USC Schwarzenegger Institute kickoff will fuse Hollywood, politics
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Class is in for professor Schwarzenegger, and he has a lesson for anyone willing to listen: Politicians have a lot to learn from Hollywood.
The action star and former governor will host the kickoff of his new academic institute at USC on Sept. 24 with a host of celebrities from the political and entertainment world.
In the morning, Sen. John McCain, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and others will join a conversation about post-partisanship. In the afternoon, director James Cameron and Universal Studios President Ron Meyer headline a chat about “the power of people and innovation.”
In an interview Monday, Schwarzenegger said he thought politicians would be well served to hear what some of Hollywood’s top innovators have to say.
“Hollywood and our entertainment industry has solved many, many great, great problems and has been very talented with technology and bringing entertainment all over the world,” he said. “The same brains, if utilized, can actually solve other problems as well.”
He says the entertainment world can foster innovation and boldness while political institutions stifle those same impulses.
“You can get the smartest people in the world, but if you don’t ... have courage, you will not be able to make a movie, you will not be successful in serving the people or getting things done in the world.”
“I saw firsthand in Sacramento that lots of people focus on things that really has nothing to do with being successful in the end.”
With a memoir and book tour set to kick off next month, the kickoff of the new institute, the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy, is part of a relaunching of sorts for the former governor. While he has appeared in movies since leaving the governor’s office last year, he has kept a relatively low profile since splitting from his wife, Maria Shriver, after it was revealed that he fathered a child with their housekeeper.
The establishment of the USC/Schwarzenegger Institute was announced earlier this year. It was kick-started with $20 million from Schwarzenegger’s personal funds and money he has raised.
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--Anthony York in Sacramento