Dean had spent the night in Reiner’s guest house; a simple bowl of cereal, readied for his early Thursday departure to San Francisco, remained untouched. Strange–Reiner had even shown the former Vermont governor where to find the milk. But no one mentioned the breakfast plan to Reiner’s son, who had come home late from a Dodgers game–and bolted the door to the main house. “We possibly locked the future president out of the house,” Reiner told NEWSWEEK. “Hopefully he got a muffin at the airport.”
So goes the glamour of the campaign trail. On Monday, Dean will officially announce his candidacy for president (that is, after spending the weekend managing the news that his 17-year-old son was cited on Thursday night for trying to burglarize a Vermont country club.) Dean’s buzz among Democrats, which was kicked into high-gear with his antiwar stance, hasn’t waned over the last few months. He’s polling well in New Hampshire, where he’s only second to Sen. John Kerry.
Showbiz liberals on both coasts are a big–and lucrative–base of support for Dean. He scored Reiner’s endorsement in February. Whoopi Goldberg and Melissa Etheridge hosted an event for him in April in New York City. On June 4, a top talent agent for International Creative Management held a fund-raiser for Dean at her Upper West Side apartment. Hosted by Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, the party included Alec Baldwin, Michael Moore, Marvin Hamlisch and other showbiz types. “It was a very New York evening,” the agent told NEWSWEEK via e-mail. “He spoke to a whole new group of Democrats who felt like no one has spoken to them.” At Reiner’s home, 100 or so big names showed up to write checks–suits like Jim Wiatt, the president and CEO of the William Morris Agency, and Alan Horn, president of Warner Bros. Actors Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest also made appearances. Dean also has the support of Martin Sheen, Nora Ephron, Richard Donner and Norman Lear. Later this summer, Dean will head to the Hamptons for a fund-raiser hosted by Broadway theater producer Roy Furman.
Support from the rich and famous has always helped politicians. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the film, TV and music industry combined for the fifth-largest source of money for federal candidates in 2002 elections; about 82 percent of those funds found their way into Democratic coffers. And for Dean, the help from the stars couldn’t come at a better time–second-quarter fund-raising for the nine Democratic candidates comes to an end this month. Dean’s campaign reportedly expects about $4 million total for the second quarter; he raised about $2.1 million in the first. Drinks and hors d’oeuvres at the Reiner home, for instance, brought in more than $125,000. (President Bush, by contrast, is in the midst of a two-week, $20 million fund-raising drive).
Of course, Democrats on the coasts are hardly unanimous about Dean. Many are still asking: can he win? Or more accurately, who can win against the current president? “I want to know who’s the person that’s going to take it to Bush,” actor Alec Baldwin told NEWSWEEK. “We’ve got to get rid of this guy.” Baldwin says that only two candidates–Dean and Sen. Bob Graham–have not ceded the “most important issue, national security” to the White House. Hollywood is keeping an eye on two other contenders, Kerry and Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, as well. The half a dozen or so “raisers” in Tinseltown–established Democratic figures such as Barbra Streisand, Haim Saban and Westwood One chairman Norm Pattiz–are hardly exclusive in their support. Saban sent $1,000 to Edwards, Dean, Kerry and Rep. Dick Gephardt.
Nobody thinks the straightforward Dean, 49, a doctor with Yankee style, can resolve another issue: the nostalgia for the hugely magnetic personality of Bill Clinton. Says an entertainment-industry source: “Hollywood loved Clinton. He’d stay up to three in the morning, hanging out with stars, watching movies.” Dean is trying liven up his campaign: this week, the campaign launched the first presidential TV ad of the 2004 race. And on Sunday, he’ll appear opposite Tim Russert on “Meet the Press.” For now, anyway, the kid from Vermont will stay in the picture.
