Tonight's The Night: Obama Goes to Hollywood



(image via ap.org)

Wasshington, it was said -- so aptly by Phil Gramm -- is "Hollywood for ugly people (Who among us is more repulsive than former Senator Phil Gramm?)." And then there was Barack Obama, "Sweet Chocolate," throwing all those trite equations into chaos. Tonight is THE night; Obama raises money in LalaLand. Steven Spielberg, "Big Pappa," although he will attend the event, is, as our favorite Dickensian villain Robert Novak reminds us (And we'd love to know who-the-fuck-in-Hollywood-or-the-Friends-of-Bill tipped a right winger like Novack off), non-committed (But leaning heavily towards "Camp Hillary"). But tonight is all about Obama. From the Gray Lady:

" Tom Hanks has bought a $2,300 ticket. So have Jennifer Aniston, Eddie Murphy and Denzel Washington. The studio bosses from Universal, Paramount, Disney and 20th Century Fox have all sent checks or faxed their credit card numbers, too.


"Given the A-list stars, movie and music moguls, and top Hollywood dealmakers who have sent their R.S.V.P.’s, one would think the man of honor at Tuesday night’s benefit at the Beverly Hilton would be getting a lifetime achievement award. But the toast of the evening is Barack Obama, the 45-year-old first-term Democratic senator from Illinois, in his first foray to Los Angeles as a declared presidential candidate.

"It is hard to say whether the unusual heat behind the evening owes more to interest in Mr. Obama or to the three men who spearheaded the fund-raiser: the DreamWorks co-founders David Geffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg.

"The haul is expected to be at least $1 million, making it the first major event here of the presidential campaign. (Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, will get a chance to flex her own Hollywood fund-raising muscles on March 24 at the estate of Ronald Burkle, the supermarket tycoon.) Originally set for a restaurant with room for 400 people, the Obama event was moved over the weekend to a hotel ballroom with a capacity of 600, and payments were still filtering in by fax."

The full story here.