Friends of Bill Clinton still abound in Hollywood
The wind of generational change is picking up force in politically conscious Hollywood, and who better to spread his sails to catch it than President Clinton, who remains in many ways the entertainment industry’s favorite son? (Or dad, depending on your age.)
Tonight, the Roosevelt Hotel in the heart of “old” Hollywood will be the venue for a fundraiser on behalf of the former president’s international charity, the William J. Clinton Foundation Millennium Network.
It has ambitions beyond simply raising money. Organizers call the evening an opportunity to “encourage the next generation of leaders and philanthropists to address the challenges of global interdependence.”
Clinton retains loyalty from Hollywood that built up over his eight years as president and was reaffirmed by the industry’s embrace of Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries. Many of the younger industry figures attending the gala hit the campaign trail with Chelsea Clinton to stump for her mother last summer and still speak about that connection.
Some familiar second-generation names from Hollywood’s political fundraising nucleus are prominent among the event’s organizers, including Alex Avant, son of music executive Clarence Avant. The younger Avant, who was a strong backer of Hillary Clinton, played a key role in rounding up the participants and secured the night’s headline entertainer, will.i.am. Avant says that a trip he made to Africa last summer with Bill Clinton was “a life-changing experience.”
Eric Eisner, son of former Disney Chief Executive Michael Eisner, helped organize the evening, along with an impressive array of the industry’s young Democratic Turks, including Frankie Quintero and Ben Schwerin, who both work for longtime Clinton backer, and big-time Friend of Bill, billionaire Ron Burkle; Jay Carson, a former spokesman for both Bill and Hillary and now an aide to green philanthropist and producer Steve Bing; political consultant Noah Mamet and CAA agent Michael Kives.
“This generation of young people has more power to change the world than any other in the course of human history,” the former president said of the event’s organizers and the guests, who will include Natalie Portman, Don Cheadle, Jessica Alba, Kat Dennings, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, BJ Novak, Mike Myers, Amy Poehler, Sarah Silverman, Kerry Washington, Will Arnett, Ed Helms, Dule Hill and Jonah Hill.
More than 4,000 people across the country already have joined the new Clinton network, and the money raised tonight will address some of the ex-president’s favorite issues, such as AIDS, global warming, worldwide economic disparities and childhood obesity in the United States.
The only other American political family to command the kind of loyalty across generations the Clintons seem to have established is the Kennedys -- not bad company in a town that understands the value of sequels.
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