Obama’s star power excites entertainment community

Jocelyn Noveck

Star quality: It’s what Hollywood was built on. And there’s no question that to the many powerful Democrats in the entertainment community, Sen. Barack Obama has loads of it.

George Clooney calls the Illinois Democrat a friend. Halle Berry has said she’d “collect paper cups off the ground to make his pathway clear.” Oprah Winfrey says he’s her man.

And three of the most powerful men in Hollywood — Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen — have just invited Democrats to a truly high-profile fundraiser: a Feb. 20 reception for Obama at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, with a dinner later at Geffen’s home for top donors.

But despite all that, political analysts note that being the “next big thing” can be fleeting. And a number of traditional donors and activists in Hollywood and the music industry are a long way from choosing, at this early stage, whom to endorse among the three top-tier Democratic candidates: Obama, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards.

“People are very excited that this is a fine Democratic field,” says Marge Tabankin, a longtime political activist in Hollywood. “Many people will support several candidates to keep a healthy debate going. The top candidates are all coming out in the next month, and people will be carefully checking them out, listening to what they have to say.”

The movie, television and recording industries gave $33.1 million to federal candidates and parties in 2004, with much of that coming from Hollywood, according to the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics. Those industries were more generous in 2000, contributing $38.6 to federal candidates and parties, the center found. In both election cycles, Democrats got the majority of the money — 69 percent in 2004 and 64 percent in 2000.

In the 2004 cycle, Katzenberg donated about $248,000 to federal candidates and parties, Geffen gave about $73,500 and Spielberg gave candidates $29,200.

Tabankin and other analysts point out that it’s Clinton who’s the clear frontrunner at this point, with the long-term relationships, the financing and the network of support dating to the early ’90s, when her husband began his first term as president.

Others note the admiration for Edwards, and the sense that the former North Carolina senator and the 2004 vice presidential nominee has a strong and clear message this time around.

“People feel he’s very well-positioned,” Tabankin says. “He’s got support for his commitment to fighting poverty, for his energy and his intelligence.” And in liberal Hollywood, many like his position on Iraq — he’s recanted his 2002 vote authorizing force there and demanded that Senate rivals block funds for President Bush’s troop increase.

Clooney, one of the world’s hottest movie stars, has made no secret of his enthusiasm for Obama’s candidacy, even if he’s made no public endorsement.

“George is a huge supporter and fan of Barack, as well as a friend,” said Clooney’s publicist, Stan Rosenfield. He stressed that Clooney is unlikely to campaign for Obama, though, because the actor feels support from liberal Hollywood can be a detriment to the candidate. “You lose the heartland.”

Barbra Streisand and Norman Lear, major Democratic players in Hollywood, have not taken a position, and they traditionally give to multiple candidates “in order to keep debate alive,” says Tabankin, who is affiliated with the Barbra Streisand Foundation.

Others, Tabankin says, have similar reservations. “Obama has tremendous potential — he cuts across race and class lines. But people don’t know him yet,” she says.

There’s also a current of nervousness: Is the country ready to elect a black president? The same current of nervousness exists about Clinton, of course: Is the country ready to elect a female?

A key mistake, says analyst Todd Boyd, would be to reduce everything to the gender and race factor.

“We’re simplifying things if we do that,” says Boyd, a professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. “What I’m finding interesting is that Obama is not the immediate favorite of a lot of African Americans — he came up through the system, not the grassroots like Jesse Jackson. At the end of the day, race and gender are major factors, but not the only factors. Hollywood will line up and see how these things play out.”

Yet Boyd and others cannot deny that Obama has one thing the others don’t.

“Obama has the potential to be a star like nobody else does,” he said. “He has that ‘It’ factor, that star appeal. And it’s Hollywood that created that system.”

(Associated Press)