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Are we due for the first 'Actors Rush' in politics?
of TheColumnists.com
My wife and I were watching a rerun of Law & Order on cable recently when we spotted it. You heard it here first.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York was playing himself in a short segment, and there, standing quietly behind him in his role as District Attorney Arthur Branch, was Fred Thompson.
Think about it. Two men who could conceivably run against each other for the presidency next year were acting together on a television series.
Has show business taken over politics? Has politics taken over show business? When before in history have two people who might run for president (in Thompson’s case, “might” is rapidly becoming inoperative) appeared together in a show on television or anywhere else?
Where will it all end?
I know, I know. Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, etc., etc. And there was Warren Beatty, who flirted with the idea of getting into politics. And even before that, movie actor George Murphy was a U. S. senator from California. And even before that Shirley Temple was mentioned as a candidate for Congress. And waaaay before that, Helen Gahagan (Douglas), who played an immortal white African goddess in the 1935 movie version of H. Rider Haggard's "She," then retired to enter politics and served two terms as a member of congress from California. (She retired from politics after losing her bid for the U.S. Senate to future president Richard Nixon). Ralph Waite, a mainstay of "The Waltons" television series, ran for Congress and Fred Grandy, who played Burl “Gopher” Smith on TV's "The Love Boat," served four terms in Congress, representing a district in Iowa. Grandy later ran unsuccessfully for governor in Iowa. The list could go on and on.
But we seem to be entering a new age that conflates celebrity with politics more than ever before. Contrast old-time movie actors such as James Stewart or Henry Fonda with today’s Leonardo DiCaprio or Barbra Streisand. Stewart and Fonda, close friends, had widely differing political views, but neither of them decided they had to run for office to put those views into effect. It simply wasn’t done. The studios wouldn’t have allowed it, but more than that, it was simply beyond the scope of what actors were allowed to do in the name of common decency. DiCaprio and Streisand haven’t run for office (yet) but they have both lent their celebrity and money to causes they’re interested in furthering. That’s all to the good, really, but it does mark a departure from the protocols actors followed throughout most of history.
It used to be that if you were a renowned actor, you could make a few extra bucks endorsing, say, cigarettes. Ronald Reagan did that for Chesterfields. Now, if you’re famous, there’s always the live possibility that you can capitalize on your celebrity by running for office, if you want. You have a marketing advantage going in because you’re already well-known. Does that mean that being famous will push all other qualifications, or lack of them, to the back of the bus?
Some of the skills needed as an actor come in handy when you’re campaigning. You know about appearing on television. You know timing, you know how to deliver the applause line, you’re comfortable in front of people, and so on. But what do you know about public policy? About political give-and-take? Perhaps very little. But who cares? You were wonderful playing the president in that TV series. (To his credit, Martin Sheen, who played a president on television, has pretty consistently said he is an actor playing a president and not anything more.)
It may be just a fluke. In all likelihood, Mayor Bloomberg did the Law & Order gig just for fun. And former senator Thompson was merely doing his job as an actor. But two politician/actors performing together on the same show, however it came about, seems to me to be taking it to a new level. Are we at the beginning of a tsunami of show biz people in politics? Are we in the midst of one?
©2007 by Charles M. McFadden. The McFadden caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel. This column first posted July 2, 2007.
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