HOLLYWOOD'S `SECURITY CELEBS' NEW VOTING BLOC FOR REPUBLICANS.

Byline: BRIDGET JOHNSON

IT'S pretty sad when a Democrat can't rally the traditional stronghold of Hollywood, plump his coffers and sail to victory. It's even more daunting when you have zero personality, like Treasurer Phil Angelides, and when your challenger has pumped Tinseltown's pocketbooks from his years as an uber-action star.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has been ably flexing his fundraising muscle in his gubernatorial re-election campaign after the state's Democratic voters inexplicably pushed through the man least able to beat him in the primary. And while Angelides has secured the traditional support from Hollywood party stalwarts such as Barbra Streisand and Warren Beatty, Schwarzenegger has a good share of heavyweights in his corner, including donors Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Jerry Bruckheimer, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Brian Grazer, Jerry Zucker, Dennis Hopper and Lawrence Gordon, according to campaign finance reports for this election cycle.

The Hollywood split can be explained by Schwarzenegger's industry ties or his centrism that appeals more to industry moderates, but trends may also be indicating a new class of Tinseltown voters: the security celebrities.

The coveted ``security moms'' voting bloc is married women -- Democrats and Republicans -- with children whose ballot choices are driven by concerns about national security and terrorism. The security celeb is also a product of the 9-11 terrorist attacks -- not only are there the security concerns of other Americans, but the added knowledge that radical Islamists see Hollywood as the bane of civilization, thus making them additional targets.

Two years ago, I heard producer and director David Zucker of ``Airplane!'' fame talk about his conversion to a ``Sept. 11 Republican.'' A lifelong liberal with a keen interest in protecting the environment, security concerns prompted Zucker to switch to the GOP, making an anti-John Kerry television ad in 2004 and two new commercials for next month's midterm elections.

``I still can't believe I'm a Republican,'' Zucker told The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles earlier this month. ``There are just certain things ingrained in our Jewish roots. Our fathers voted for Roosevelt, and we voted for JFK, Humphrey and Clinton. But the Democratic Party has changed.''

Though the security celeb doesn't necessarily make the GOP crossover while making his concerns known, such as James Woods or Ron Silver, the security celeb may also be motivated by the left's increasing animosity toward Israel. As many left-wingers were marching in the streets against the Jewish state during the recent Hezbollah war, Spielberg's foundation donated $1 million toward relief efforts in Israel. Adam Sandler also donated 400 PlayStation consoles to Israeli children whose homes were hit by Hezbollah rockets.

Perhaps the most visible recent statement of the security celebrities was a full-page ad taken out in the L.A. Times in August, signed by dozens of Hollywood types including Nicole Kidman, Michael Douglas, Bernie Mac, Dennis Hopper, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Danny De Vito, Don Johnson, James Woods, Kelly Preston, Patricia Heaton, William Hurt, Ridley Scott, Michael Mann, Sam Raimi and Paramount chairman Sumner Redstone, as well as former Paramount chairwoman and longtime Democratic contributor Sherry Lansing.

``We the undersigned are pained and devastated by the civilian casualties in Israel and Lebanon caused by terrorist actions initiated by terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas,'' the ad read. ``If we do not succeed in stopping terrorism around the world, chaos will rule and innocent people will continue to die. We need to support democratic societies and stop terrorism at all costs.''

Predictably, this prompted outcries from left-leaning blogs to boycott the involved celebrities, ironically putting them in territory most often dominated by right-wing pundits: complaining about celebrities' political involvement. ``Hollywood supports Israeli mass murder,'' chirped one IndyMedia site.

The security celebs are not a huge voting bloc, but a sign of the times, as the tide slowly shifts among traditional liberals who are concerned about the threats to Israel and Western society -- and also seeing many of their brethren on the left take the wrong side.