Film producer Joseph Levine said, “You can fool all of the people all of the time if the budget is big enough.” No truer words were said than after Rob Reiner raised $200,000 from his Hollywood celebrity friends. Reiner’s spokesman, Leo Wallach, says, “It doesn’t even compare to what we expect to see developers spend to smear his campaign.” My questions to Mr. Reiner and Mr. Wallach are: Who are these developers smearing your campaign? Who are these people you keep referring to? The only money I see being spent is from you and your wealthy celebrity colleagues.
Just last month, you ran a woefully misleading ad about development in The Malibu Times. I have seen this tired act before; it hasn’t worked in the past and it is getting stale. You can’t frighten the real Malibu citizens with your “sky is falling” rhetoric. We know better.
However, worst of all, you and your supporters have become hypocrites. You speak of wanting to stop out-of-town interests from “changing” Malibu, yet out-of-town, part-time residents — many of which aren’t even registered to vote in Malibu — are funding your campaign.
Most of the money being spent is from Hollywood, not Malibu, and that is disappointing. We know the people of Malibu will prove Joseph Levine wrong by voting “no” on the elitist Measure R (Reiner Initiative).
Doug O’Brien