Joe Biden’s inside man in Hollywood
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FROM THE TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL:
OK, there’s no getting around it. Canadians think Americans are really nuts, especially when it comes to politics. Up here, even in the midst of a pretty heated national political campaign, the candidates talk about policy, not about lipstick and pigs. I was chatting with some Canadian film executives yesterday who were simply baffled by the current round of bizarre accusations from the McCain camp--one of them claiming that Obama was promoting sex education to kindergartners because he helped pass a bill protecting young children from sexual predators--that seem to be dominating the 2008 presidential race. ‘Why does American politics always end up being about things so weird and trivial?’ one of them asked. I thought of blaming the media for being more attuned to gaffes than issues. I thought of blaming the everlasting influence of Karl Rove. I finally said, ‘I have no answer. I guess we’re just a silly country.’
That’s not to say that people in Hollywood are the most savvy when it comes to politics. They are mostly useful because they give a lot of money, largely to Democratic causes. But I did find someone up here who’s not just an astute observer of politics but plugged into one of the key candidates in the current campaign. Back in 2006, when Joe Biden was beginning his bid for the presidency, he came to Los Angeles, looking for support. He didn’t find much interest. He wasn’t new or sexy or particularly plugged into the showbiz scene. But he met someone who turned out to be one of his most loyal supporters: Joe Pichirallo, a longtime specialty division executive who’s now working at the Gold Co.
I ran into Pichirallo up here the other night. He had flown directly to Toronto from the Democratic convention in Denver, where he’d been at various Biden events. Pichirallo is one of the producers of ‘The Secret Life of Bees,’ a female empowerment movie featuring Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah and Jennifer Hudson that’s being released this fall by Fox Searchlight. After Joe got tired of hyping me about the film, we poured some drinks and started talking politics. What kind of guy is Joe Biden anyway? And why does he talk so much? Joe had some answers:
As it turns out, when Biden came to L.A. in 2006, Pichirallo was one of the few people to show any interest. Most of the high-profile Hollywood types were already Clinton supporters or hopping on the Obama bandwagon. Pichirallo introduced Biden to various TV and film executives, but support was lukewarm. One of the few people to actually give him money was 20th Century Fox Co-Chairman Tom Rothman, who was impressed by Biden’s keen grasp of world affairs.
‘Everybody liked Biden, but I’d be lying if I said we got a of money out of anyone,’ Pichirallo recalls. ‘People just didn’t see him as a winner. They were either too skeptical of his chances or already had a favorite candidate.’ Still, during the presidential debates in 2007, Pichirallo would take time off from work, hop on a plane and travel around with Biden, who was impressed that Pichirallo had been a Washington Post political reporter before he came to Hollywood. ‘He liked it that I had a media background and wanted to take advantage of that,’ says Pichirallo. ‘We’d talk about issues and how to present them, how to reach key people.’
Biden certainly didn’t have any entourage. Pichirallo says that when they were on the road, it was often just him, the candidate and Biden’s body man. ‘We flew commercial and stayed in inexpensive hotels,’ he recalls. ‘You could look up and see the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee carrying his own bag through the airport.’
Biden’s biggest drawback was that he had a reputation as a blowhard. One of my Hollywood friends had a small gathering for Biden early on and came away unimpressed--Biden spent more than an hour answering four questions, which came to about 15 minutes per question. ‘We talked about that issue,’ says Pichirallo. ‘The problem is that Biden has such a depth of knowledge that it’s hard sometimes for him to boil everything down to a few simple ideas. He’s just got a lot to say. But I think he’s been getting better.’
Pichirallo got out his digital camera and gleefully showed off pictures of Michelle Obama and Biden’s mother, who were all at Biden’s post-nomination party in Denver. But now Biden is off in another universe, crowded with high-level campaign advisers and secret service details, the Biden end of the campaign dominated by Obama loyalists. Pichirallo will have to make Democratic converts back home in L.A. I asked him if he’d had any luck with his boss, Eric Gold, the veteran comedy manager, who is a staunch McCain supporter. Did Pichirallo think having Biden on the ticket might sway Gold?
He laughed. ‘I don’t know about that. Maybe I’ll start with someone easier before I get to Eric.’