Obama hat in hand in la-la land

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.—In Hollywood, it’s never too early to be famous.

Never too soon to be “it.” No such thing as too much attention. And no better place for a politician who is known as much for his celebrity as his record.

So on Tuesday night, Sen. Barack Obama made his debut as a presidential candidate among an A-list of Hollywood power and fame, tapping into one of the most formidable honey pots of Democratic money and connections. The crowd included Jennifer Aniston and Eddie Murphy as well as singer Natalie Maines of the Grammy-winning Dixie Chicks and movie producer Ron Howard.

And the hosts are among the entertainment world’s best known and most powerful figures, Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg, the DreamWorks SKG partners. Studio bosses from Universal, Paramount, Disney and Fox each paid $2,300 for tickets to the event with the Democratic senator from Illinois.

It is the season’s premier fundraising event in the cradle of American myth-making, one of the most important sources of money for presidential candidates. In addition to contributing money to its favored candidates, the entertainment industry also casts an aura of glamour and currency upon a hopeful trying to catch on as the next big thing.

So in a town that lives and dies by the ability to predict what will capture the imagination of the American public, candidates are feverishly making their pitches.

Attendance at such a star-studded event isn’t necessarily a promise of political backing. In fact, Spielberg, has promised to help throw an upcoming event for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, one of Obama’s chief rivals for the Democratic nomination. The two are fiercely battling for the heart of Hollywood these days, with Clinton getting ready for her own high-stakes fundraiser in the next few weeks and counting the support of several influential moguls and producers in the community.

But the fact that the DreamWorks partners are so early in staging such a big party—expected to net at least $1 million—has drawn notable attention to Obama, especially as media from around the world assemble in advance of this weekend’s Oscar ceremonies. For others in the circle, say some, it signals Obama as someone to take seriously.

“These guys are very discerning people,” said Anne Dunsmore, a California Republican fundraiser who was state finance director for both George W. Bush presidential campaigns. “When you bring something in—whether it’s a candidate, a script or a business opportunity—and they sign off on it, it’s a big deal.”

Decades ago, studio executives were the main Hollywood players in industry relations with Washington. But the relationships are now so diverse and strong that it isn’t unusual to see movie stars at the White House correspondents’ dinner or at a witness table in a congressional hearing—the old joke about Washington being Hollywood for ugly people notwithstanding.

Along with the financial capital of New York, the lobbying community of Washington and the business services and manufacturing center of Chicago, Hollywood is one of the great sources of political money in the U.S. Republicans also make fundraising forays into the state where former actor and Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger now serves as governor, but Democrats are the primary beneficiaries of money from the entertainment industry.

Of the millions of dollars that the entertainment industry contributed to federal candidates and parties in the last presidential cycle, according to an analysis by the non-partisan watchdog Center for Responsive Politics, almost 70 percent went to Democrats.

“You can’t run for president as a Democrat and not have a foothold in Hollywood,” said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., a key fundraiser for Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential election and head of the successful Democratic effort to retake the U.S. House in 2006. “It’s such an important piece of the financial building blocks.”

Emanuel’s brother Ari is a top Hollywood talent agent who also has agreed to hold a future fundraiser for Obama.

Candidates of all political stripes come calling in those circles, and only partly because the pockets are so deep.

“Raising money in Hollywood is a two-fer,” said Michael Toner, a Federal Election Commission member who was general counsel to the Bush 2000 presidential campaign. “First you raise the campaign money. And then you have the candidate associated with Hollywood celebrities, who are opinion-leaders in their own right.”

Support from celebrities can sometimes be a negative, as when candidates denounce the West Coast contributions they didn’t get by characterizing the donors as “out-of-touch” with working-class people.

“The implication is, `They don’t have our family values,’” said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political analyst and senior scholar at the University of Southern California. “In general, it’s that Hollywood doesn’t lead the lifestyle of the heartland of America, so why listen to them?”

But industry leaders may actually have something to contribute when it comes to sizing up candidates, said Arianna Huffington, the founder of the political blog Huffingtonpost.com, who once ran against Schwarzenegger in the California governor’s recall election. She remembers getting a phone call from producer, writer and director Norman Lear in 2004, inviting her to come over and meet a candidate running for the U.S. Senate in Illinois.

“I said, `He’s running for the Senate in Illinois, and you want me to come meet him?’” Huffington said, wondering why she should pay attention to a new candidate in a faraway state. Then she went anyway because she trusted Lear’s instincts.

Barack Obama blew the room away, she said, just as Lear had predicted.

“Casting is what determines the success of a movie,” she said in an interview. “Movies here don’t get the green light if they don’t have the right elements. To green light a campaign, you have to have the right leading man or leading woman . . . It’s about connecting. That cannot be taught.”

For years, Bill and Hillary Clinton have been the political darlings of Hollywood, and their roots in the community run strong and deep. The senator’s supporters include media mogul Haim Saban, producer Stephen Bing and actress Elizabeth Taylor. Billionaire Ron Burkle will hold a fundraiser for her in March.

“Sen. Clinton does not have to go on casting calls in Los Angeles,” said Chad Griffin, a former Clinton White House aide and Hollywood-based political consultant whose clients include a number of high-profile entertainment industry figures. “She has the relationships and she has had them for 15 years . . . The day she announced, most everyone I know maxed out to her and started making calls for her.”

But one of the Clintons’ old friends is no longer on board. Two years ago, Geffen told a New York audience that Hillary Clinton can’t win the presidency and declared her an “incredibly polarizing figure.”

Much of Hollywood is deeply opposed to the war in Iraq, and Clinton not only voted to authorize the war but hasn’t taken the kind of firm stance against it that many in the entertainment community would like to see.

One alternative is Democrat John Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina, who was in Los Angeles for a small fundraiser just a few days ago. Another is Obama, who some think may pick up steam as a result of the SKG fundraiser.

“In Hollywood, they move in packs,” said Dunsmore. The DreamWorks partners have effectively “told everybody it’s OK to go with Barack instead of Hillary. It’s OK to explore your options.”

In case things don’t work out, there’s also another figure waiting in the wings—former Vice President Al Gore. He’s getting buzz right now for another reason—the film based on his book “An Inconvenient Truth” is up for an Oscar this weekend.

___

(Dorning reported from Beverly Hills and Parsons from Washington, D.C.)