Obama Goes Hollywood!

[Hope And Change]

Obama corners the market in Hollywood


By MICHAEL R. BLOOD – 1 hour ago

LOS ANGELES (AP) — For Hollywood, there's only one star left in the presidential campaign.

Barack Obama's gala fundraiser Tuesday will attract the mandatory lineup of big-screen talent and boldface names — actors Samuel L. Jackson and Dennis Quaid, model Cindy Crawford and boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard — and confirm again that the entertainment industry remains one of the most reliable and abundant sources of Democratic campaign cash.

The party's 2008 presidential candidates pocketed eight of every $10 coming from movie, TV and music businesses, and Hillary Rodham Clinton's withdrawal from the race all but guarantees a Hollywood windfall for Obama as the party begins to unite around its presumed nominee.

The glitzy gathering will be an early test of Obama's ability to enlist Clinton's financial backers, many of whom are still nursing some pain from the grueling primary contest. Obama will meet with Clinton and some of her top fundraisers on Thursday in Washington and the two will campaign together for the first time on Friday in New Hampshire. Meanwhile, Obama and his campaign have been coaxing Clinton's numerous fundraisers to join his finance operation, which raised more than $287 million as of the end of May.

Among prominent Clinton supporters in Southern California, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa — a Clinton national co-chair — met with Obama in Miami on Saturday and has committed to work for his election. Director Rob Reiner has reached out to the Obama campaign. And Ron Burkle, a close friend of former President Clinton known for holding lavish fundraisers at his Beverly Hills estate, "is happy to do whatever the campaign asks," said spokesman Frank Quintero.

The Los Angeles event comes just days after Obama spurned the public financing system for the general election, opening the way for him to raise and spend hundreds of millions of dollars after the Denver convention in a race in which he's already broken fundraising records.

Top tickets are priced at more than $30,000, with the money divided between the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee.


more...

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j3MP7O---5Qv3NLR8ebCRHNiSqsQD91FU1B00