and what they see as the intrusive demands of the party to appease tedious constituencies.

Some in the Hollywood coterie were shocked that the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Paul E. Tsongas and Edmund G. Brown Jr. would be allowed to speak at all. "I don't know how Jackson's even allowed to come to the convention," said one. "He lost and we won. I'd hate to be a loser here, because the winners are subjected to so much punishment."

clearly got resolved. Still, it seems instructive, given the resurrection of some of those early players, to take a little look back.

Mr. Clinton, who sprinkles his interviews with the trendy language of co-dependency, has said he learned that "by not confronting problems early you end up making things worse."

Now, he is forcing a party that has been deep in denial for a generation to get in touch with its anger and save itself.

In the 12-step program of Democrats Anonymous, as Barbara Jordan explained it at the convention's debut, the party must first confront, "painful though it may be," its "complicity in the creation of the unconscionable budget deficits." Then the Democrats must persuade Americans to trust them again.

But four days may not be enough to work out all the self-destructive Democratic neuroses. Despite Governor Clinton's best efforts to serve as a psychiatric social worker, the party's well-known addictions to chaos, failure and internecine squabbles have not yet responded to treatment. Bicoastal Disturbances: Movies Versus Politics

Prescient observations but, unfortunately, not helpful. The movies or, more particularly, the script-writers obviously won. And the result is that now we have a weekly installment of the equivalent of the "Perils of Pauline," scripted by a bunch of retreads and Hollywood rejects, of which there are apparently legion.

While it's become obvious that the political cycle has become an important source of revenue for the mass media in terms of advertising dollars, along with the dedication of "talent" and image workers and fiction writers, that the funding strategies for risky projects with many losers and few winners have also been transfered from the "entertainment" industry to the political venue hasn't been as obvious. Probably because Hollywood deal-making, relying on the pitch, the cocktail party circuit and "taking lunch," was pretty much a closed shop. Moreover, while the process of promoting a project after its completion to get it into theaters is a frequent topic in the entertainment press, how properties are developed and packaged for investors, who often expect to lose their money (and take a tax write-off) doesn't get as much publicity.

In any event, it shouldn't be surprising that the Clintons' association with the Thomasons has evolved into global enterprises with Ron Burkle, who started out as an entertainment mogul before branching out into supermarkets and Aloah Airlines, which recently folded after sixty one years in business. People in the movie business are used to losing money and bankruptcy.

But then, so is much of American enterprise. So, perhaps, Hollywood isn't entirely to blame for Wallywood. Perhaps the oilmen contributed. But then, making great fortunes and going bust is typical of both--snake oil salesmen.

The problem we have is that, as originally set up, government isn't supposed to go bust.