Screen Right

The NYT reports that there's a "new wave in Hollywood, a group that intends to . . . promote godliness, Pax Americana and its own view of family values."

The "Hollywood Right," according to the Times, cuts "a broad political and religious swath, from 'right-to-life' Christians and foreign-policy hawks to more middle-of-the-road 'family-values' advocates. They include strongly identified Catholics like Mel Gibson and the manager-producer Doug Urbanski (The Contender), and evangelicals like Ralph Winter, who produced X-Men and Fantastic Four. One of their leading voices has long been Lionel Chetwynd, a Jewish neo-conservative whose credits include the 1987 pro-Vietnam War feature The Hanoi Hilton."

The Times also notes "A collection of what might loosely be styled conservative libertarians includes the actors Clint Eastwood, Drew Carey and Gary Oldman, along with the producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Gavin Polone."

Finally, there are "the so-called Sept. 12th Republicans. These include former liberals and centrists like the actors David Zucker, Dennis Miller, James Woods and Ron Silver." In the words of one conservative Hollywood producer, these figures "had a Road to Damascus experience" after 9/11.

The story reports efforts to establish a connection with the Washington right -- and its money -- as well, including a recent meeting in Maryland where "The idea was to start tying money from Washington's right-to-life movement to key Hollywood players," and another meeting in Santa Monica "'to find some intersection of policy and story ideas' for future Hollywood content."