Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Steve Israel (D., N.Y.) briefed Hollywood insiders on their fundraising plan to take back the House of Representatives in 2014 Thursday night after a showing of the "30 Rock" finale.
The event was attended by more than 40 industry supporters, according to the Hollywood Reporter:
More than 40 Hollywood politicos -- including Barbra Streisand, James Brolin and Haim Saban -- gathered Thursday night at a closed-door meeting at Norman Lear's Westside mansion, where they heard Minority Leader Nancy Pelosilay out the party’s plans for recapturing the House in the 2014 mid-terms. [...]
At the session, Pelosi and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel, who attended a fundraiser luncheon co-hosted by entertainment lawyer Chuck Ortner on Thursday, did a PowerPoint presentation identifying seats that the DCCC believes will be in play during the next election and outlined some of the themes the national party will promote to capture them. Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that the meeting was organized along the same lines as one that Saban hosted a year ago, with one exception -- this time the crowd gathered around to watch finale of 30 Rock, which featured a cameo by Pelosi. [...]
Attendees included Lisa Heslov, wife of Argo producer Grant Heslov, industry political consultant Noah Mamet, billionaire businessman and philanthropist Eli Broad and wife Edythe, MOCA Trustee Blake Byrne, composer Hans Zimmer, White House interior designer Michael Smith, HBO exec James Costas, and Tom Rothman, former co-chairman and CEO of the 20th Century Fox film studio.
Saban, the chairman of Univision and the founder of Saban Entertainment (best known as the studio behind "Power Rangers"), is a major Democratic donor who gave more than $1 million to Democratic candidates and committees in the 2012 cycle. He is the host of an annual conference called the Saban Forum, most recently in the news when outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was lavished with praise in a film presented at the 2012 event.
His wife, Cheryl Saban, was nominated to be a representative of the United States to the General Assembly of the United Nations in September by the White House. That nomination followed a prominent op-ed penned by Haim Saban that defended President Obama's Israel record.