Why Hollywood went after Biden first

As longtime readers know, I largely avoid politics in this newsletter. But it’s probably worth pointing out that Hollywood, a major source of support for Democratic politicians, especially when it comes to fundraising, turned against Joe Biden before anyone else in his party, and wondering why that’s so.

The hardest blow, obviously, was George Clooney's editorial in the New York Times. He notes that as a longtime Biden supporter and longtime fundraiser for Democratic politicians, he was genuinely shocked when he saw how decrepit Biden looked at a recent Hollywood fundraiser.

It's devastating to say this, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe Biden. it's not a big deal Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same guy we all saw in the debate, Clooney wrote. Is it fair to point these things out? It has to be. It’s an age thing. Nothing more. But also nothing that can be reversed. Biden remaining on the ticket — meaning another episode like the one in the debate was always on the table every time he stepped up to a microphone — would be disastrous not only for those hoping to defeat Donald Trump, but also for those hoping Democrats would hold on to the Senate, the actor-director continued.

Clooney’s essay follows one by longtime Democratic activist and actor/director Rob Reiner, who said similar things on social media, if a little more bluntly. It’s time to stop messing around. If the convict wins, we lose our democracy. Joe Biden has indeed served the United States with honor, decency, and dignity. It’s time for Joe Biden to resign, he said. tweeted. To round out the Boomer caucus, Stephen King tweeted the same basic feeling.

Celebrities having opinions is nothing new, of course, but what makes these comments particularly worrisome for Democrats is that they are coupled with fundraising threats. Abigail Disney has announced that she will no longer be donating her family’s hard-earned fortune to Democratic coffers until Biden steps downand Matthew Frank at the anklet reports Major donors like Barry Diller, who maxed out donations to Biden and gave an additional $100,000 to the Democratic Party, have also suspended their support. Ari Emanuel, one of the most powerful people in Hollywood and brother of former Chicago mayor and Obama chief of staff Rahmin, plunged the ultimate dagger last week, compare Biden to Trump.

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So why is Hollywood so quick to see what Washington Democrats would rather ignore and put their money where their mouth is? Two reasons.

The first reason is optics: Hollywood has always viewed politics as a performance, and Biden can no longer pull off a convincing performance as president. I know there are people who don’t want to hear this, but after participating in a few of Sarah’s focus groups this week and having a number of conversations with non-political people in my neighborhood since the debate, it’s abundantly clear that a growing number of people simply think Biden is too weak to do his job. If you don’t believe my anecdote, believe the polls:85 percent of respondents believe Biden is too old, two-thirds of respondents believe he should step down, and even 54 percent of respondents believe he should Biden supporters He said he shouldn't run again. The president's most important job is to keep his finger on the button, and you don't want a man who's not there 16 hours a day with his pointer hovering over it.

The second reason is that Hollywood has always been a youth-oriented industry, one that values ​​eternal vitality, an industry that respects projections of strength. When I asked a writer who followed the series whether the revolt was due to frustration at having to deal with aging and outdated studio bosses, he said the answer was simpler.

Hollywood has nothing against weakness. Unless there’s a montage where Biden gets strong and wins. They know there’s no montage where Biden gets strong and wins, so it’s time to kill him off-screen quickly and recast him, he said. Even if he manages to pull off an impressive campaign break or press conference here and there, everyone is just waiting for Biden to stumble again. And he will. He’s not getting any younger.

Even in the age of aging heroes, whose biggest box-office hits include Tom Cruise (62), Denzel Washington (69), Will Smith (55) and Keanu Reeves (59), what sells is not that they are old but that they are effective, that they have brilliance, that they can outperform men and women half their age. That is why Biden has embraced the Onionhis vision of him as the old brother who washes his Trans Am, that's why he goes everywhere he can Top Gun– stylish aviators. That's why the Dark Brandon meme has taken off in some circles of the Democratic Party: he's not close to death, he's old and cunning and still dynamic enough to crush his enemies.

Call it superficial, call it what you will: Politics is the art of persuasion and perception, and people are less likely to be persuaded by someone they perceive as incapable of doing the job. People are also less likely to be persuaded by people who lie to their face and tell them that everything is fine with Biden, that he is clearly solid enough to do the job. For what it’s worth, I am incredibly ambivalent about the effort to replace Biden: the unknown unknowns that come with either a mini-primary at the convention or simply replacing Biden with Harris at the top of the ticket are vast and potentially destabilizing. And maybe Biden will right the ship with a series of commanding performances in front of the press and the public. Maybe it will be a one-off event and his standing will improve in the polls.

But to pretend there is no debate to be had is a stupid and counterproductive idea. Voters have seen what they have seen. Again: politics is about perception. And right now, that perception is bad.

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Bleh, enough politics. Listen to Peter, Alyssa and I talk about Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F Instead. It's good! A good movie. Perfectly average in every way.

One of the many ways social media is toxic, actually the main one, is that it distorts reality. I mention this because there is a coterie of people who have been brainwashed into believing that Shelley Duvall wasn't really acting. The Brilliantthat she was traumatized by Stanley Kubrick, that the repeated takes and his berating of her broke her spirit, leading her to become something of a recluse in her later years.

This is the purest form of stupidity; more than that, I find it vaguely offensive. It belittles her incredible work in the role, relegating her to the status of a mere unwitting pawn manipulated by a director who wanted nothing more than to mistreat someone for the sake of it. The idea that Duvall's cowed terror can only be played by someone who has actually been mistreated completely undermines the incredible work she did opposite Jack Nicholson (who no one ever accuses of actually being crazy).

Duvall was incredibly versatile: from the terrified Wendy in The Brilliant to the ironic comic Pam in Anniel Room to the country groupie in NashvilleShe always had a remarkable figure. Partly because she was, quite simply, unusual in appearance: slim and angular, she was almost the living embodiment of Olive Oyl, whom she played in Robert Altman's ill-fated film Popeye adaptation. And between her work as a host of Fairy Tale Theater and his little turn in Terry Gilliams Time BanditsDuvall played a key role in the childhoods of many late Gen Xers and slightly twisted early millennials.

Yes, Duvall has become something of a recluse in recent years; Hollywood Reporter I met her a few years agoand the story is slightly uncomfortable to read. But not necessarily because she appears hurt or abused. Rather, she simply seems older and sicker. It happens to all of us.

Between Duvalls' death and the recent Donald Sutherland dies And Screenwriter Robert Townewho wrote Chinese district And Shampooand kicked off Tom Cruises Impossible mission In writing its first two installments, the franchise reminds us just how awesome and weird this 1970s film series was. It makes us wonder if we'll ever see anything like it again.