reiner. after that on a "washington journal" with harold holzer. tomorrow on "washington journal," will rahh examine the politics and public debate surrounding the automatic budget cuts. "u.s.a. today" reporter talks about squrt lapses at the center for disease and prevention. "washington journal" is live at 7:00 a.m. earn on c-span.

>> i was fascinated by her feminist view, you know, remember the ladies or your going to be in trouble. she warned her husband. you can't rule without including what women want and what women have to contribute. this is 1700's, she's saying that. >> abigail adam, this monday night on c-span's new history series. she was outspoken about her views on slavery and women's rights. she provides a unique window into her life with john adams. join the conversation on abigail adams on c-span, c-span radio and c-span.org. >> four years ago, rob reiner spearheaded the legal battle

against proposition eight would ban same-sex marriage in california. mr. reiner recently visited the commonwealth club of california to discuss his career in hollywood, marriage equality, climate change, immigration reform, gun rights, and violent movies,, as well as why he chose not to run for governor against arnold schwarzenegger in 2006. this is an hour and 10 minutes. >> good afternoon and welcome to today's meeting of the commonwealth club of california. the place where you are in the know. you can find us on the internet at commonwealthclub.org. im a news anchor for abc 77 television in san francisco and

a member of the commonwealth club board of directors and your moderator for today's program. it is now my letter to introduce our distinguished speaker today, rob reiner. [applause] >> thank you. >> from his starring role as meathead on the popular 1970 -- >> you are the first person to call me that today. [laughter] >> it is still early. >> true. >> on that wonderful program "on the family" to his blockbuster films. when you look at at his list of films, it is remarkable. "the princess bride," "when harry met sally," "a few good men." as a director, he has worked with a-list actors, jack nicholson, tom cruise, kathy bates, as well as celebrated writers nora efron and aaron sorkin.

he grew up in a political family were still right for a frequent topic around the kitchen table. as such, he has become not only a hollywood legend but a political activist as well. after november 4, 2008 when california passed a constitutional amendment banning marriage for gay and lesbian couples, he cofounded the foundation for equal rights as a way to challenge proposition eight in the courts. in light of the recent decision to hear challenges to prop eight and dome of this year, we are delighted to have him with us today to discuss his views on the future of marriage equality and his incredible contributions to the entertainment industry. please, once again, a warm welcome to rob reiner. [applause] >> thank you. thank you very much. >> for small, what i would like to do is to talk about the entertainment industry and your background. how was your dad?

>> thanks for asking. my dad is doing great. he is 90 years old. he will be 91 in a month and a half. he is still sharp as a tack. he walks around the block every day. >> does the work still? >> he writes. he just wrote an autobiography called i remember me. [laughter] it is just coming out now. he writes every day. he and mel brooks, every single night they get together. mel comes over to the house every night, they sit and have dinner and watch a movie. they say, every movie that has secure the perimeter in it, they will watch. they have fun with each other and they have each other, it is great. mel is 86 or 87. he is doing great too. >> how fortunate to have a lifelong friendship.

>> they have known each other 60 years. i met him when i was four years old. and that mel brooks when i was four years old. we had a little place in fire island, off the coast of long island, and i doubt me and my sister who is two at the time, we were going to go to bed and a man would be staying over. if we woke up in the morning and found a strange man, just know it he is a friend of ours. this man will be sleeping. at 5:00 a.m., this was the introduction to mel brooks. two kids standing, and he is sleeping in this window seat. i turned to my and go, is that the man? yeah, that is the man. that man is the man. she goes and takes his eyes like

this. mel brooks, he was the man, and he is still the man. [applause] >> what a wonderful upbringing to be around such characters. did it dawn on you anytime that it was unusual? >> no. my house was mel brooks, norman lear's, some of the funniest people in the world. as a kid growing up, you don't think of yourself as different. you are just in your house as a kid. it was not until i went to my friend stephen's house where i realized it wasn't so funny over there. not nearly as funny as my house. [laughter] >> did you know early on because of that environment, that you wanted to be in the entertainment? >> i didn't know i wanted to be in the entertainment business, but my dad tells the story, i do not remember it, but he tells -- i was eight years old, and i

went up to him and said, dad, i want to change my name. he went -- he felt so bad. he thought, oh my god, this poor kid has to live up to carl reiner and the fame and the success. and he says, what he want to change her name to? and i said carl. [laughter] i obviously wanted to be like him. i didn't think about show business, but i wanted to be like him. >> it was supportive. >> he always was. very proud of me when i did "all in the family" and all of that. when i was 19 years old -- i started when i was about 17 in summer theater and an improv theater group when i was 19. i directed a production of "no exit" and richard dreyfuss was in it and a few other people i knew.

my father came to the show and looked at me -- this was the first time that i knew -- he looked at me in the eye and said, that was good. no bs. i knew at that point, if he was saying, you are going to be ok. then went to visit him at his house and he said, i'm not worried about you. whatever you decide to do, you will be ok. i felt so good about that. i did look up to him. he was like a god to me. he had done "the dick van dyke show" and all these shows. he was my idol. and he said that to me, it meant a lot. this is a great story. when i was a little boy, and this is true. my father was on television before we owned a television. it's true. we got a television when i was about four or five years old. so we could watch him.

he was doing shows. we had a tiny black-and-white, screen that big, and i thought i used to say to me, at the end of the show they would have the good nights. the cast would come out to have the final bows. my father said, can't wait that -- wave at you. i'm not allowed to. i don't like that. when they come out at the end, i'm going to go like this with my tie, and that is me telling you that i love you and it is time to go to sleep. though every saturday night, he would go like this with his tie. he was a great guy around the house. he was a regular dad. oddly enough, we had a real normal life in a way. the show was on 13 weeks -- 39 weeks a year live. then they were off 13 weeks. that was 13 weeks during the summer, we spent the summers together.

so, i probably had more time with him than a lot of parents. most people don't get 13 weeks in a row. when he was working, i remember one time going down to "the show of shows" and the writers room -- neil simon and woody allen and mel brooks, some of the most brilliant, and my dad and everybody. i remember being five or six and waiting for him. i only remember screaming and crazy screaming at each other. they were fighting for their jokes or whatever. i said, that is comedy? it sounds like they are killing each other. [laughter] the second half of the 20th century, you can trace back to anything you ever laughed at, really came out of that room. all of woody allen's work, neil simon's work.

larry gelbart who wrote "mash" and "tootsie." my dad, mel brooks. everything, basically the second half of the 20th century, comedy was coming out -- incredible writers. >> when you put it like that, it is remarkable, it was a magic time with a unique regard people creating this. >> yes. they called the golden age of television because it was. it was a brand-new medium and you had to have some money to own a television set. the fair was more highbrow. it was an extension of theater. reviews and satire and very upscale type of theater on television. then it became a mass media and

you saw all kinds of dumbing down of things. i contest that right now we are in our second golden age of television. because of the cable tv, and you are looking at "mad men" and "breaking bad" and "homeland", it is almost like the second golden age of television right now. >> i tell people, yes, there is a lot of junk, but there is also more quality on television than there has probably ever been. >> i think there is. when you look at amc and hbo and netflix, all of these deferred ways of accessing these niche type shows, they are really smart shows. nothing that would have been put on the networks -- we were lucky in that we got all in the family on which was a fairly elevated type of show at the time it was on.

when we came on the air, you had "the beverly hillbillies," all of the rural type shows. all of a sudden, we had this urban comedy that dealt with issues that came on. that was a rare thing at that time. now you see all kinds of really good television on. >> no question. let's talk about "on the family" for a moment. . do you find people then or even now -- it was progressive. do people understand it was not celebrating bigotry? >> shone the light on the bigot. we did not just go outside the box or go to the edge of the envelope, we destroyed the envelope, we broke the box. everything. cbs had a disclaimer on before

we came on which essentially said, we don't have anything to do with this show. you want to watch it, it's up to you. [laughter] we don't know what the heck this is. despite that, we were able to succeed. i think in large part, aside from the fact it was funny, they were real people that people could identify. they saw themselves in archie or mike. we presented two points of view. norman lear talked about is favorite clay was by george bernard shaw. who was a liberal. if you didn't know he was a liberal and went to see the play, both the hawk and dove point of view are presented with equal eloquence and intelligence, and it was up to the audience to make up their minds. let's throw this out there and get a dialogue started. at the time, there were no vcrs, no dvr, no tivo, so it didn't

promote a dialogue. if you wanted to watch the show, you had to watch it when it was on. that meant that you were having a shared experience with everybody else who was watching it at that time. i made this point before. at the time, we were a country of about 200 million people. of the 200 million people, anywhere between 30 and 45 million people at one time were watching that show. now we are in a country of over 300 million, and if you have a show that does 10, 15 million viewers, that is a major hit. and you are not watching it at the same time as everybody else. but on your dvr, but saturday night. if you watch the show print them and, monday people were talking about whatever you talked about. x it is hard to cut through the noise now as a programmer.

>> it really is. there is so much out there. i feel, with the internet and 24-hour a day cable news service, the potential of being less informed than more informed. when tv became a profit center, it changed everything. it was a big deal, when walter cronkite was on cbs and the broadcast went from 15 minutes to 30 minutes, that was a big deal. a half-hour? that meant that cbs was throwing away a half-hour of revenue. news outlets were a lost leader. you did not make money on news. all they did was report the news. no commentary. you can get your op-ed from newspapers. then "60 minutes" came along. a brilliant show.

they started making money. all of a sudden, they realized we can make money off the news. then you had big corporations taking over the tv and news outlets. adult became about profit center and bottom line. i think it has made us less informed. i really believe that. it is hard to find real, accurate reporting. how many people read "new york times." >> this sounds like one of the talks i give. let's move now to -- i want to back up and ask you one question. referred to your character, meathead, does that bother you when people referred atco

>> it does not bother me. i always found it odd -- i made the joke, first person to call me meathead today. i get called that virtually every day. even now, and i don't even look anything like and looked like. my kid watch the show and said, it sounds like you, but it does not look like you. i get called that all the time. it would strike me funny that the guy who was espousing my point of view, whether you agreed with him or not, was probably more schools and intelligent and archie, was in called the meathead. look at the source of where that came from. that was just accepted. i am a meathead. that ignorant person called me that. i become that. norman lear's father used to call them that. that is where he got that. you're dead from the neck up or he is a nice father for you.

[laughter] >> people calling you that now, it is a term of endearment. >> yes. they recognize it. iconic. >> you acted in the early days. you still act some? >> yea i just acted in aa little part in a martin movie. scorsese movie, "the wolf of wall street." leonardo dicaprio -- make the joke, i played his father. what is more unbelievable, that leonardo dicaprio was a jew or that i am his father? [laughter] >> is that out yet? >> no, we just finished shooting. it will be out at the end of the year. >> do you like acting still not a you are a director? >> i love to act. it is fun and i don't have a. directing is a lot of responsibility. i enjoy directing more. acting is fun.

i remember years ago, ron howard was making a movie called "ed tv was quote and said there is a part if you want to act. i said, ok. let me send you the script and see if you want to do it. i said, if it stinks it is not my fault. [laughter] i look at it that way. i want to do it. i look at it that way. i will do whatever they wanted to do. i am not responsible. i did a woody allen film years ago called "bullets over broadway" and i don't say anything. to be director -- i know, i don't want actors giving me grief. i have too many problems. just do your job. i show up there and look around, it is an outdoor scene with john cusack and alan arkin at night. i look out and said, gee, if i don't -- there must be some. i'm not aware of. it is too dark. it will never show up.

i will not they anything because it is woody allen. redo the scene, they calmly the next day at the hotel, we watched the dailies, it is a radio show. it is totally black. i should have spoken up then. [laughter] >> you are listening to the commonwealth club of california radio program. we are talking to hollywood legend robert reiner. i'm dan ashley,your moderator today. you have some many remarkable successes in several different genres. how do you pick a project? >> i try to find -- "spinal tap" and "the princess bride" were satires. the princess bride was my favorite book as a kid. normally i will look -- where is my way into the story? is there a character i can identify with that i can tell the story through? like in "stand by me" or "a few

good men." "when harry met sally" was born out of my ability to make a go of it with women when i was going through a divorce. i had been single for 10 years. it was totally autobiographical. i was making a mess of it. how you get with a woman, if you have sex, does it ruin the friendship? i said this would be a good movie. >> is it a joy to be a director or is it stressful? >> it is both. i love doing it. as a director, i am not great at anything. you have to be good at a lot of little things. the writers are better writers, the actors can act better, the music guy can make music better. but if you have a little knowledge in a lot of areas, you

can do it. i have one of those kind of brains. a little musical ability, a little artistic thing, i contacted little, i can write a little, and it all comes together. i get to use all of the parts of me. i don't have to be good at anything. >> one of the things i do when i'm doing an interview, i ask my colleagues, but not my reporting colleagues. i say is there anything you would like to ask rob? i asked my floor director and he said ask him this, he never worked of a movie that you've done. he has a reputation of being tough on the crew? >> that's weird. i'm the easiest guy -- the crew wants to take me home because i don't work more than nine or 10 hours. we don't get overtime but i get to be with my family.

that's weird to hear that. i have never heard that one. i've been tough on some people but never the crew. >> here's a question from the audience. if you could play a leading role in any of your movies that you directed, which one and why? >> it would be have been "when harry met sally." my mother is in the dellly there when the woman says aisle have what she's having, that is my mother. there's a great story there because we had this scene and meg ryan was a little bit nervous a doing it and so she did it the first couple of times and it wasn'tn't so good. it was kind of weak. we did it again and again, she could dont it. i saiding me, let me show you what i want. i sat down at the table going

yes! yes! billy said it was like being on a date. but i realized that i'm having an or gazz imif front of my mother. but it worked out fine. [laughter] >> are you still recovering from that? >> i am. a few extra years of therapy and it works out ok. >> let's transition a little bit, rob. i want to go back to the "all in the family" to make that transition. that show was progressive and political. were you a political guy before that show or did that help inform your active vivism later in life? >> it is interesting. i've been asked that question and i grew up in a political household. both my mother and father were active. my father marched in san

francisco during the street nan war. my mother was part of a group called another mother for peace. so those issues were always talked about in my house. so that was something i grew up in. doing "all in the family," what got me interested in the active part -- i was always interested in the political part. but to get me active was watching norman. he took his fame, celebrity success, what have you and started an organization called people for the american way. it was a way of pushing back against the religious right because at the time it was trying to own pathism. if you were a liberal you were not a patriot.

i fought in the war and i should have that represented for me. i saw there is a way in which you can use our celebrity, your fame, your success, whatever, and put it to some good. that's the experience, it was my parents introducing me to the area seeing how you can actively do something with your success. those are i think the things that pushed me forward. >> is your father politically aligned with you? >> yes, we're very politically aligned. i'm for conservative than my father. he is more of a liberal. what i have discovered is that from activism and having a position on something to trying to get something done on an area, you cannot hold on because you -- to too strict positions

because you find that the perfect is the enemy of the good then you can't move anything forward. you have to find ways. so you try to hold on to your principles and your beliefs, but at the same time, i've been informed by the process of having to get things done. so i probably more conservatived than my dad. >> you're in a business that sells tickets to the public. is it risky to be political while you're in that business? >> yes, it is risky. it is not risky in terms of the hollywood community. generally speaking they are liberal more so than conservative. when you take political positions and you put yourself out there, especially in this day and age in this country, you're upsetting half the country. by nature of what you stand for you're upsetting half the country. that half of the country may

take it out on you in terms of going to a movie that you made or something like that. they may be able to see past your politics see pastor politics. we have certainly seen that happen. the dixie chicks -- it does hurt. >> is that something studios which did not occur? not so much? >> no, the studios make all different types of pictures. wilson, then make a couple movies, franchise movies, franchise movies that are action pictures like "x-men." those films do not have too much politics in them. there is room for "walker -- "hurt locker." you don't get a wide audience.

look at "argo." it is doing well. causess talk about the you care about. at the top of the list, proposition 8, the ban on gay marriage. how did you get involved in that? give us your thoughts on where that issue -- issue is going. >> first of all, civil rights was discussed at my table as a kid growing up. people of my generation, they said, your number where you were when kennedy was assassinated? we all remember. i remember where i was when edgar evers was assassinated. he was the first major civil rights leader that got assassinated in 1963. the idea of civil rights and all of us being equal was something that was always talked about in my household.

then flash forward, i am making movies, th"the american president." a young man, chad griffin was working for dee dee myers, and he was assigned to me to help research the film. i went to the white house. chad griffin showed me around. he took me all throughout the white house. i became friends with him. he wound up running my foundation for early childhood education. chad oddly enough -- and make this joke -- i knew he was gay before he knew it. he came from arkansas. a very conservative state. he suppressed all of those feelings for a very long time. at one point, he came to me, and i feel like a father to him, he was 19, i was older, and i am

very close to the sky -- and now he is the head of the human rights campaign. he is a big deal. i am so proud everytime i see him on television, i say, oh, there is my son. i asked him to run my organization. he came to me and he said, i have to tell you something, i am gay. i said, what else is new? [laughter] we knew it. as time goes by -- one of the reasons we took on proposition 8, aside from the obvious reasons of marriage equality, and we should all be treated equal under the law, and it was a bad initiative, and we hope of the supreme court will uphold the rulings -- it was partly an educational process. we discover as we go along, first of all, there is not one person in this audience or anywhere that does not have a gay person in their family or a

gay friend or a gay person that they work with in the workplace. nobody. the normalizing of things, the being able to teach, to being able to show people that everybody is equal, that nobody is different -- if they are doing their job, to not be thought of as different. that is one of the reasons we took on proposition 8. that is one of the reasons we did the play "8," a dramatization of went on in the courtroom in san francisco. we put that on because we want to show people what actually went on in that courtroom. we wanted to normalize it. we find that as we move along, the wind is at our back. it is like we are hitting critical mass. you're seeing more states adopt it. great britain, you're seeing more countries. it will happen. it is supposed to happen. i have said this many times that

we cannot imagine there was a time when women could not vote. we cannot imagine times when black people were not allowed to vote. we cannot imagine a time when black people cannot marry white people. there'll be a time years from now when we will say, a marriage? what was that fuss all about? it is going to take time. we are moving in the right direction, but it is about a fundamental right. we cannot look at our fellow citizens -- and i cannot look at ted griffin, somebody i love -- and say, you are lesser than me. you deserve less than me. you cannot do that. you cannot fill comfortable about yourself knowing that there are millions of people in this country that are not considered equal under the law. >> do you think -- are you optimistic about the supreme court? >> i am. you never know, obviously, when a case is in front of the

supreme court, but if they are going to rule -- and this is what they do -- based on the law, we had a trial here in san francisco with many weeks of evidence. we brought on 70 witnesses. they brought on two. one of their witnesses was their expert against the idea of cambridge -- he has done all 180. --a 180. if you look at it from a legal standpoint, there is really nothing to argue. you can argue from a moral standpoint. you can say, morally, i do not like the idea of day marriage because of your church teaching you a certain thing. that is fine. we're not asking anybody, we're not forcing any church to perform ceremonies, we're not asking anybody to go outside their religious beliefs, but marriage is not a religious right. it is a civil right that is provided by the government. a church does not have a right

to marry somebody, except that it is given the right by the government. government issues marriage licenses. the government decides to decides -- who gets married and who does not. the was a supreme court case in 1967, loving vs. virginia. the challenge that, and the supreme court ruled that nine- zero. they have ruled out 14 times about fundamental right to marriage. from a legal standpoint, there is no argument. you can make a moral argument if you want, but from a legal standpoint, there is no argument. we feel confident. how broadly the supreme court will rule, we do not know that. we will have to say. the ninth circuit, the appellate court that heard the case, today issued an opinion that can be

taken a number of ways. maybe the supreme court upholds the ninth circuit's opinion that proposition 8 was unconstitutional because it took away our right that was initially had by gays and lesbians. they may just role in terms of that. we also argued that there is a fundamental right to marriage. if the rule on that basis, then america will be made a fundamental right for everybody in the country. that does not mean immediately every state, you can get married. brown vs. board of education in 1954 said separate but equal is not equal and that every black person has a right to go to whatever public school they want to. there were many prejudices against that. it took a long time before schools could be integrated. it may take a while, even we win the case in the broadest sense, for all that to happen.

it will happen. it is just a matter of time. hopefully, the supreme court will be on the right side of history. i think they will. >> when you produce a plan like that on a social issue -- you have done that a number of times -- is that different demand? it must be satisfied to tell a story about what you are so passionate about politically, but that is a different set of demands and research that has to go into it, a historical accuracy that would have to be part of it. you're not making a documentary necessarily. >> the writer of the play who also one an academy award for "milk," he took the transcripts and dramatized the transcripts. anything that is said by the witness in the play was taken exactly word for word from the

transcripts of the trial. he added some personal stuff about the plaintiff. that was brought in to dramatize it. if you wanted to know what went on in side -- inside that courtroom, because they did not allow cameras, just look at the plate, and it will tell you exactly what happened during the trial. >> the fight you have been leading against proposition 8, i imagine -- hasn't come at any personal cost? >> not to me. you know something? i don't care. if somebody wants to not like me because i want everybody to have equality, then they should go hump theirself. that is not what america is about. >> one of the issues you care about -- the anti-smoking campaign. is there a personal reason? >> that was in conjunction with

early childhood development. we tried to find a way to use some funds -- smoking is bad for children, bad for their health, bad in prenatal care and all of that, and we wanted to expanded to include all aspects of school readiness. health care, child care, preschool, parent education, all the things that would be helpful for a child to get off on the right track. it was connected -- it was not just about anti-smoking. it was about early childhood development. >> thank you. one of the other issues i want to touch on -- environmental causes. climate change -- are you working on a project? >> climate change is the big -- the big ticket item. we've got to go issues, two things we think about, when you

think in a global way, and i tried to think -- i try to think big. there is the planet. then there are the people living on the planet. basically, that is it. what can we do to make life better for the people living on the planet? my take was, if we give every child, every young child a good start in life, made sure that they had good nurturing parental experiences, if they had the right kind of health care, early education, they would have an opportunity to live a happy, productive, fruitful life. then there is a planet that we live on. the idea with early childhood, if we give people what they need, we will produce non-toxic

adults. they will not harm society. they will not act out against their neighbor. they will not rape. there will not steal. there will not kill. then we have a toxic or non- toxic planet? that is the other issue. i have always said, if you do not have a healthy planet, nothing else means anything. it does not matter whether, i hope my social security check comes. none of that matters. social security, gun control, whatever it is, none of it matters if you do not have a sustainable planet. right now, climate change, there are seven people in this country that do not believe in the science. they talk a lot to for some reason. i do not know how -- that is another thing about the media, they talk about balance. some things are just not

balanced. there is one side and then there is not another side. [laughter] [applause] i think on climate change there is really only one side here. science is in on this. scientists are in on this. that is we have a problem with climate change. that is the other big-ticket item. how to do something about that, it is very complicated. it is a very tough problem because you have entrenched interests that are screaming and yelling and with a lot of money, and if you have a lot of money, you can get the seven people to say what they want to say. the media will give them as much time as the 97%. that is something we will work on. we're thinking about how to approach that. that is going to be a big comprehensive effort if -- if we

pull it off. >> it is a global problem because you have emerging- market and countries industrializing. >> right, but i believe there is an enormous economy, a green economy, that is the next big boom. those technologies can be exported. those technologies can help bring along some of these emerging countries, these third war -- third-world countries. the other thing is, we have no option. there is a fear right now amongst people that we have already made -- we already may have waited too long. there is a point at which things are irreversible. we may be at that place. that does not mean we should not try. just like the gun control -- just because there is not one thing we can do to eradicate all gun violence that we should not do anything? you have to try. >> on the subject of gun

control, this is from somebody in the audience. you mention that hollywood tends to be more on the liberal side. there is a lot of violence in films, gunplay in films, and i would imagine the hollywood community, many of them a favor gun control, and yet violence is celebrated. is that an inherent conflict? >> it does not help the issue. i do not believe that the conflict in terms of what needs to be done -- i am not a guy that makes those kinds of movies. i'm not protecting my franchise or anything. i have read every study done about the effects of violent movies and violent video games on young people in terms of their proclivity to act out. there is not a correlation. that does not mean to say that young people with mental illnesses or problems will also watch video games might also be tipped over by something like that. yes. if those people did not have

access to guns, there would probably go and stab somebody or hit somebody with a baseball bat. it is because of other issues. it is not like somebody -- this is the argument -- they have the same video games, at same violent movies in japan, canada, england, all the same things, and nobody's getting killed there. they do not have the guns. italy saw outbreaks of violence based on these silent movies -- that is our second biggest export -- and we saw out rigs of violence, then you'd say, we've got a case here. >> that is a species argument? >> i have not been able to see the connection. you can feel like there is a connection. feeling like there is a connection and when you can actually see -- you can see a person with a gun and shooting

somebody. you know that person having the gun, killing the other person, that is causing the problem. we know that is happening. >> you talk with equal passion about the social issues as you do about making movies. >> i would say i talk more passionately about them because movies are fun, and people get entertained. i get tremendous pleasure when people come up to me and say, you entertain me over the years. i feel good that i made people feel good. then there is this other thing which is more lasting and hopefully contributes to making a much healthier world -- i do get more passionate about those things. i like to make people laugh too. [laughter] >> we need that. >> you do need that. you have to be laughing all your

fight in those seven people. [laughter] >> you considered to run a few years ago for governor. >> i did. >> would you consider that again? >> first i will tell you why i decided not to. as you know, it takes a tremendous toll on the family, putting yourself out there in the public arena out like that. i had a meeting with my family. i was seriously considering it. my kids were young at the time. my youngest son was friends with patrick schwarzenegger. he knew the secret service detail that would follow, the security detail that would follow him around. he did not like that idea. we sat around, and it was my three kids, me, and my wife, and my son was crime, daddy, please do not do it. my daughter said, daddy, i do

not want you. my wife did not wanted. my oldest son was in support of me. i told about 40% in my family. i do not carry my family. [laughter] i figured if i could not carry my family, then you know, that is about as good a constituency i could get. i do not regret that at all. what i discovered, particularly in california, and i think jerry brown has done a combat -- an incredible job considering what he has had to deal with your -- here -- [applause] the state was left in an absolute mess by the previous administration. to be able to get it on track with the governance structure in california, which forces you to get two-thirds majority to pass a budget, two-thirds budget to raise taxes, and that is why he decided to put an initiative on the ballot, rather than go

through the legislature, which, by the way, even though i benefited by the proposition process, i am not in favor of the process personally. i do not think it is a good way to govern. most people do not know what is in these initiatives. the do not know what they are voting for. they're voting based on a 30- second ads and who has the most money to do that. you then have to allow your elected representatives of the ability to govern. if you hamstring them with a two-thirds majority every time for anything significant, it makes it difficult. being governor of california is very difficult. that is not to say there are not great elected positions were you can get stuff done. the mayor of new york, for instance, there is a great city charter in a new york that allows you tremendous latitude to get things done. i think mayor bloomberg has done a great job. in los angeles, the trucker is much weaker.

the mayor of los angeles does not have control over the education system throughout the city of los angeles. it depends on the job. what i have discovered is i can use whatever i have, whatever avenues i have -- i am better serving in looking at openings and taking them. a.c. and opening -- it is like a guy with a football -- i am going to go there. that is what we do it -- what we did with the decision to go on the federal court case with proposition 8. we saw a possibility to get this done. i am not un mindful of the politics of it, the economics of it, and the religious implications and all of that, but i could see the supreme court, i could see the way the country was moving, and i felt, along with chad and my wife and christina and lance black, we

saw an opening. look what can happen. if the supreme court rules on march 26, if the world in the way that we hope they will, think about the impact of that. this is the last piece of the civil-rights puzzle. this is the last leg. this is the last group of people that are still considered a second-class citizen, on equal under the law. we finished that, and that is a big thing to do. you look for your opening and to take trips -- take it. [applause] >> you're listening to the commonwealth club of california program. we're talking with rob reiner about films, politics, and the future of marriage equality. >> that makes me seem old.

it puts pressure on me that i have to be more intelligent than i really am. [laughter] on the subject of intelligence -- you use your celebrity for great purpose. >> you talk about electric not necessarily being as aggressive as we might be. how do you feel about celebrities who lend their names to causes that are not so well informed? >> i do not think that is a good idea. [laughter] it does happen because you have this confluence between washington and hollywood. they have often said that washington is hollywood for ugly people. [laughter] i did not tell you. somebody said it. the truth of the matter is, washington confuses hollywood a lot of times. a celebrity can bring attention

to a particular issue. if it is an issue that are trying to push, they can use celebrities. celebrities like to use washington because it gives them gravitons -- gravitas or substantive talks about things. what i have discovered is that if used the yourself in an issue, if you do understand an issue, the ins, the outs, and you can get into the weeds and out-wonk a wonk, you can actually moved the ball forward. you cannot only draw attention, but you can move the ball forward. i look at somebody like michael jay fox -- j. fox who really understands the science of parkinson's and how to move forward with stem cell research. and a celebrity can be good. if a celebrity just wants to be seen, then he makes a fool of himself, and also, ultimately hurts whatever particular issue

he is trying to push. it is a double edge -- double edged sword. i always council celebrities, if you're going to get into something, really do your homework and understand what is your try to be serious about. understand it so that when reporters and news people ask you, they're starting to drill down, be able to answer the second, third, fourth, fifth tier question. be the smartest guy in the room. become an expert. >> you campaigned for president obama. your assessment -- some liberals were disappointed in his first four years. many were pleased. what do you hope he accomplishes in the next four years that he did not accomplish? >> he did a lot. if you think about it, a lot of liberals were unhappy because he may begin not exhibit the kind of fire or passion that he did

on the stump. if you look at it, he is a cool customer. he did save an auto industry, he did kill osama bin laden, he did pass universal health care and coverage for the first time since it was brought up in 1948 , some major accomplishments done in a very quiet way. there are obviously huge big ticket items still out there. we still have to get our fiscal house in order. that is going to take some doing. he certainly will not be able to do it during his term. he will put it on a path towards sustainability down the road. secondly, they are fighting on immigration reform right now. i believe that may even get to be done. you've got political interests on the right, maybe not such heartfelt interests, but political interests are there to get that done. what we can do on gun safety, i'm not sure. it seems like universal back rent checks should pass. even and remembers -- nra mem

bers are in support. the big-ticket items will come down to climate change -- that is the big one. i don't -- i hope something starts to emerge. he did mention that in the state of the union. the physical stuff. hopefully, we can see this stuff happening on climate change. >> there is a movie coming out with matt damon called "promised land." for the audience, are movies that call attention to issues, even though they are dramatizations, do you think those serve to educate? >> mostly, they should be mostly entertainment. they do help. they are certainly not interchange something overnight. they become part of the dialogue.

people go to movies. people watch television. it becomes part of the discussion. there were major prison reforms made after the movie -- prison reforms were made after the movie. it adds to the dialogue. i for one saw this movie, and i want to know more about fracking. what is the truth about fracking? the epa is starting to study that. i do not think anybody knows the real truth. we know there are disasters, but that happens with everything. is there a way to do it that is environmentally sound? then we should. is there a way to safeguard it? then yes. if not, then it is not good. i am curious about largely because of that movie.

>> a chance to inform ourselves. >> it opens up the dialogue. >> we touched on early childhood development. i know that is something you are passionate about. as far as the state of education in california and the country, some statistics show we are so far behind any other -- >> you talk about california because california educates one out of every eight children in america. california come up before proposition 13, had the best education system in the country. we now have, if not the worst, close to the worst in the country. if we are able to fix our system in california, that will go a long way towards making a healthy education system in america. it is a very complicated thing because proposition 14 is the third rail of california politics. money alone will not solve the

problem. we have to see reforms and money come together. you cannot just have reform. you need reform and resources. they both have to come together at the same time. there are ways to do it. there are certainly models for what constitutes a good education system. i would submit that you have quality early childhood preschool education for every child, so that by the time -- that is my big fight, because by third grade when you're 8 years old, you should be reading. you learn to read so that you can read to learn. if you are not reading by the third grade, you're off the rails. the reason you see 50% or more dropout rates at college is because kids are not keeping up. kids that have had access to high-quality preschool are kids that are not dropping out of schools.

you have to start at the beginning with integrating a comprehensive early childhood education program from the get go. then we are talking about reforming the k-12 system which needs reform and teacher training and being able to make sure that quality teachers are in every class, and and resources. all that needs to come together. there are a lot of money people around the state who are nervous about putting money into the system. they are nervous that it will be turned down a rat hole. we have to go with reforms and money at the same time. if we do not see that, there is no change. they're not getting rid of proposition 13, but reforming proposition 13. >> let's lighten it up little bit and talk about a few more -- >> union proposition 13 isn't

funny? [laughter] >> you make it funny. a couple questions from the audience. ist me start with this -- humor and her liberal? >> no, i do not think it is inherently liberal, but you find more liberal people funnier -- look at south park. those guys, they are equal opportunity satirists. this to the right and the left. -- they skew the right and left. i generally find liberals are funnier because liberal means open. conservative means to conserve, you keep things as they are. liberals means opening up yourself to all the different possibilities. when you do that, there is more of an opportunity to find what is funny about the world. >> somebody in the audience -- we talked about this backstage,

one of my favorite movies, "the princess bride," which is such a charming movie -- you're proud of that because it indoors. >> last year, we had its 21st -- 25th anniversary. we had a celebration at the lincoln center. what a thrill to know that a movie you made, people "it, as you wish. -- quote it, as you wish. there was a guy on the plane the other day with a t-shirt from it. i love that. i love that people come up to me and say, my wedding ring, it says, as you wish inside of it. the kids who saw the movie when there were seven or eight years old, they are grown up, and they have little kids, and they are introducing their kids to the movie. it makes me feel good. i have one great story about it

which was years ago, nora ephron just passed away, she was a good friend. we went to a restaurant and she said, there is a restaurant, a very good at telling restaurant, john gotti goes there every thursday. we go there and at 8:00, sure enough, he walks into the west -- a restaurant with six wise guys. this down the table. we can recognize each other. i do not want to say that i recognize him too much. we finished our meal. i got side and there is a big limo parked out there. the guy in front of the move -- in front of the limb of looks like luca bratzi from the godfather -- he said, you killed my father, prepared to die. he said, i love that movie. >> a little and irving --

unnerving? [laughter] this is one of the great moments on television, the sammy davis jr. kiss of or to conquer. was that spontaneous? >> no, we planned it. that was the longest laugh we had -- we had a couple other last that were longer. the sammy davis jr. kiss, audience never stopped. there was another one -- i think it was the seventh episode we ever did -- my character was very anxious about having to take final exams. my character, my character became impotent. [laughter] show business. the whole thing -- gloria was all upset, we cannot make love -- arte goes down to the bar and he runs into jefferson and he says, the people are good with these things and issues, my

son, he is stuck in neutral. [laughter] that one of the biggest laughs. >> what is it like to have been part of the tv family that is so iconic? >> it was great. it was like your family. we spend more time with our television family than our real family. it was a great experience. it was my master's degree. i have always said -- when i was a little kid, i went to see my dad working on the dick van dyke show, and i was 13, 14, 15 years old, and i spent all day every day watching him work with actors, writing the script,. that was like me going to college and learning about it. all in the family was like my master's degree. i got to see how shows are put together. it was a great experience for

me. i loved it. >> you have made some money fantastic movies. you have been so involved politically. is there a project that you have always wanted. you always hear about actors and directors talking about a movie they want to make. is there something you really want to do? >> i have projects that have not been able to make. there is not one that i know that is the one. i am a huge baseball fan. i was a new york giants fan growing up. i love it willie mays i love baseball. i have always want to do something about that. i have always wanted to do a musical, a movie musical.

i have not been able to do that. i also wanted to do a movie about what happened during the 1960's, what actually happened during the 1960's, because i think it informed my generation and all the issues going on, the vietnam war, the civil rights movement, the sexual revolution, the drug culture. those are the three areas that i have been interested in. >> you're going to be busy. last thing, you have a pick for best picture? >> i would have said "lincoln" up until "argo." i loved daniel day-lewis. i thought he did a magnificent job. i think he will win. i am partial to jennifer lawrence in "silver linings playbook." >> ladies and gentlemen,