Clueless Democrats Trot Out Hollywood

In the few days I have been here, I have attended lavish soirees thrown by regional telecom giants, consumed the free lunch proffered by other regional telecom giants and gotten word of '60s heroes feted by weapons manufacturers. But the picture came together for me only at an afternoon get-together sponsored by a film industry lobby called the Creative Coalition.

The event, at the Ritz-Carlton, featured the usual accouterments of contemporary sumptuosity: tiny hors d'oeuvres featuring colossal mixtures of world cuisines, an open bar and a panoramic urban view. My first hint that there was something different and decidedly nondemocratic about this party was when, immediately upon arrival, I was ushered into a corner where none of this sumptuosity was available and told to stay there and not to mingle with everyone else because I was with the press and was hence a suspicious and second-class character. (As it turned out, the solution to this insulting situation was simple: I removed my press credentials.)

Once I was back among the partygoers, the reason for my sequestering became clear: There were celebrities here. Indeed, the entire party was a transplanted bit of Southern California, complete with the social hierarchy that, it seems, must be imposed whenever celebrities appear anywhere. According to this hierarchy, people like me and my colleague, a disheveled reporter from a French monthly, must be kept far away from the presumed object of our attention, the minor Hollywood figures who were now wandering among us.