Curtains Drawn, It Was Love At First Ballot

By Laura Sessions Stepp
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 26, 2006

The following is a public service announcement.

"I did a lot of research on positions that I liked," says "Law & Order" alumna Angie Harmon in her close-up.

Tyne Daly from "Judging Amy" says, "The first man I had a crush on who wasn't my dad was John F. Kennedy. I really wanted to do it for him."

Regina King, lover to Ray Charles in the movie "Ray," can't shut up about it. "I was the last one of all my friends to do it," she confesses in a voice so deep and silky that you just want to hear every little detail. "After I did it, I told everybody ."

By now her arms and hands are in constant motion.

"You've got all that energy flowing inside and you go and commit, it's a beautiful thing. I would do it again and again and again and again." With that she throws back her head and laughs, fanning herself.

Their first time . . .

Voting. That's what the PSA, a double-entendred riff by well-known Hollywood actresses, is about. And it's what 20 million unmarried women didn't do in 2004, according to Page Gardner, president of the group that produced the ad, Women's Voices. Women Vote.

"They're a powerful force but their power is unrealized," says Gardner.

Maybe sex will do what a million other announcements, ads and speeches about civic duty have failed to do: lure them to the polls.

"I like to do it in the morning, when my synapses are clicking," says Felicity Huffman of "Desperate Housewives."

Who would have thought that casting a ballot could be "sexy"?

Or "liberating"?

Or "leave you disappointed" when you didn't do it?

Gardner says her organization is nonpartisan and does not endorse candidates. However, given the fact that several members of the staff and board have worked for Democrats, it's not surprising the group has homed in on single, divorced and widowed women because when these women do vote, they tend to vote Democratic.

Two years ago, Gardner's organization made a get-out-the-vote ad with Jennifer Aniston and Helen Hunt. This time around, Gardner set up several more short videos, including at least one that wouldn't be what she called "Eat your peas and go vote" dutiful.

No peas in sight here. Just a softly lit taupe background and celebrities seeming to describe a sexual experience that women are more apt to talk about than men. "My First Time" is the quick equivalent of a grown-up girls' gabfest.

Women's Voices went for hot new technology too. The spots, currently displayed at http://www.wvwv.org/ , appeared on YouTube, the popular video-sharing Web site recently acquired by Google. The Huffington Post and other blogs were next, followed by TV and radio stations. "That's the beauty of the Internet. It shifts the power of control," Gardner says.

The PSAs were attacked by conservative radio talk host Rush Limbaugh -- publicity you simply can't buy.

"So this is how these liberals think that they're going to get single women to vote?" Limbaugh asked. "Sex. Now, I want to ask you, is this clever or is this demeaning? . . . It may work, who knows, but it's still demeaning. It tells me they're not interested in women voting issues."

Actually, one of the group's ads this season is titled "Issues," and encompasses health care, job security and war. Another, "Dreams," urges mothers, daughters and girlfriends to stop dreaming about the future and "wake up and vote for it." But it's "My First Time," available in both 30- and 60-second formats, that is attracting attention.

So is it sex or voting that the celebrities are talking about? It's difficult to tell sometimes.

"Once I did it in an old woman's garage," says Daphne Zuniga of "American Dreams."

"Other people's houses," King chimes in.

The spot was the brainchild of the film-producing couple Julie Bergman Sender ("G.I. Jane") and Stuart Sender ("Prisoner of Paradise"). The couple sought out smart actresses who would work well with innuendo and brought them into their studio. There was no script. Instead, Stuart tossed out questions about both sex and voting that he and Julie had dreamed up. Lots of tape was left on the floor.

One rule: The repartee had to stay clean, Julie Sender says. It seems they had given someone the task of keeping the actresses' water glasses filled -- their 8-year-old daughter Emily.