Reprinted from The Washington Times , 5am -- March 31, 1998
Celebrities help Annan sell U.N. agenda to U.S.
By Betsy Pisik
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
NEW YORKLights! Camera! Action! Kofi Annan is headed for Hollywood.
Frustrated with his failure to get Congress to pay off arrears, the U.N. secretary-general is going over lawmakers' heads to the American people, beginning with a high-visibility star turn in Tinseltown.
He is also planning visits to cities from Houston to Minneapolis, where he hopes to win the hearts and minds of American voters and build popular support for for U.N. programs.
Mr. Annan will begin his tour with a celebrity-studded reception in Beverly Hills on April 21 at the invitation of Jack Valenti, the high-powered president of the Motion Picture Association of America.
"Hollywood is a nesting place of celebrities, and they have a bully pulpit," said Mr. Valenti, who added that he is delighted to introduce his new friend to the film community.
The industry lobbyist met Mr. Annan and his wife, Nane, at a private dinner during last summer's Venice Film Festival and found him "sophisticated, marvelous, low-key, literate and interesting."
The reception for 100 film industry luminaries is part of a five-day trip to California and Houston that will include business and foreign policy events in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and meetings with three former secretaries of state, one former president and basketball legend Magic Johnson.
Mr. Johnson will be officially designated as a "messenger of peace," an honor that carries no defined responsibilities.
Mr. Annan -- who has hardly seen his own office between recent travels to the Middle East and his current tour of Moscow, Beijing and London -- is trying to build grass-roots support for the organization.
He also hopes to create pressure on Congress to pay arrears that the United Nations estimates at roughly $1.3 billion but Washington puts it at considerably less.
The variety of appearances "reflects extraordinary interest in the secretary-general from all quarters -- academic, political, business, the film and media community. They are eager to meet, to hear, to help," said Gillian Sorensen, who schedules Mr. Annan's public appearances and outreach efforts.
The Hollywood trip will be an opportunity to network with entertainers, West Coast media and others, such as "the producers who want to convey the U.N. message," said Mrs. Sorensen. "One byproduct is that we hope Washington knows that the American public cares."
American supporters of the United Nations praised the effort.
"This is Public Relations 101: If you have friends in high places you take advantage," said John Tessitore, spokesman for the U.N. Association of the U.S.A., a lobbying and information group. "There is not a politician in the world who would not do this. The secretary-general is recognizing that in some ways he is a politician, too."
Mr. Tessitore added that polls consistently show the United Nations is more popular with the American public than it is with politicians in Washington.
In Los Angeles and during a brief visit to San Francisco, Mr. Annan will address several large groups of foreign policy enthusiasts, business executives, representatives of nongovernmental organizations, and university students.
He will also meet in California with former Secretaries of State George Shultz and Warren Christopher.
He will stop in Houston on the way home for an address at the James Baker Institute at Rice University and a quick airport meeting with former President George Bush.
On a later trip, scheduled for May 17, Mr. Annan will deliver a commencement speech at his alma mater, Macallester College in Minneapolis, and will address a business gathering in St. Paul and a meeting of foreign affairs experts in Cleveland.
Although his predecessors have been regulars on the foreign affairs circuit and would sometimes speak at universities, Mr. Annan is the first secretary-general to so deliberately court the business elite, not to mention make the rounds in Hollywood.Copyright 1998 News World Communications, Inc.
Reprinted with permission of
The Washington Times.
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