Security was tight as a crowd of 500 entertainment industry titans filed through metal detectors and multiple checkpoints into the Beverly Hills house owned by Warner Music Group A&R exec Aton Ben-Horin for the Creative Community for Peace's sixth annual Ambassadors of Peace event (Variety is a media sponsor).
The list of honorees included (pictured above, left to right): TV exec Ben Silverman, Amazon Music's Phylicia Fant, actor-author-host Mayim Bialik, music business attorney Josh Binder and newly appointed Atlantic Music Group CEO Elliot Grainge.
The organization, founded more than a decade ago by veteran publishing executive David Renzer, EA music chief Steve Schnur, mainly to convince acts to bypass boycott efforts to perform in Israel, has found new relevance since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on an Israeli music festival. In the months since, CCFP has organized a series of events, including a forum hosted by CAA on antisemitism whose attendees included "First Gentleman" Doug Emhoff, a noted music lover himself known to brandish a Clash album cover on Facebook.
Renzer said, "This is a non-partisan, apolitical organization" Renzer told Variety. "We have people of all political perspectives as members. We believe in co-existence and feel for the loss of innocent lives on both sides. We pray for the day when there can be peace. One of our goals is to try to provide balance to the discourse, which is needed today more than ever. We want to use the arts, particularly music, given our backgrounds, as a way of building bridges, of helping build momentum toward peace."
Dr. Bialik, an outspoken supporter of Israel, turned to CCFP to formulate a response to her millions of social media followers in the wake of the October 7 attack.
"We were faced with a distinct set of challenges, including disinformation, intimidation and threats. CCFP helps us express the diversity of opinion within the Jewish community.
"This is not about choosing sides. It's not a war of who deserves more compassion. It's about the right of Israel to exist, and the right for its people not to be terrorized. The nuance tends to get lost on social media. The angry, divisive rhetoric is what prevents us from listening to one another and finding that common ground."
Josh Binder, founding partner of the law firm of Rothenberg, Mohr and Binder, represents Marshmello and, for nearly 20 years, Top Dawg Entertainment. He put forth an unusual but welcome take on the situation.
Pointing to Marshmello manager Moe Shalizi, his professional partner and good friend, Binder noted the "fake news that a Jew and a Muslim can't do business together."
More seriously, he continued, "I'm not a political activist. I'm here to build a bridge with the community of music people I'm close to, to communicate who I am as a Jew and not to judge each of us by what a country is doing. As they say about the music business, it's all about the relationships. And the more you work with people who are not like yourself, the more you can learn from each other."
Fant, a founding member of the Black Jewish Entertainment Alliance and a senior music executive at Amazon (and manager of singer Andra Day), said, "Blacks and Jews have been together a long time, going back to the relationship between the Queen of Sheba and Solomon," she laughed. "I was in Israel several years ago and I understand kibbutz culture: It's about unity and raising a village. We are a music village and it's important we take care of each other, lift each other up. We marched side-by-side together — we need to walk hand in hand. I am proud to be part of any organization that puts peace first."
Legendary TV producer Ben Silverman, now Chairman/Co-CEO of Propagate, whose shows include "The Office," "Ugly Betty" and "Jane the Virgin," also cited the Old Testament example of storytelling as a way of promoting peaceful co-existence.
"This organization promotes conversation around peace and narrative in a thoughtful way," he explained. "The power of the arts needs to be unleashed to tell the stories that bring us together. After all, we wrote the original book, which along with Shakespeare, has given us the greatest story lines in history. We are a creative coalition of like-minded peacemakers. We don't want to fight, but if you take the fight to us, we're going to fight back."
Elliot Grainge, introduced by brother-in-law Good Charlotte's Joel Madden (they're married to sisters Sofia and Nicole Richie, respectively), joked that the two pals have one thing in common: "We're both petrified by our wives."
Earlier, Grainge spoke more seriously about his pro-Israel stance — at least briefly.
"If you look at my schnozz, you know," he noted. "Israel has a right to exist, and I'm proud to be a part of this event, because it represents people of all religions and races in the music industry coming together. We're all on one spinning ball in the universe and have the right to feel comfortable no matter where we are."
With that out of the way, the newly appointed CEO of the Atlantic Music Group was asked whether his new job would make him even more competitive with his father and now-rival, Universal Music boss Lucian Grainge.
"We've been that way since I was in his ball sack," he deadpanned.
Father vs. son: It was an evening filled with storylines from the Holy Land.
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