The Gascon recall would test the spending and culture powers of Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and George Soros. But the LA Mag suggests that supporters of recalling the pro-crime DA now include a healthy chunk of Hollywood.
Celebrity supporters like boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard and entertainment news host Carly Steele have donated to the recall, and last Wednesday, actress Rosanna Arquette posted to her Twitter page an Instagram post by former Beverly Hills mayor Lili Bosse that stated: “I am ALL IN. Recall DA George Gascón.”
“The spin that Gascón has used effectively before, that it’s all Trump supporters, is not going to work this time,” says Irene Medavoy, who with her husband helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Obamas and other prominent Democrats. A major studio executive told Los Angeles, “People can be liberal in ideology but they don’t want crime in their city.”
It took a while. The Avant murder seems to have triggered some of the avalanche.
Some of the recent donors, like the Medavoys, knew Jaqueline Avant personally. Earlier this month, the Beverly Hills city council endorsed the D.A’s recall by unanimous vote and residents have pumped millions into the recall effort. In the past year, producers, actors, and other prominent Beverly Hills residents have put together catered events at their homes, inviting leaders of the anti-Gascón movement to speak.
Avant, incidentally, is the mother-in-law of Ted Sarandos, the other head honcho at Netflix. No sign of him in this and I doubt that Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, who have funded the pro-crime movement in California are getting off the train.
The list of early contributors to the campaign to oust Gascón, obtained exclusively by Los Angeles and not yet released to the public, includes Orion Pictures co-founder Mike Medavoy and his wife, socialite Irene Meadavoy; supermarket magnate and President Clinton confidant Ron Burkle; President Biden’s pick for ambassador to Norway, Holmby Hills media-real-estate billionaire Marc Nathanson; Hillary Clinton bundler and Pacific Palisades real-estate baron Jordan Kaplan; and Malibu-based developer of malls and condos Richard Weintraub and his wife Liane.
Other prominent donors to the recall from the entertainment community include George Clooney’s long-time producing partner, Grant Heslov, and his wife Lysa; former 20th Century Fox exec and producer, Jonathan Sheinberg, son of film industry titan Sidney Sheinberg; Cynthia Sikes Yorkin, widow of All in the Family co-creator Bud Yorkin; and Lauren King, widow of the late Richard King of King World Productions, syndicator of The Oprah Winfrey Show, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!.
Getting Ron Burkle on board is kind of impressive.
Does this portend anything bigger than Hollywood producers getting sick and tired of Gascon? Can this mean a tilt on pro-crime in general or is it primarily a response to the Avant murder and nothing else? I hope it’s a bellwether and a sign that a bigger shift is coming.
But it seems to take people forever to wake up to the obvious. And it’s probably safer to err on the side of cynicism.
Because this nightmare didn’t come out of nowhere. The pro-crime movement was aided and abetted by the very same people waking up to realize that criminals are freely roaming the streets.
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