If you’re wondering why Hollywood would agree to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in kamikaze missions to produce one embarrassing anti-Bush/anti-America/anti-War-on-Terror flop after another, take a look at Paul Bond’s Hollywood Reporter piece below and then take a look at the definition of an in-kind contribution.
Basically, an in-kind contribution is a perfectly legal way around fundraising limits where you help your candidate and/or party in a way that doesn’t qualify as a legal contribution. For instance, GE contributes to Democrats through an in-kind contribution we like to call MSNBC. Same with AOL through the Huffington post. And…
Same with Hollywood. During the Bush years, the film industry did something it had never done before and that’s bring to life anti-American/anti-war propaganda films while America was still fighting that war. Long after the first few films had flopped, more were still greenlit — and in the case of “Green Zone” at the price of $100m more — in order to bring down Bush, aid Democrats, and lift the Leftist cause. At the time they thought they were aiding Hillary. But once Obama came along, same difference.
And here’s why they were willing to risk all that money and further alienate 50% of their customers…
The President could attend as many as three moneymaking events in a 24-hour period during his visit to Hollywood this month. …
Invitations have already gone out for a 4:30 p.m. event that day at Sony Pictures Studios, though Sony is only the venue, not the host. VIP seating is $2,500, and general admission is $250. Event chairs, hosts and other details haven’t been worked out.
But Katzenberg also is arranging a “high-dollar dinner” that night that he would co-host with Spahn and others. Insiders say Spielberg and Geffen would likely attend.
Depending on how the fundraising dinner is classified under campaign finance laws, it could cost each Hollywood A-lister as much as $30,400 apiece to dine with the president. ….
“Early response is so encouraging that they’re trying to throw together a third event,” an insider said.
Hollywood players are multi-millionaires and near-billionaires with more money than they know what to do with. There’s no way they’re going to restrict their contributions, and frankly they don’t have to when they control the levers of the storm and fury of motion pictures.
Contrast that with WWII when mostly Republican studio heads bit the bullet for their country and got behind both the war and FDR (who many loathed) after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Those men were imperfect, but they were Americans before they were Republicans. This new batch is just, well, imperfect.
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