When Hillary Clinton launched her second run for the White House last year, Hollywood delivered a unified front. The entertainment industry ponied up a large chunk of the estimated billion dollars Clinton spent on her campaign, while giving her its buzzy stamp of approval in the form of endless celebrity endorsements — a list that included such heavy-hitters as Leonardo DiCaprio, Beyonce, George Clooney, Steven Spielberg, Jeffery Katzenberg and Harvey Weinstein.
While her Tuesday defeat to Donald Trump, a real-estate developer-turned reality TV star with no political experience, is still reverberating around the globe, its
“I’m paralyzed,” Democratic strategist and Clinton supporter, Donna Bojarsky told TheWrap. “Everyone is in shock.”
Hollywood viewing parties, which kicked off with a celebratory mood on Tuesday evening, soon turned into wakes.
“Nobody touched the food,” David Schneiderman, the co-owner and founder of Seismic Productions and a prominent Clinton supporter, told TheWrap. “Everybody was numb. I had a friend calling me crying like there was a death in the family.”
The impact of Tuesday’s election results was felt on studio lots too. Hollywood’s Paramount Pictures — arguably the most iconic landmark in the business — was stone silent on Wednesday.
One individual on the lot said there were “four different projects shooting, and you can hear a pin drop. The only time you hear anything is when cameras are rolling.”
Movie execs who asked not to be named told TheWrap on Wednesday that the mood on at least two other major studios was “somber.”
Another studio executive who wished to remain anonymous said he was worried about the “elimination of marriage equality and adoption rights.”
Others expressed concern about Hollywood’s production assistants, freelancers and independent writer and producers who depend on Obamacare for their health insurance.
“If they lose their healthcare, what can California do to offer an alternative option?” one studio marketing executive asked.
Perhaps no one is feeling Tuesday’s aftershocks more than Hollywood’s Muslim community, whose despair quickly turned to crippling fear.
“I’m scared,” actor Rizwan Manji, best known for playing Rajiv in the now-canceled NBC series “Outsourced,” said, adding that he was worried for his 7-year-old daughter, who refused to believe him when he told her Trump had won.
“It’s partly my fault,” he said. “The things we said about Donald Trump, she has taken it all in. We can rationalize this. But a 7-year-old cannot. All she’s known in her lifetime is a black president.”
His friends are already posting warnings from family members on social media, asking loved ones to refrain from wearing a hijab, a veil traditionally worn by Muslim women.
“I have a Muslim friend who is a gay,” he said. “His mother pleaded with him to shave his beard.”
Even those who started out as ardent Bernie Sanders supporters say they’re at a loss.
“I’m trying not to throw up,” Mimi Kennedy, star of CBS comedy “Mom,” told TheWrap. “All my friends are in shock and crying.”
Meriah Doty and Matt Donnelly contributed to this report.