Stripes at 45: A Patriotic Movie

  Many posts have discussed patriotism and American exceptionalism.

Stripes premiered 45 years ago today.  Two years ago, Rich Cohen wrote at WSJ:

Released in 1981, “Stripes” is the story of a burnout named John Winger who, seeking direction, joins the Army. It was the first summer after the election of Ronald Reagan, whose campaign had been powered by the eerily familiar slogan, “Let’s Make America Great Again!” It was a time of high inflation, simmering tension with a communist rival and deep polarization in our politics.

In other words, a moment much like our own, which might explain why Murray’s speech still speaks so powerfully to my own teenage kids. I can’t think of a better statement of what ails us and what still makes America and Americans exceptional.

“We’re not Watusi,” Murray tells his fellow grunts in a moment of disunity and crisis. “We’re not Spartans. We’re Americans, with a capital ‘A,’ huh? You know what that means? Do ya? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We’re the underdog. We’re mutts!…But there’s no animal that’s more faithful, that’s more loyal, more lovable than the mutt.”

Murray played it for laughs, and it was funny, but it was serious too. It celebrates our tolerance, stick-to-it-ness and ethnic jumble. It’s John Winthrop’s City on a Hill remade in the shadow of “Saturday Night Live.” I rank it with FDR’s First Inaugural and Lincoln at Gettysburg. It’s the speech we need today.

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 This silly speech in a silly movie expressed a powerful truth. The Germans of World War II were all the same because they were all the same. We are all the same because we are all different. Which means those differences don’t really matter. Our ancestors came to this country to leave all that B.S. behind. It was the American creed rephrased in the vernacular. It was beautiful. 

Only later did I fully appreciate that Murray, along with screenwriters Harold Ramis and Len Blum, had given us a great gift: a way to love our country without feeling gullible, sentimental or corny.

The CIA and Hollywood

Candace Owens: “I am a big believer that Hollywood was created by the CIA” pic.twitter.com/y0cbhHPLoc

— Jason S. Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) February 2, 2024

Ke Huy Quan

Previous posts have noted how much Vietnamese refugees have contributed to the United States.

Ke Huy Quan's  acceptance speech  for best actor in a supporting role for his performance in "Everything Everywhere All at Once."

Thank you. Thank you. My mom is 84 years old and she's at home watching. Mom, I just won an Oscar! My journey started on a boat. I spent a year in a refugee camp. And somehow, I ended up here on Hollywood's biggest stage. They say stories like these only happen in the movies. I cannot believe it's happening to me. This– this is the American dream. Thank you so much.

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I owe everything to the love of my life, my wife, Echo, who month after month, year after year for 20 years, told me that one day my time will come. Dreams are something you have to believe in. I almost gave up on mine. To all of you out there, please keep your dreams alive. Thank you, thank you so much for welcoming me back. I love you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Slavery and GWTW

 At The Ankler, historian David Vincent Kimel writes about deleted scenes in the script of GoneWith the Wind.

Remarkably, much of the excised material in my Rainbow Script was a harsh portrayal of the mistreatment of the enslaved workers on Scarlett's plantation, including references to beatings, threats to throw “Mammy” out of the plantation for not working hard enough, and other depictions of physical and emotional violence. Had these scenes remained in the final film, they would have stood in startling juxtaposition to the pageantry on display at the premiere in Atlanta. At the time of production, GWTW’s romanticization of slavery led African American thinkers like Ben Davis to call it “dangerous poison covered with sugar.” William L. Patterson went even further, describing it as “a weapon of terror against black America.” These voices were in the critical minority in the twentieth century, but over time, scholars have increasingly emphasized GWTW’s promulgation of the mythology of the Lost Cause, an interpretation of the Civil War that romanticizes the struggle as a war of Northern aggression that desecrated Southern honor and culture.

The article starts with a remarkable revelation about MLK: 

At the Atlanta premiere of Gone With the Wind on December 15, 1939, the 10-year-old Martin Luther King Jr. was dressed as a slave. It was the second night of an official three-day holiday proclaimed by the mayor of Atlanta and the governor of Georgia. King’s choir was serenading a white audience, directed to croon spirituals to evoke an ambiance of moonlight and magnolias for the benefit of the movie’s famous producer, David O. Selznick.

De Facto Chinese Censorship of US Films

Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian at Axios:

China's box office is projected to soon surpass the U.S. as the largest film market in the world.

• "Access to that market can make or break the success of a major Hollywood film," said James Tager, the author of a recent PEN America report about how the Chinese government censors the U.S. film industry, and how the industry responds by self-censoring.
• But the Chinese government tightly controls access to the market, excluding films that include content it dislikes, and blacklisting individual actors or film studios that have previously participated in activities the Chinese Communist Party doesn't like.

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Movies also have an almost unmatched ability to instill widespread public sympathy for vulnerable groups and to prolong remembrance of crimes against humanity, such as the Rwandan genocide, depicted in "Hotel Rwanda."

• But the last time a major Hollywood studio made a movie that presented a vulnerable group as the victim of Chinese government aggression was in 1997 with "Seven Years in Tibet" starring Brad Pitt.
• The Chinese government responded by slapping a five-year ban on Columbia TriStar, the production company that made the film — a response that cast a chill over the U.S. movie industry.

The result: Film studios now go out of their way to ensure their movies avoid topics or depictions of China that might fall foul of China's censors.

• "The most significant effect of this censorship and self-censorship is completely invisible, because it involves the movies that are never made," said Tager. "What major Hollywood studio would make a movie about what is happening in Xinjiang, with the internment of over a million Muslims?"
• “For 10 years, you haven’t seen any bad Chinese guys,” said Schuyler Moore, a partner at Greenberg Glusker. “If I saw a script with an anti-Chinese theme, I would advise my client that that film would never be released in China.”

Interest Group Notes

Judy Kurtz at The Hill:

President Trump may or may not be attending the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner this year, but some of Hollywood’s most well-known fictional political pros are poised to be in town.

Richard Schiff, who played White House communications director Toby Ziegler on NBC’s “The West Wing,” and Reid Scott, who plays a former deputy communications director on HBO’s “Veep,” are some of the entertainers leading a lobbying push on Capitol Hill on the eve of the April 28 dinner.

The actors will join the Creative Coalition meeting with lawmakers as part of an annual advocacy day tied to "Nerd Prom," before attending a gala in Washington held by the nonprofit the night before the WHCA festivities.

“We’re bringing our group — what I call the 51st state of Hollywood representing all 50 states — for one reason: to ensure that arts funding survives in this country,” Creative Coalition CEO Robin Bronk told ITK on Tuesday.

Alexander Hertel-Fernandez at Vox:

Imagine your bosses tell you that a proposed law would be good for your company. They then push you to contact your member of Congress to lobby for the bill and support the politicians who end up voting for it. That could have happened to you — as it did to so many others — during the push to pass big tax cuts this past December. US companies large and small used town halls, emails, and calls to prod workers into telling their legislators that workers supported the tax overhaul.

For a new book, Politics at Work: How Companies Turn Their Workers into Lobbyists, I surveyed workers and managers and interviewed dozens of top executives to show how these political calls to action have become a common practice for American companies.

One in four American employees said in a nationally representative survey I commissioned in 2015 that they have received political messages or requests from their top managers and supervisors.

From Bloomberg:

Facebook Inc. is on a hiring spree in Washington as the social network bulks up its ranks of lobbyists in the midst of a privacy scandal that cuts to the heart of its business model.

As a chorus of calls mounts for answers about its data practices, Facebook is looking to hire at least 11 people for policy-related positions in Washington, according to its website. The company started hiring new lobbyists last fall after revelations Russians exploited its platform to help elect President Donald Trump.

Using Pop Culture to Counter Russian Disinformation

Adam Entous, Ellen Nakashima and Greg Jaffe at WP report on Russian disinformation in 2016. Richard Stengel, the undersecretary for public diplomacy at the State Department, tried as early as 2014 to push back.

Stengel’s best bet was Michael M. Lynton, then the chairman of Sony Pictures, who had grown up in the Netherlands and immediately understood what Stengel was trying to do. He recalled how in the 1970s one Dutch political party sponsored episodes of “M.A.S.H.” to portray America as sympathetic to the antiwar movement. A rival party bought the rights to “All in the Family” to send the message that U.S. cities were filled with bigots like Archie Bunker.

But Sony’s agreements with broadcasters in the region prevented Lynton from giving away programming. Other studios also turned Stengel away.

Back in Washington, Stengel got Voice of America to launch a round-the-clock Russian-language news broadcast and found a few million dollars to translate PBS documentaries on the Founding Fathers and the American Civil War into Russian for broadcast in eastern Ukraine. He had wanted programing such as “Game of Thrones” but would instead have to settle for the likes of Ken Burns.

“We brought a tiny, little Swiss Army knife to a gunfight,” he said.

Ronald Reagan in a Movie Against North Korea

In light of cyberhacking and threats that apparently come from North Korea, along with distributor reluctance, Sony Pictures has shelved The Interview.

In 1954, Ronald Reagan starred in a Korean War movie titled Prisoner of War.  The movie depicted atrocities by the North Koreans.  In a trailer for the movie, Reagan said:

Many who read the script said, you don't dare do it. It's too tough, too hard. We were advised to soften it, fake it up a little. But we felt, no, this had to be told with all its shocking, cruel, unpleasant detail. I can't use any of the words normally used in selling a motion picture when I talk about this one. You will see scenes never before shown in a motion picture because no one would have dared do it. We did. We did, because these things did happen. It's probably the toughest picture you will ever see on this theater screen. But MGM is proud to have made it. I'm proud to have had a part in it.

 

Hollywood, Education Reform, and a State Election

In our textbook, we mention the political role of the entertainment media, the politics of education reform, and the significance of state elections.  This item, from The San Francisco Chronicle, touches on all three:

Hollywood isn’t shy about putting its star status and cash behind big-deal political candidates.

But candidates running for the wonky state superintendent of public instruction job doesn’t usually draw A-list interest.

Until now.

Marshall Tuck, who is running against incumbent Tom Torlakson, has released a video featuring Joel McHale (“Community”); Adam Scott (“Parks and Recreation”); Dax Shepard (“Parenthood”); and Kristen Bell (“House of Lies”

The ad features Tuck at a kitchen table with McHale, Shepard and Bell, who are grilling him about public education in California. They ultimately throw their support behind Tuck, with Scott joining them between bites of pizza.

John Hrabe writes at CalNewsroom.com:

Election Day is still a month away, but Marshall Tuck’s campaign for State Superintendent of Public Instruction has already delivered the best ad of the 2014 cycle.

With the perfect blend of facts and humor, “Tuck Gets New Consultants” explains why the education reformer and charter school executive is qualified to oversee California’s public school system. In the ad, actors Joel McHale, Dax Shepard, Kristen Bell and Adam Scott grill Tuck about his background and California’s under-performing schools, which rank 45th in math and reading.

There’s so much to love about this ad: It’s funny. It uses celebrities in a constructive way. It educates the public about California’s failing education system. It informs voters about Tuck’s background. It corrects the misconception that he’s the private school candidate. And it includes a dig on the San Francisco Chronicle.

“You’ve been endorsed by The San Francisco Chronicle. Who gives a (BLEEP)?” Shepard says.

Affordable Care Act Update

Gallup reports:

Americans are more negative than positive about the healthcare law's future impact on their family and on the U.S. in general. Forty-two percent say that in the long run, the law will make their family's healthcare situation worse; 22% say it will make it better. And almost half believe the law will make the healthcare situation in the U.S. worse; 34% say it will make it better.

These data are from a June 20-24 Gallup poll, conducted as the Obama administration and its supporters are trying to raise awareness of the Affordable Care Act. A new nonprofit group, Enroll America, just launched a campaign, "Get Covered America," to help the uninsured in particular learn about the new law and how to sign up for health coverage, which everyone is required to carry starting in 2014.

Gallup also reports:

The vast majority of Americans, 81%, say they are aware of the 2010 Affordable Care Act's (ACA's) requirement that most Americans must carry health insurance or pay a fine. Americans who are currently uninsured -- those most directly affected by this requirement -- are much less likely to be aware of the provision, with 56% saying they know about it and 43% saying they are unaware.
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With roughly six months to go before Americans are required to carry health insurance, slightly more than half of the uninsured population is aware of that requirement. Making sure the uninsured are aware of the health insurance requirement and getting them onto a health plan by the end of the year is an important goal for the Obama administration and crucial to the ACA's success. One of the hurdles these efforts must overcome will be the perception of the uninsured that they cannot afford health insurance, the main reason they give for not having it.

Loren Heal writes at The Heartland Institute:

The Los Angeles Unified School District will use a state grant to train teens to promote ObamaCare to family members. Covered California, the state's health insurance exchange, announced grants of $37 million on May 14 to promote the nationally unpopular law.

LAUSD will receive $990,000. The district listed as a primary outcome for its project, “Teens trained to be messengers to family members.”

Covered California spokeswoman Sarah Soto-Taylor said staff have not questioned this goal.

“We have confidence that the model LA Unified brought to the table will be successful in reaching our target population, which includes family members of students,” she said.

LAUSD will also use tax-paid staff to promote ObamaCare through phone calls to students’ homes, in-class presentations, and meetings with employees eligible for ObamaCare’s taxpayer-covered healthcare, the grant award says.

One in three Los Angeles students never graduates high school.

Paul Bond writes at The Hollywood Reporter about the law's impact on the entertainment industry:

One of the unintended consequences, say some industry insiders, is that it could lead to productions running to foreign countries, given that ACA doesn't apply to U.S. citizens working abroad. Some also say the number of production days in the U.S. are likely to be cut due to ACA because there's a 90-day waiting period before productions must either pay a penalty or offer health insurance to full-time workers. That rule provides big incentives for a production to wrap in less than three months. While big-budget movies and season-long TV shows might not have such a luxury, smaller films or TV pilots could easily rush their schedules to make sure they come in at under 90 days.

But like much about ACA, the 90-day rule is subject to interpretation, says Daniel Cox, controller of payroll-services company PES Payroll. "Historically, if an employer had a 90-day wait period," says Cox, "the benefits would kick in on the first day of the fourth full month of employment. Thus, that 90-day wait period was, in reality, as long as 119 days. The ACA is unclear on this. Does 90 days mean 90 days? If so, it really means 60 days."

Reid, Django, and Movie Violence

Several weeks after warning against movie violence, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid today spoke approvingly of Django Unchained, which one critic called " arguably the most violent movie in [director Quentin] Tarantino’s bloodstained oeuvre."

“We have too much violence in our society, and it’s not just from guns. It’s from a lot of stuff. and I think we should take a look at TV, movies, video games and weapons. And I hope that everyone will just be careful and cautious.” -- Harry Reid, on Nevada Week in Review, January 11, 2013.
"As America shapes its future it struggles with its past – a past in which equality was our principle but not always our practice. Two of the Best Picture nominees at this year’s Academy Awards – `Lincoln' and `Django Unchained' – offered cinematic treatments of the legacy of our nation’s darkest institution. One film presents an unvarnished view of the evils of slavery. The other depicts our difficult journey to end slavery." -- Harry Reid, remarks at Rosa Parks statue unveiling, February 27, 2013.

Oscars and Political Money

Previous posts have discussed the political leanings of the entertainment industry. The Center for Responsive Politics reports on the contribution patterns of Academy Award nominees:

Of the 51 actors, directors and producers nominated for the top six categories (Best Actor/Actress, Best Supporting Actor/Actress, Best Director and Best Picture), 25 nominees or their spouses have contributed to a political candidate or committee since 1990. Most supported Obama either in 2008 or 2012, or both. And in Congress, Oscar nominees tended to play favorites with Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.),Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.).
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The only Republican contributions from the crowd of Oscar nominee-political donors -- since 1990 -- also came from Spielberg, but they're practically ancient. He gave Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter and Rudy Svorinich, a Republican on the Los Angeles City Council, $1,000 each in the 1998 election, and sent another $2,000 to Specter in 2004. He followed up with a $2,400 check to Specter after he switched parties to become a Democrat.

DC Meets Hollywood

The Los Angeles Times reports on the link between Hollywood and Washington, in light of the recent spate of films dealing with politics (Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty, Argo) and social issues (Silver Linings Playbook and mental health).  In the case of the latter film, the director has a personal stake in addressing bipolar disorder.

Nevertheless, some observers say the D.C. tie-ins could be seen by Oscar voters as cynical grabs at some quick credibility.

"It's a curious conception that help will be coming soon from Washington in this arena," said veteran Hollywood awards consultant Tony Angellotti, who represents the filmmakers of "Zero Dark Thirty." "This is the worst-reviewed Congress in the history of Congress."

The worlds have become so entwined in recent weeks that one lawmaker, Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), appears to have unwittingly created a perception problem for a filmmaker ally, Ben Affleck.

After he went to see "Lincoln" on Saturday, Courtney was bothered by the portrayal of Connecticut's vote on the 13th Amendment. (The movie suggests, incorrectly, the majority of his state's representatives in the House voted against the measure to abolish slavery.) He fired off a letter asking DreamWorks to set the record straight before the DVD release.

Courtney says he was just standing up for Connecticut's reputation. But some saw a more shadowy motivation to knock "Lincoln": Affleck, the director of "Argo," had campaigned for Courtney in 2006, a race Courtney won by just 83 votes.

In an interview, Courtney credited his win to a rally Affleck held on the University of Connecticut campus, but maintained that he had no contact with Affleck before writing about "Lincoln."

"It's hilarious, that conspiracy theory," Courtney said and laughed. "I'm not smart enough to know when Oscar voting begins." A spokeswoman for "Argo" said that "there was no involvement with the Courtney letter" and said she felt "dismay that anyone would suggest otherwise."

Celebrities and Policy Advocacy

As we note in the textbook, Hollywood figures often use their celebrity to draw attention to policy causes.  The latest example is Bradley Cooper of Silver Linings Playbook.  In the movie, he did a splendid job of portraying a man with bipolar disorder, but he has no expertise in mental health issues.

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The Washington Post suggests a more cynical explanation for his appearances in Washington:

Was this all about using a star to promote a cause — or using a cause to promote a “Silver Linings” Oscar campaign? The invisible hand of media-savvy executive producer Harvey Weinsteinseems to be at work in Cooper’s last-minute advocacy blitz, a week before ballots go to Academy members. But the mental-health professionals seemed thrilled with the turnout (about 100 people spilling out of the room) and the media exposure.

The World, the United States, and China

The Pew Research Center reports on the 2012 Pew Global Attitudes Survey:

Majorities or pluralities in 12 countries express a favorable opinion of the United States, while the prevailing view is negative in only five nations. In three countries views are closely divided. 

Attitudes toward the U.S. are generally more positive today than in 2008, the final year of the George W. Bush administration. The biggest improvements in America’s image have occurred among Europeans – in France, Spain, and Germany, the percentage of people with a positive view of the U.S. is at least 20 percentage points higher than in 2008.

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Across much of the globe, people continue to believe the U.S. acts unilaterally in world affairs. However, three of the four BRIC countries – an acronym applied to these nations because of their emerging economies –are exceptions to this pattern. More than half in Brazil (55%) and China (51%) say the U.S. does take into account their interests when it is making foreign policy decisions. On balance, Indians also hold this view, although the percentage saying the U.S. considers India’s interests has declined from 57% last year to 44% today. In Russia, the fourth BRIC country, only 22% think the U.S. acts multilaterally.

Throughout Europe and the Middle East, majorities say the U.S. does not take into account the interests of countries like theirs.

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Views about the economic balance of power have shifted dramatically over time among the 14 countries surveyed each year from 2008 to 2012. In 2008, before the onset of the global financial crisis, a median of 45% named the U.S. as the world’s leading economic power, while just 22% said China. Today, only 36% say the U.S., while 42% believe China is in the top position.

Indeed, the US entertainment industry is showing increasing deference to China, as the Los Angeles Times reports:

In "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen,"a romantic comedy about building a dam in the Mideast, Chinese hydroelectric engineers showed off their know-how; the original book included no such characters. In Columbia Pictures' disaster movie"2012," the White House chief of staff extolled the Chinese as visionaries after an ark built by the country's scientists saves civilization.

In fact, references to the Middle Kingdom are popping up with remarkable frequency in movies these days. Some are conspicuously flattering or gratuitous additions designed to satisfy Chinese business partners and court audiences in the largest moviegoing market outside the U.S. Others, filmmakers say, are simply organic reflections of the fact thatChina is a rising political, economic and cultural power.

Meanwhile, Chinese bad guys are vanishing — literally. Western studios are increasingly inclined to excise potentially negative references to China in the hope that the films can pass muster with Chinese censors and land one of several dozen coveted annual revenue-sharing import quota slots in Chinese cinemas.

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The net effect is a situation that movie-business veterans say is unprecedented: The suppressive tendencies of a foreign nation are altering what is seen not just in one country but around the world.

"It's a clear-cut case — maybe the first I can think of in the history of Hollywood — where a foreign country's censorship board deeply affects what we produce," said a leading Hollywood producer who, like several others interviewed for this story, spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to offend potential Chinese partners.

Celebrity Arrests

Our chapters on civil rights and interest groups discuss protest as a political tactic.  Protest sometimes involves arrest as a result of civil disobedience.  One example is George Clooney, who briefly went to jail after protesting Sudanese human rights abuses:

Other celebrities have followed a similar course. Woody Harrelson faced a marijuana possession charge for planting hemp seeds as part of a crusade to legalize the plant. A Kentucky jury acquitted him.   Martin Sheen, of West Wing fame, has been under arrest more than 60 times for protesting everything from human rights abuse to environmental pollution.

Politics and the Box Office

The movies are a political medium. Sometimes Hollywood figures also make political statements on their own time, and apparently there is an impact on the box office. Prompted by Morgan Freeman's attack on the tea party, The Hollywood Reporter notes:

In a far-ranging poll Penn Schoen Berland conducted for The Hollywood Reporter of 1,000 registered voters to gauge moviegoing tendencies of Democrats vs. Republicans, it's clear political allegiances have shifted entertainment viewing habits. Jon Penn, the firm's president of media and entertainment research, says that before Freeman's words, interest in Dolphin Tale was considerably higher among conservatives and religious moviegoers than among liberals. After the remarks, 34 percent of the conservatives who were aware of them, and 37 percent of Tea Partiers, said they were less likely to see the film -- but 42 percent of liberals said they were more likely. (Five days after Freeman's remarks, 24 percent of all moviegoers were aware of them.)

In fact, overall, 35 percent of Republicans and 45 percent of Tea Partiers consider a celebrity's political position before paying to see their films, compared with 20 percent of Democrats.

Many exhibitors say privately that they cringe when a star waxes politically just before one of their movies opens -- like when, seven weeks before Contagion, Matt Damon attended a Save Our Schools march where some attendees compared Republicans to "terrorists." Videos of Damon mocking conservatives for their fiscal policies spread like wildfire on the Internet.

"Of course it impacts box office," says Landmark Theatres owner Mark Cuban. "You just hope that for every member of one party that no-shows because of comments, another buys a ticket for the same reason."

As with all survey data about political behavior, there is reason to take the findings with a little skepticism. First of all, people typically do not see a movie simply on the basis of one of its cast members. The presence of a beloved actor such as Tom Hanks does not guarantee success, and the presence of a controversial performer does not mean failure.

To the average moviegoer, Morgan Freeman is not the guy who says silly things about the tea party. He's The Guy Who Sounds Like God.

Dolphin Tale appeals to children. If kids beg to see it, will parents really say no just because they don't like Morgan Freeman's politics?

Hollywood and Political Money

The president is coming to the Hollywood area to raise money. As the Center for Responsive Politics reports, the venue makes sense:

A Democrat-friendly Hollywood is hardly a box office surprise.

In March, a Center for Responsive Politics analysis revealed that Oscar nominees were almost exclusively supportive of Democrats and other left-leaning politicians and causes. In fact, the 2011 Oscar nominees' campaign cash benefited Democrats or left-leaning groups 99 percent of the time.

The 2010 Oscars were a slightly paler shade of blue, but Democrats still dominated. About 87 percent benefited Democrats or other identifiably left-leaning causes, while only 2 percent went to Republicans.

Of course, the last two years reveal that being a prolific political donor does not equal winning the golden statue.

As a whole, Hollywood and Beverly Hills, Calif., are very favorable fund-raising grounds for Democrats whatever the political climate.

During the 2010 election cycle -- with politically devastating or "shellacking" results for Democrats -- Zip codes making up Hollywood raised a total of $1.49 million, of which $1.44 million, or nearly 97 percent, benefited Democrats.

Zip codes making up Beverly Hills were only a little more bipartisan during the 2010 election cycle. Residents raised nearly $6.4 million in federally reportable cash during the 2010 election cycle. Democrats received more than $5.27 million, or about 82 percent.

Religion-Friendly

A new Pew poll has data on how "religion-friendly" Americans regard various individuals and institutions:

More Americans continue to view the Republican Party as friendly toward religion (48%) than rate the Democratic Party that way (29%). President Barack Obama’s administration, however, is seen as friendly toward religion by more people (37%) than the Democratic Party as a whole. And all three get higher ratings for friendliness toward religion than the news media (14%), scientists (12%) or Hollywood (11%)

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