Hollywood Goes Nuts For Obama

"We will be hosting a fund-raising reception for U.S. Senator Barack Obama," the invitation stated. "We hope you will be able to join us and meet Senator Obama in person."

The invitation was signed: Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen.

Seven hundred of Hollywood's most powerful, famous, and richest denizens were asked to pay $2,300 each to attend the Feb. 20 soiree at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Geffen even said that anyone guaranteeing 20 paying guests would be invited to join him for dinner afterwards at his Beverly Hills home, widely regarded as the industry's most impressive trophy mansion. It sits on nine acres, and features a 50-foot-long bar and servants' house with 10 bedrooms.

The fund-raiser foreshadows an increasingly contentious issue: Will Hollywood throw its star power behind Sen. Hillary Clinton, or switch its support to upstart Obama?

Most celebrities and moguls in famously liberal Hollywood haven't yet made up their minds. In fact, many are happy to fork over $2,000 to just about any Democrat who comes to town.

"We have a high-quality problem," says Sherry Lansing, former head of Paramount Pictures, who will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at this year's Oscars. "There are many good potential candidates and we want to give them all an opportunity to give their message."

Which candidate wins Hollywood's nomination for Best Politician in a Presidential Role is especially important for Democrats, who depend on Hollywood's rich and famous to help raise that kind of coin.

Many prominent Hollywood Democrats may end up giving their money to both Clinton and Obama. Chevy Chase, for example, gave money to Clinton and Obama. So did Barbra Streisand, who also wrote a check to former vice presidential candidate John Edwards.

Gradually, however, Hollywood's political lines are being drawn. Those lining up with Clinton, based on their donations and statements, include:

Harvey and Robert Weinstein, the duo who executive produced about 200 films including "The Lord of the Rings" and "Spy Kids" franchises, not to mention Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11."

The power trio of Elizabeth Taylor, Marlo Thomas, and Candice Bergen.

Haim Saban, the billionaire behind the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Steve Bing, the near-billionaire ex-boyfriend of actress Elizabeth Hurley who helped bankroll "The Polar Express" and produced "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World."


Obama's candidacy is as trendy in Hollywood as it is elsewhere in the country, however. So far his star-struck supporters include:

Director Oliver Stone

Talk-show maven Oprah Winfrey

Actor-director George Clooney

Actor Ben Affleck

Actor Matt Damon


While each of the DreamWorks trio of Spielberg, Katzenberg and Geffen that hosted the Obama fund-raiser has contributed money to Obama, only Katzenberg has officially endorsed him.

"Jeffrey is endorsing Sen. Obama. Steven has not made an endorsement yet," said Andy Spahn, political aide to both Katzenberg and Spielberg. "Steven will eventually settle on a candidate, but right now he will help a few and endorse down the road."

In fact, insiders say Spielberg may host a Clinton fund-raiser as well. Obama is attracting Hollywood types because "he transcends the partisan nastiness of the last 15 years," says political consultant Dan Gerstein, "and even for Hollywood's most partisan Democrats, that's appealing."

Gerstein, a former senior adviser to Sen. Joe Lieberman, says that many in Hollywood see Clinton's rhetoric as representative of past hostilities they've grown tired of.

"She's part of the Clinton-Bush years and Obama is post-partisan. Look at his delivery. It's not, ‘Republicans are evil.' It's not tribalism," he says.

Super-agent Ari Emanuel -- brother of Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill. -- already hosted an Obama fund-raiser that featured such notable guests as Affleck, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Norman Lear, Christine Lahti, and Thomas Schlamme, an executive producer for "The West Wing" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip."

There's no guarantee, of course, that Hollywood's money and influence will get the desired candidate elected. In 2005, a billboard near the Kodak Theatre on Oscar night thanked Martin Sheen, Sean Penn, and Whoopi Goldberg for helping to re-elect Bush -- by way of their strident opposition to him.

Perhaps that's what Clooney had in mind when he told Newsweek magazine that he'd do all he could to help Obama, "even if that means staying away."

"Candidates fall into the trap of using celebrities to raise money," said David Bossie, president of Citizens United, the conservative group behind those billboards. "But then they are held accountable for what those celebrities do and say. It's nice when Sean Penn supports you, but not when he goes to Iraq and is seen as a useful idiot."

Democratic operatives seem to agree.

"There are celebrities who are credible and ones who cause people to turn the channel," said Shawn Sachs of Sunshine Consultants, a publicity firm that represents clients like Affleck and Leonardo DiCaprio, as well as documentaries such as "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry."

The trick, said Sachs, is to try to keep the focus on whatever cause you are promoting. Clooney's raising awareness of African genocide, for example, plays well with American audiences.

"If you can keep it about the issue and not the politics, that's when you earn credibility," he says.

Bossie agrees that some celebrities -- Bruce Springsteen comes to mind -- might have helped Kerry in 2004 with their outspoken support. "But most of the time, people just think, ‘Oh no, here comes Hollywood again, trying to ram Hollywood's values down our throats.'"

Does that hold true for Republicans, as well?

"They usually attract NASCAR racers and country music stars," said Bossie, "and I can't recall an instance when their support came back to haunt the candidate."