Contact: Duane Baughman
Phone: (415) 672-4687
E-mail: dbaughman@baughmancompany.com
National Democratic Political Consultant Duane Baughman &
Award Winning Writer/Producer Arleen Sorkin
Form International Documentary Production Company
San Francisco, CA (June 23, 2008) – The award winning actress/writer/producer Arleen Sorkin and the nationally recognized Democratic direct mail consultant Duane Baughman, have formed a San Francisco/Los Angeles-based documentary film company, Yellow Pad Productions, LLC.
“Yellow Pad,” said Baughman, “will focus on the emerging and sizzling hot controversial world of international affairs.” Yellow Pad currently is in production in Pakistan and Rwanda with two feature length documentaries.
“There are everyday heroes all over this world, fighting for their lives, fighting for democracy and justice, fighting to get their stories told. Yellow Pad will be a vehicle for their voices to be heard.”
Sorkin, of Beverly Hills, co-wrote the feature film Picture Perfect, starring Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Bacon and won awards for her acting on the soap opera Days of Our Lives. She helped her retired dentist father realize his lifelong dream of selling an idea in Hollywood. At age 86, he received a co-producing credit on the Emmy-award winning HBO movie “Something the Lord Made”.
The San Francisco-based Baughman, is founder and president of the Baughman Company, one of the most prominent Democratic political direct mail firms in America. The company developed national direct mail strategy for Hillary Clinton’s historic presidential campaign, and was instrumental in the election of New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
Sorkin and Baughman first teamed up to co-produce the Outer Circle Award winning off-Broadway hit “RFK”.
DUANE BAUGHMAN
With Duane’s leadership, The Baughman Company has become synonymous with giving back through charities such as the Jackie Robinson Foundation, B’Nai Brith, the Anti-Defamation League, Publicolor in New York City, USC’s Annenberg School of Communications, International Crisis Center and dozens of other causes.
On the personal side, Baughman is proud to honor his mother, a former president of the San Diego chapter of the United Nations Association (UNA) by creating and funding the Annette I. Baughman Scholarship that sends students from Duane’s childhood home of San Diego to college. The UNA has recognized Duane for his contribution with a “Friend of the UNA” award.
Duane founded the Baughman Company in 1995 and quickly rocketed to the top of his industry. Also, in 2006, Baughman was one of only 6 national Democratic mail strategists hired by the DCCC to develop and execute the mail campaign ultimately responsible for winning back the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives.
Baughman played a pivotal role in the election of Atlanta’s first African-American woman mayor, Shirley Franklin, and in helping elect Kathleen Sebelius, the first Democratic woman governor of Kansas. In 2004 Baughman created mail for Howard Dean's race for the White House. Baughman’s innovative persuasion outreach program was recognized by the Association of Political Consultants with a near sweep of the Presidential mail category – collecting Gold and Silver Pollie Awards.
In 2001, Baughman created the award-winning 40 piece mail plan that helped bring Mike Bloomberg from 40 points behind and swept him into the New York City Mayor’s office. Bloomberg again tapped The Baughman Company to win a landslide reelection in 2005.
Baughman was also a producer of the “Outer Circle Award” winning off-Broadway hit, “RFK”.
ARLEEN SORKIN
Arleen Sorkin has enjoyed a career as an actress, shoe model, commercial actress, television host, writer, and producer.
She began her acting career as a sketch comedian in New York City as one of the High Heeled Women, an all-female comedy troupe that performed at various night clubs in New York, including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. The troupe won many awards, including the New York Critics Best.
After moving to Los Angeles under a development deal with NBC, she acted on the soap opera Days of Our Lives. She played the role of Calliope and earned many awards for her comedic and acting skills. During this time, she was also a semi-regular on the Fox situation comedy Duet, which later became Open House with Ellen Degeneres, in which she played the wisecracking maid Geneva. Soon after, she became the host of America’s Funniest People. While she is now concentrating on writing and producing, she still makes the occasional guest appearance and continues to provide the voice of Harley Quinn considered by many to be the most popular villainous on the animated series Batman and the internet’s Gotham Girls.
Arleen has also written an episode of Golden Girls, which led to jobs on various sitcoms. She was a staff writer and story editor on the Paramount sitcom Down Home, starring Judith Ivey. It was on this set that she met her husband, Executive Producer Christopher Lloyd (Frasier, Back to You). In addition to this, she co-wrote episodes of Steven Spielberg’s award-winning Tiny Toons. She also co-wrote the feature film Picture Perfect, starring Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Bacon and co-penned the humor books From Here to Maternity and My Bad: The Apology Anthology.
Arleen co-created and co-executive produced the sitcom Fired Up, starring Leah Remini and
Sharon Lawrence. She co-produced two comedy specials for HBO, one starring Paul Reiser the other starring Carrie Fisher, Lauren Hutton, Griffin Dunne and herself. She produces documentaries with her partner in Yellow Pad Productions, Duane Baughman. She also co-produced the play RFK off-Broadway, which won the Outer Circle Award.
When her cousin was diagnosed with breast cancer 18 years ago, Arleen started volunteering for
Fran Visco, the president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund. After 15 years, Fran presented Arleen with NBCCF business cards giving her the title “High Priestess of Making Things Happen” and held a event in Washington honoring her for outstanding efforts to end breast cancer. The coalition annually presents a star-studded cabaret called Les Girls in Hollywood. The show was conceived by Arleen’s old friends and business associates Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman of Hairspray fame.
The event takes place every October and raises money for breast cancer research and treatment until there is a cure.
In addition, she is developing a website called ComeSeeMyStuff.com which highlights people and their personal collections. Her proudest achievement is that she helped her retired dentist father realize his lifelong dream of selling an idea in Hollywood. At age 86, he received a co-producing credit on the Emmy-award winning HBO movie Something the Lord Made.
Arleen resides in New York and Los Angeles with her husband and children, her best co-production. |
