Producing a Hollywood flop

Sherry Lansing, the soon-to-be-retired Paramount studio honcho and friend of Sen. John Kerry, is said to be “depressed.”

Actress Sharon Stone, who stumped for Mr. Kerry in Wisconsin, reportedly was “traveling” yesterday. It wasn’t clear whether the “Basic Instinct” star had fled the country, as she had hinted that she might do if the Democratic nominee lost.

There were tears and tribulations. Long sighs and short tempers. Shock and bawl.

For a rich and powerful demographic used to getting its way, Hollywood was downbeat yesterday as President Bush — more heinous than a mid-February release date to so many celebrities and other bold-faced names — made his gracious victory speech.

Not only entertainers were said to be dispirited. The literary crowd in New York was crying into its Evian.

“Sure, I feel terrible,” said New Yorker editor David Remnick, whose published endorsement of Mr. Kerry was a first for the magazine. “There are a lot of long faces today.”

And “Fahrenheit 9/11” propagandist Michael Moore’s Web site actually went silent.

That’s the same Mr. Moore who only a couple of weeks ago had paused in his anti-Bush road trip to opine: “I have a feeling that slackers are going to rise up in this election. The slacker motto is: Sleep till noon, drink beer, vote Kerry.”

George Soros, the Hungarian-born billionaire who went on his own 12-city speaking tour and spent an estimated $17 million on ads and get-out-the-vote drives to defeat the president, posted a message on his Web site describing himself as “distressed.”

“I’ll be back,” he wrote.

Buoyed by early exit polls that put their candidate ahead, many in Beverly Hills dined together and waited out the night. Slowly, their leading man faded from the political screen.

“There’s a lot of disappointment out here. A lot of apprehension,” said Robert Dowling, editor in chief of the Hollywood Reporter. “People are comatose.”

It was the right coast versus the left coast, and the morning-after mood was described by Mr. Dowling as “somber.” It left many Kerry supporters reaching for their Prozac vials.

“Mine is already empty,” joked a high-level publicist who counts A-list celebrities as his clients. “Everyone’s so down. All the studio execs are bummed. I have to tell you, when gay marriage becomes a bigger issue than the Iraq war, we’re missing something.”

Long decried as out of touch with “the real America,” Hollywood woke up to its worst nightmare on Main Street.

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