Hollywood woke up Wednesday morning to find that it actually might have more influence in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., than before the midterm elections.
Old Tinseltown pal Jerry Brown is back after almost 28 years as governor, as is fellow Democrat Barbra Boxer for her fourth consecutive term in the Senate. That, along with a Democratic majority in the California Assembly, is how it is in the Golden State.
Perhaps more importantly, Hollywood has a Republican Party that’s looking to make some new friends in control of the House of Representatives.
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The latter could be very beneficial to the entertainment industry’s bottom line – especially in terms of the still-pending $30 billion Comcast-NBC Universal merger and the war on piracy.
The GOP's pro-business bent "should be good for the movie studios, especially when it comes to protecting intellectual property," D.C.-based political consultant and former Motion Picture Association of America executive John Feehery told TheWrap.
Comcast, according to the Federal Election Commission, gave over $1.2 million to candidates of both parties this election season -- almost double what they donated back in 2008 and before they were poised to take over NBCU. In terms of putting the brakes on piracy, the Republicans have proven staunch supporters of tough new legislation by Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, who was re-elected for a seventh term in Vermont. That bill, presently weaving through the Senate, would shut down sites housing copyright-protected material.
The GOP has certainly had Hollywood’s bright lights and traditionally Democratic donors in its sights this election year. Prominent Republicans like Eric Cantor, in line to become House Majority Leader, and South Dakota Sen. John Thune, perhaps looking towards a potential 2012 presidential run, laready have reached out to the entertainment community.
“This town is still very pro-Obama and pro-Democrat” a studio executive told TheWrap early on election night. “But it also knows you have to work with whose in power -- and Republican topics like lower taxes are very popular here.”
Besides the agreement on taxes, the lack of Hollywood-bashing by the GOP during the election is probably the best sign of what the relationship between the party and the community is going to be in this new political reality.
In many ways, the Republicans have been more pro-Hollywood this year than at any time since Ronald Reagan was in the White House.
Brown will likely prove as good a pal to the studios and networks as he did back in the '70s. His relationships with the deep pockets of Disney’s Bob Iger, Kirk Douglas, Sally Field, Laura and Casey Wasserman saw Brown take in a lot of money from execs and stars during the campaign.
In mid-October, Brown took in over $1.25 million at just one star-studded fundraiser Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen helped co-chair at Soho House.
