Starry Night

by Mary Patel

Politics was a topic of discussion last week at the annual American Film Market convention in Santa Monica, where an industry gathered to buy films and make deals. Although the economic downturn led to limited buying, attendance was good and networking opportunities were plentiful.

At the Weinstein Company's usual confab, bar talk turned to the recent election of Barack Obama. It's no secret that many Hollywood stars have backed Obama from the beginning. At this party — so crowded it could hardly be called exclusive — it was clear that everyone was thrilled Obama won.

Still, we wonder: Does celebrity support mean anything in an election?

Media critic and Wag the Dog author Larry Beinhart has studied the impact of celebrity on politics and had this to say:

"Oddly, this was the least 'Hollywood' of recent campaigns, both in the literal and metaphorical sense.

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"There are very, very few movie or music stars who like Republicans. There are reasons for this. To make it to the top in the corporate world, you have to swallow the Kool-Aid, buy into the corporate version of reality. To make it to the top in acting or music, you make it on your talent, often against, or in spite of, the corporate world view. Also, you realize that you're lucky. It's been a roll of the dice and lots of people around you don't get the roll. When you crawl or climb up the business ladder, you and the others around you convince you that it's by virtue and hard working and those who have not climbed so high have failed due to laziness and insufficient moral fibre.

"Peculiarly, Republicans love movie stars. They are very, very hurt that movie stars don't love them and express that as hatred and contempt when such people express liberal views. Conversely, they go utterly ga-ga over any actor who comes out on their side. Witness the total adoration of Ronald Reagan.

"Barack Obama deliberately kept liberal actors out of the campaign. He was aware that they were hate bait for Republicans and that he himself had almost too much celebrity and wanted to downplay that."

Meanwhile, back in local Philly politics, Kevin Boyle, brother of Brendan Boyle, took issue with last week's Political Notebook.

Democrat Boyle — Brendan, that is — beat his Republican challenger, Matt Taubenberger, in the race for a state House seat in the far Northeast section. Taubenberger was no stranger to politics — his boss is current state Rep. George Kenney, who did not seek re-election, and his father is Al Taubenberger, who ran for mayor last year.

The column reported that Boyle was fortunate enough to ride the tide of a big Democratic sweep, and that he was helped by state Sen. Michael Stack, in the same district.

Boyle's bro says, not entirely so.

"He, Brendan, didn't win by nearly 20 percent because of a great Democratic tide in our district. We won by so much because of the sort of campaign we ran, plus we had built popularity from our prior run where we received 46 percent against an extremely popular incumbent," says Kevin.

"And nobody I know thought Taubenberger was going to win. Every poll (including the ones from their side that we heard about) had it about a 20 percent race the whole time. And Stack did support us, but only half the district is in his area. We did just as well in the areas not in his area. Our success was built upon extensive door-to-door campaigning, direct mail, cable TV and other direct voter contact methods. Basically we built our own organization."

Fair enough, Kevin. Thanks.

In Notebook's humble opinion, next year is going to be a snoozer for local races. The municipal races on tap are City Controller and District Attorney.

The DA race may be somewhat interesting since it will be for an open seat. Current District Attorney Lynne Abraham is not seeking another term, and two Democrats want her job: Seth Williams, who made it clear several years ago he was running, and Dan McCaffery, who is the brother of Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery.

Republican Scott P. Sigman is also considering a run.

McCaffery has heavy union support and a lot of cash. He's been busy buying tickets to numerous charity events around town.

Race may be a factor in the primary. Williams is black and McCaffery is white.

In the City Controller's race, the incumbent Democrat is Alan Butkovitz, and so far, no challengers have surfaced within his party. The Republican challengers will be Republican City Committee Executive Director Al Schmidt and former Young Republicans Chairman Kevin Kelly.

(rcpatel@aol.com)