Speech! Speech! Hollywood and its reaction to Humanitarian crisises or How Larry David and Angelina Jolie saved the world

This past Sunday I gave a speech to the Hadassah Associates who are, for the most part, the husbands of the members of Hadassah. Hadassah is holding its annual convention in Los Angeles this year, and I was addressing the group after they had visited the Museum of Tolerance at the Simon Wiesenthal Center. My topic was “Hollywood’s response to humanitarian crises” or as I called it “How Larry David and Angelina Jolie saved the world.”

I gave an overview of how historically Hollywood had addressed social and political issues, and how they had done so more recently. I tried to explain what a studio movie is, what a producer does and how it is that so many movies do not turn out as hoped for or expected. I talked a bit about indie movies and about people who decide to make movies in Hollywood with money they’ve made or raised.

Given that I was addressing a Jewish organization, I talked a bit about “Jewish Hollywood,” and the myths and realities therein, and how Jewish ethics and values play a part in the making of movies that could be described as a response to humanitarian crises.

I then talked about the ripple effect that some Hollywood movies, and entertainers have had, and I talked about Beyond Borders and its impact on Angelina Jolie, as well as Jeff Skoll and “North Country” and Larry David, Laurie David and “An Inconvenient Truth.”

My speech which was sprinkled with jokes and examples, both historic, and from my own experience, was about  40 minutes long. I then took about 15 minutes of questions from the crowd.

THe speech was well received and I hope that, in the end, I gave some insight into the workings of Hollywood and the impact that Hollywood has had, and continues to have.

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