The Bumpiness of the Celebrity-Politician Romance

New York Times

4 days ago

He has one eye on the voters and the other on world events. She's going from red carpet to red carpet between concert tours or months spent on a film set. When they find each other, what could go wrong?
Katy Perry's recent two-hour dinner at a Montreal restaurant with Justin Trudeau, the former prime minister of Canada, prompted dozens of media reports, from TMZ, which posted video of the date, to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which noted that the evening's tête-à-tête was 'good for their embattled brands.'
Ms. Perry and Mr. Trudeau have not commented on their encounter. But the optics of the public pairing opened the door to discussions of a well-charted path: the politician-celebrity relationship.
There's a long history of such couplings. The film star Jane Fonda and the activist-turned-lawmaker Tom Hayden were married for 17 years. The two-time Oscar winner Elizabeth Taylor walked down the aisle for the sixth time with Senator John W. Warner of Virginia. Mr. Trudeau's father, Pierre Trudeau, had well-documented relationships with celebrities, including Barbra Streisand and Margot Kidder.
'I think it definitely has a lot at stake for both the politician and the celebrity,' said Rebecca Tukachinsky Forster, an associate professor at Chapman University who studies media psychology, speaking of such relationships in general.
In her recent memoir, Ms. Streisand devoted a chapter to her relationship with the elder Trudeau. 'It was nice to be with a man who had his own light shining on him, so I could stay in the shadows a bit,' she wrote.
She described attending a gala in Canada, saying she 'felt a little like Jackie Kennedy as I walked into the auditorium on the arm of this distinguished man, the leader of his country.' In the end, though, she found herself 'a bit scared of the intensity' of the relationship, and wrote that she was not interested in stepping away from her own career to devote herself to it.
Christian Grose, a professor of political science and public policy at the University of Southern California, said a politician who was romantically involved with a star might seem more intriguing to voters. He cited Jerry Brown, the former longtime governor of California, who had relationships with the singer Linda Ronstadt and other celebrities in the 1970s.
'I think it actually kind of enhanced his image as a quirky and interesting person to pay attention to on the national scene,' Mr. Grose said.
But the relationships can have downsides for politicians, he added, if they make them look like they're 'interested more in fame and less in policy.' And the relationships can backfire, Mr. Grose said, depending on how they're received by the public.
The dynamic between Ms. Ronstadt and Mr. Brown was briefly explored in the 2019 documentary 'Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice,' which showcased the difficulties faced by two people with careers in very different spotlights.
'Jerry needed somebody that could be full-time there for him,' Patricia Casado, a friend of the singer's, said in the film. 'You couldn't have two careers in that family.'
In 1979, Ms. Ronstadt played a benefit in San Diego to raise money for Mr. Brown's 1980 presidential campaign, along with the Eagles and Chicago. More than 10,000 people enjoyed the show, but Ms. Ronstadt's fans treated the candidate like an interloper. 'Those attending the concert clearly came for the music, not the politics,' The New York Times reported. 'When Mr. Brown strode to the microphone, a mutter of boos rippled through the hall.'
Such relationships often have one factor in common, experts said: The politicians are men and the celebrities are women. While this imbalance may result from the number of men in office compared with the number of women, there may be other elements at play.
For some male politicians, a liaison with an entertainment star can be akin to a status symbol or a 'flex,' according to Juliet Williams, a professor of gender studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. She added that certain male politicians might try to take advantage of the celebrity's ability of 'grabbing and holding the limelight.'
Ms. Taylor noted that she had made a number of sacrifices during the years she spent with Mr. Warner, the Republican senator. As she mentioned in a 2006 interview with Harper's Bazaar, she had to dress more conservatively than she wanted to when she was on the campaign trail. There were more serious challenges, too.
'I don't think I've ever been so alone in my life as when I was Mrs. Senator, and I don't blame my ex-husband,' she wrote in her 1987 memoir, 'Elizabeth Takes Off.' 'He never pretended to be anything but a man devoted to public service, and once that service began in earnest, I had to take a back seat to his constituency.'