Hillary’s heading to Hollywood, and she’s taking daughter Chelsea along for the ride.
The Clinton women are launching a film and television production company and plan to finance several programs that “focus on stories by and about women,” Bloomberg reports.
“People familiar with the matter” told the news site the intent is to influence culture and society through the programing, which is expected to go through a studio.
The endeavor is one of several business opportunities the 71-year-old twice failed presidential candidate is reportedly pursuing, after a lackluster book of excuses for Clinton’s 2016 defeat to President Trump underwhelmed, and a sparsely attended speaking tour with husband Bill failed to gain significant interest.
Clinton’s move to Hollywood is also what all the “cool” politicians are doing, with former President Obama’s deal with Netflix, documentaries on the rise of Socialist Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her Green New Deal, and 2020 candidate Beto O’Rourke’s recently launched HBO special Running with Beto.
Vanity Fair opines:
Clinton’s own as-yet-unnamed production company is still embryonic, so it’s unclear how much impact it will have—or if any major studios will bite. While the Obamas remain extremely popular post-White House, the Clinton brand has taken major hits over the past several years, what with the Clinton Foundation’s Clinton Global Initiative shutting down, the 2016 election fiasco, and Bill tangling with the #MeToo movement. Even after years of Trump insanity plaguing the country, Gallup found in September that Hillary only had a 36% approval rating. All of which invites the question: if Americans have soured on the Clinton dynasty, will they still binge-watch Clinton-branded programming? If the plunging ticket prices for Bill and Hillary’s current speaking tour are any indication, it’s hard to imagine studios offering an Obama-level production deal either.
Bloomberg noted that while actors like Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger have successfully transferred their popularity to politics, but it doesn’t typically work the other way.
“Candidates have long come to Hollywood to raise money, however, and Clinton has a large base of support among donors – including (Steven) Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and director J.J. Abrams,” according to the site.
Clinton has already inked a separate deal to help produce a show with Spielberg about activists in the women’s suffrage movement.
“That potential series will see Clinton team with Steven Spielberg for the Amblin TV-produced drama/limited series based on the book The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote by Elaine Weiss,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. “(Sources told THR that as Weiss was writing the book, she was struck by the parallels between the women’s suffrage movement and the 2016 presidential election between Donald Trump and Clinton and became determined to get the book into the latter’s hands.)”
“Hillary is still very popular out here and there’s been conversations with several studios and streamers about working on projects together, an unidentified “top-tier executive” told Deadline on Thursday.
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