Arnold goes home

MAY 27, 2010

It’s nice to see Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger get back to his true constituency now and then. That constituency is, of course, Hollywood, that wonderful factory of dreams and fantasies that turned an Austrian body-builder who could barely be understood when speaking English into an action movie superstar worth billions of dollars.

Specifically, Arnold showed up back at Universal Studios on May 27 to show his support and appreciation for Universal Studios’ reopening of a series of urban backlot sets that burned down two years ago.

“This is a proud day for Universal Studios,” Ron Meyer, the company’s president and chief operating officer, said shortly before the May 27 ceremony. “The opening of New York Street shows the company’s commitment to film and television production in Los Angeles and to supporting filmmakers worldwide.”

Schwarzenegger, who made six movies at Universal (including Kindergarten Cop!) was, if anything, even more fawning than Meyer, who actually draws a paycheck from Universal. “I am so proud that the heart of the entertainment industry is right here in California, and I am committed to making sure it remains here,” he said in prepared remarks.

Watching the row of dignitaries like Schwarzenegger, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and movie director Steven Spielberg (who ended up perched in front of a poster for the movie The Sting) get up and sing the praises of Hollywood, movies and Universal, it was easy to forget that the buildings that burned down back in June 2008 –and subsequently rebuilt and reopened today – were facades.

Seriously, is there a better, more realistic metaphor for the Schwarzenegger administration than as a facade? A polished exterior masking a hollow interior? And is there a better, more welcome place to rest that facade than Hollywood?

All the officials and dignitaries fell over themselves thanking the brave firefighters who fought the June 1, 2008 blaze (sparked by blowtorch-heated asphalt shingles on a set and exacerbated by a woefully inadequate fire-suppression system, according to a Los Angeles County Fire report released a few weeks later.) “We really have the best, bravest, most selfless firefighters in the world,” Schwarzenegger said at the event to great applause.

That was the classic Hollywood fantasy (see Backdraft, also a Universal picture). The reality, which Schwarzenegger knows only too well, is that firefighters, police officers, DMV clerks and public employees statewide reap ruinously lavish pensions that are bankrupting cities, counties and the state itself.

“[W]e’ve got to change the pension system,” Schwarzenegger told the California Chamber of Commerce barely a week ago, on May 18. “So altogether right now the taxpayers are footing a bill of $6.2 billion for pensions. That’s an equivalent of the whole university system. I mean, think about that. So this is why we have to change that. There were promises made that we cannot deliver.”

But Schwarzenegger was in Hollywood, where it’s considered impolite to go off the script. Besides, who wants to make a movie about half a trillion dollars in unfunded pension liabilities? Referencing Universal’s equally lavish contribution ($10,000) to Schwarzenegger’s first campaign for governor back in 2003 was equally off limits, though it’s nice to see that two weeks before that donation Universal gave $5,000 to Californians Against the Costly Recall of the Governor – the group fighting the recall of then-Gov. Gray Davis.

Hollywood is generous that way. Take Spielberg, who spoke a few minutes before Schwarzenegger. He helped raise money for President Bill Clinton (including his impeachment defense fund) and donated tens of thousands of dollars to Democrat Gray Davis. But when Arnold took over, Spielberg didn’t put away his checkbook. He gave Schwarzenegger’s 2006 reelection campaign $22,300 and “Governor Schwarzenegger’s California Dream Team” a whopping $100,000 in 2008.

Now Spielberg’s a smart guy – you think he’d write monster checks to just any old politicians who showed up with their hats in hand? He knows that “Republican” and “Democrat” have largely become just labels – facades, if you will – masking a larger, blander reality.

“It’s somehow symbolic of Hollywood that Tara was just a facade, with no rooms inside,” David O. Selznik said a long time ago. These days, Selznik might as well have been talking about the entire state.

-Anthony Pignataro