SALON

Friday, May 11, 2012 9:45 PM UTC

Obama basks again in Hollywood glory, but at cost?

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Obama basks again in Hollywood glory, but at cost?FILE - In this March 15, 2012 file photo, actor George Clooney leaves the White House in Washington after his meeting with President Barack Obama. Clooney held a fundraiser for Obama on Thursday, May 10, 2012 at his Studio City, Calif., home. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, file) (Credit: AP)

Under a tent on George Clooney’s basketball court, the cheers were loud and warm for President Barack Obama.

“I want to thank Clooney for letting us use his basketball court,” Obama quipped to a glittery crowd that included Barbra Streisand, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Salma Hayek and Tobey Maguire. “This guy has been talking smack about his basketball game ever since I’ve known him.”

It can’t feel too shabby to be applauded by Barbra, Salma and Tobey while you’re teasing your buddy George. And though many of the guests Thursday night at Clooney’s home in the Studio City area of Los Angeles, like their host, had long been steadfast supporters, there was no question the president was feeling some special love at this Hollywood fundraiser, having thrilled the community a day earlier with the support for gay marriage they’d long awaited.

Only months ago, it seemed uncertain whether Obama would get the same kind of loving embrace from Hollywood that he did in the 2008 campaign. Actor and former supporter Matt Damon in particular voiced his displeasure last year, saying the president had “misinterpreted his mandate” and that he needed guts, though he used a blunter term. will.i.am, creator of that “Yes We Can” viral video that ended with the word “HOPE,” said: “I don’t want to hope anymore.” Even Obama’s top fundraisers acknowledged the mood was more muted — unavoidably, they said — than during Obama’s first campaign.

To be sure, the issue was also one of timing — during the GOP primary season, when a different candidate seemed to be on top each week, there hadn’t yet emerged a clear opponent to the president.

“Last year there was no sense of urgency,” says Andy Spahn, a political adviser to entertainment mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg, who organized the Clooney event, as well as a top Obama fundraiser himself. “As the race came into focus and the choice became clear, people have been rushing to support the president.”

But the gay marriage decision, he says, “will certainly add to the enthusiasm behind the president’s campaign. It translates into more energy.” And hopefully, dollars: “Funds are critical as we enter the summer months,” he says, to counter the “super PAC” money flowing to Republican Mitt Romney. “The re-election is going to need these resources.”

He and other fundraisers in the community, though, hasten to note that Obama events had been selling out even before Obama’s gay marriage announcement — as Clooney’s did, raising nearly $15 million, a record for a single fundraiser.

“I’ve never been part of any event that didn’t sell out,” says Chad Griffin, a member of Obama’s National Finance Committee and a prominent gay rights leader. But now, he says, crowds at events like the fundraiser/concert in June he is co-hosting, the LGBT Leadership Council Gala, “will be more energized, more enthusiastic.”

“What the president did yesterday was historic,” says Griffin, also the incoming president of the Human Rights Campaign. He added that he, like many fellow gay rights advocates, will never forget where he was when he heard Obama’s words this week.

Hollywood’s obvious happiness went beyond the mood at Thursday’s fundraiser. Actress Marlo Thomas, for example, wrote a letter on the Huffington Post website saying: “Thank you, Mr. President, for this remarkable triumph.” The co-creator of the monster TV hit “Glee,” Ryan Murphy, signed on to host a fundraising dinner that will dovetail with the June 6 concert, featuring the singer Pink.

But does all the enthusiasm come at a cost? Obama’s opponents tried as hard as they could in 2008 to make the candidate’s Hollywood connections a liability, painting him as a celebrity darling hopelessly out of touch with ordinary Americans.

Most famous of those efforts: the John McCain campaign ad linking candidate Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. The ad was ridiculed by many — the two celebs were no longer even current, some noted — and parodied by Hilton herself. But the Obama campaign did downplay the role of celebrities at the Democratic convention that summer.

This time, there’s already a similar ad circulating from the pro-GOP super PAC called American Crossroads. “Four years ago,” it starts, “American elected the biggest celebrity in the world.”

It shows Obama in dark sunglasses, Obama dancing with Ellen DeGeneres, Obama “slow-jamming” the news with late-night host Jimmy Fallon, Obama singing an Al Green song, and calling Kanye West a “jackass” for his Taylor Swift debacle. Then in bold writing it asks: “After 4 years of a celebrity president is your life any better?”

(“Typical Republican grousing,” retorts Spahn, adding that the Republicans have no problem with singer Ted Nugent publicly supporting Romney.)

But some celebrities undeniably wield influence — let’s not forget Oprah Winfrey’s clout in 2008.

“Celebrities can attract a lot of attention, and some people take the comments of celebrities quite seriously,” says Todd Boyd, a professor of popular culture at the University of Southern California. “I’m not sure if celebrities alone can make or break a campaign, but they can be a potential factor.”

Boyd says McCain’s efforts to use Obama’s celebrity connections against him obviously failed in the end, given the results. But, he adds, since Obama’s newness has worn off, even to his Hollywood base, celebrities on the whole will likely play a lesser role this time.

Whatever the role, Griffin, the fundraiser and gay rights activist, says the wealthy Hollywood Democratic community is now firmly and enthusiastically behind its candidate.

“I don’t know anyone staying on the sidelines,” Griffin says. “We’ve got a head-to-head. We’re in the game.”

More Jocelyn Noveck.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Journalists file suit against Manning's trial secrecy: Plaintiffs including Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange demand press, public access to trial and documents
142 points143 points | comment
vote
Report: Nearly a quarter of Americans struggle to afford food
126 points127 points | 12 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
119 points120 points | 89 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
113 points114 points | 31 comments
vote
Ted Cruz against the world - How the Junior Senator is igniting the GOP civil war
74 points75 points | 19 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations