Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Tina Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Theodoric Meyer, Eugene Daniels, Allie Bice and Daniel Payne KERSTIN EMHOFF is, put simply, cool. The Hollywood producer and CEO of the production company Prettybird has worked on projects ranging from the 1994 music video for “Closer” by Nine Inch Nails to BEYONCÉ's 2016 “Formation” to a still-undisclosed scripted project for Apple. In many parts of the country, however, she’s mainly known by one title, if she’s known at all: Doug’s ex. “I went from building a company from scratch and just trying to get attention to my company, my partners, my directors, the work that we're doing non-stop to you Google me and it's like crazy websites of ‘5 things you don't know about DOUG EMHOFF’s ex-wife’ or ‘KAMALA HARRIS's Husband’s ex-wife,’” she said with a laugh in a Zoom interview last Friday. “I don't want to just be the famous ex-wife. I am accomplished in my own right.” Wearing a “California Love” grey Lingua Franca sweater at her home in Los Angeles, the 54-year-old producer, mom, and, yes, ex-wife of the second gentleman talked about her career, her relationship with the vice president, and, crucially, who ought to play Doug if there’s ever a movie. “JERRY SEINFELD,” she said. “He’s got that schtick and Doug is super charismatic so he needs someone with a very good, charismatic personality.” (For his part, Doug has previously embraced the idea of being played by BRADLEY COOPER). Movie casting differences aside, the ex-partners have a friendly relationship in unique circumstances. Kerstin lent some creative help to Harris’s presidential campaign and regularly posts pro-Kamala messages on Instagram and Twitter. As Harris wrote of Kerstin in her 2019 memoir: “We really hit it off ourselves and became friends. (We sometimes joke that our modern family is almost a little too functional.)” Kerstin even used to do spin classes with Doug and Kamala. “When she was [California attorney general] and senator, I'd meet them at the SoulCycle by their house, and we’d take a class together,” she said. “There's just no chance of doing that now….we've talked about that but I think it would torture Secret Service.” (Probably true, but MICHELLE OBAMA did manage to sneak-in private rides). Kerstin grew up in Minnesota and moved to Los Angeles to go to film school. She met Doug when she was waitressing in the early 90’s. “I would have never thought that I would have married a lawyer,” she said—echoing a good chunk of the population. “I was a film student and I grew up in a performing arts school, but you know I like really smart people, and he's incredibly smart and we connected very quickly.” In 1994, when she was four months pregnant with their son Cole and had just gotten over morning sickness, Kerstin worked as a production manager on the music video for the Nine Inch Nails song “Closer.” “I'm like this naive girl from Minnesota and looking at things that I'm like ‘What is that?’ and getting TRENT REZNOR to explain them to me,” she said. “To have a rotting pig's head, a raw side of veal, a spider monkey, cockroaches, and an entire wall of sex toys — which, you know, I was still like ‘what?’” (The lyrics are unprintable. We asked our editors). When she was about to turn 40 and “having a midlife crisis” in 2007, she decided to start her own production company called Prettybird, which Ad Age recently named the 2021 Production Company of the year. Since then, her producing credits include JENNIFER LOPEZ, Beyoncé, Netflix’s XOXO, a Beats by Dre spot with COLIN KAEPERNICK, the HBO documentary about the OSAMA BIN LADEN manhunt, and some preliminary work on a potential upcoming documentary on flipping Georgia blue. One shoot in Barcelona with RONALDINHO went a bit haywire when the Brazilian soccer star didn’t show up. She found out what club he frequented and walked in at 2am in “a tracksuit of some kind — like, bad suburban mom outfit.” He showed up the next day. Despite that background, she was the political one in her marriage. “Doug was never really political, the kids aren't political,” she said. “I never wanted to be in politics but I'd have CNN running 24/7 in the house.” That interest was woven into Prettybird, which has long focused on diversity in a way that goes beyond press releases, according to MELINA MATSOUKAS, who directed Beyonce’s "Formation" with Prettybird. “It's been really important to them to find other filmmakers of color, to uplift and support and advocate for,” she said. “And she's been a great partner for me in that as well. I'm always up against it, and sometimes exploited because I check all the boxes, and she's been a great protection in that and also taught me how to speak for myself.” Matsoukas said Kerstin’s connection to the vice president is “a little weird” but that she’s kept her focus on her work and family. As for Kerstin’s personal life, we had to ask: Is she dating anyone? “Maybe,” Kerstin said coyly. “I don't need any people that are in my personal life getting any spotlight. It’s already complicated enough.” Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Are you MICHAEL HOCHMAN? We want to hear from you — and we’ll keep you anonymous: westwingtips@politico.com. Or if you want to stay really anonymous send us a tip through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram, or Whatsapp here. | 
