Patricia Duff

This article has multiple issues. Please help or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article includes a list of general references, but it remains largely unverified because it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (August 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. (August 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Patricia Duff (born Patricia Michelle Orr; April 12, 1954) is an American political activist, and a fundraiser for political and philanthropic causes.

She has participated in some campaigns involving some prominent politicians and business people.

She has a BSFS degree, and studied political science.

Early life and education[]

Duff was born in Southern California, but grew up in Bonn, Germany and Brussels, Belgium, graduating from the International School of Brussels.

Duff received a BSFS degree in International Economics at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and took graduate courses in political science at Barnard College.

Career[]

Duff founded a non-profit, non-partisan organization, The Common Good, in New York in 2007. The organization puts on forums, panels and special events to encourage greater citizen participation in civic life and the political process.

Speakers have included national leaders and experts on public policy issues such as Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski on foreign policy; Nouriel Roubini, Alan Blinder, Peter Peterson on economic issues; Governors Kathleen Sebelius and Ed Rendell; Senators Mitch McConnell and Amy Klobuchar on domestic issues, among many other speakers and topics.

Washington Experience[]

Immediately after graduation from college, Duff first worked on the House Select Committee on Assassinations as Special Assistant to the Chief Counsel, Senior Researcher, and Public Information Officer.

Duff then worked with former Presidential speech writer, John McLaughlin, to produce his live political talk radio show. She left to work for the re-election campaign of President Jimmy Carter at the Democratic National Committee and with presidential pollster Pat Caddell.

Following her work on that campaign, she was made Vice President of Caddell's firm and worked on many political statewide campaigns and corporate marketing campaigns until she was hired by Bob Squier to join the Squier-Eskew consulting firm as Vice President.

Los Angeles[]

After working on numerous senate and gubernatorial campaigns, Duff moved in 1984 to Los Angeles to work with the Gary Hart Presidential campaign. Duff was an activist in Democratic Party politics and a number of causes. She was regularly cited in The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times on politics.

She was named a "Rising Star" by the Los Angeles Times in 1986 and one of the "Women we Love" by Esquire magazine for her work in politics as the "conscience" of the entertainment industry. The New York Social Diary called her "the most high profile entertainment industry-related female political figure in Los Angeles."

Political Affiliations[]

Although a lifelong Democrat, Duff has also visibly supported Republicans, notably Richard Riordan for Mayor in Los Angeles and Michael Bloomberg for Mayor in New York.

Entertainment Industry Experience[]

In the late 1980s, Duff started an entertainment industry-related non-partisan political organization called Show Coalition, which became an important element in the nexus between Washington politics and Hollywood and the precursor to The Common Good.

Personal life[]

• She has been married four times, first to high school sweetheart Thomas Zabrodsky in the late 1970s.
• She was then married to Washington, D.C. attorney Daniel Duff from 1980 to 1985.
• She then married Orion Pictures and later TriStar Pictures CEO Mike Medavoy from 1986 to 1994, after converting to Judaism.^[1]
• She was briefly married to businessman Ronald Perelman from 1995 to 1996, with whom she had a daughter, Caleigh, in December 1994.

References[]

External links[]

• Duff Talk show
• Patricia Duff on New York Social Diary's 100 List
• "Tough Love: What happens when mogul and a movie star get married? Contracts get signed, and the drama begins" by Geoffrey Gray, New York Metro
• NY Times article by Jim Rutenberg