Word: hollywood
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Illinois Sen. Barack Obama visited Southern California last month to address 1,000 pastors at an AIDS conference in the Orange County mega-church of evangelical leader Rick Warren. But Obama made another stop that evening, a private meet-and-greet in the home of Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel, who's a partner in the powerful Endeavor Agency and brother of Democratic Congressman Rahm Emanuel. A small clatch of celebrities and entertainment industry bigwigs - Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, Normal Lear, Christine Lahti and her husband, Studio 60 producer Thomas Schlamme - came out to meet Obama, who hasn't officially...
...Orleans, made a stop in Los Angeles to promote his book Home: The Blueprint Of Our Lives, and, like Obama, had a few discreet meetings with entertainment industry figures. Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, Sen. Chistopher J. Dodd of Connecticut and Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden have all visited Hollywood. Some come to test the waters; others are raising money. But all of them are looking for face-time with celebrities, entertainment industry heavyweights and Hollywood's Democratic powerbrokers. "I call this the courting phase," says Los Angeles political consultant Andy Spahn, who gets a call almost every day from a politician...
...this point, Hollywood's Democrats are being relatively discreet in announcing their favorites. While Hillary Clinton certainly has a devoted following in town - although her stand on Iraq has alienated some - Obama has a fresh-face appeal. Former Vice President Al Gore, who's beloved by the Hollywood environmental community, is also someone with lots of fans. "I would do everything in my power to convince Gore to run again," says environmental activist Laurie David, who is also be the wife of Curb Your Enthusiasm's Larry David. "But he says he's not seriously considering...
...glory days, Hollywood made a few series--Andy Hardy, The Thin Man, the Bob Hope-- Bing Crosby Road comedies, and horror films with the whole Frankenstein family. But these were middling fare. The big-ticket items were singular sensations. Nobody made a sequel to Gone With the Wind, Casablanca or Ben-Hur. The industry didn't think in roman numerals until The Godfather, Part II in 1974. But with the triumph of special-effects fantasies like Star Wars, sequels became a smart way to print money. Now they are needed to turn bad years into good ones. The difference between...
Obama is doing it literally, running against the Clinton machine, which presents a multitude of problems. There is, first of all, the loyalty and affection that the Democratic fund-raising community has for the former President. This is truer in New York than in Hollywood; on Wall Street, especially, there are fond memories of Clintonism's fiscal discipline and global sophistication. "You hear a lot of, 'We've got to do this for Bill,'" says a prominent Democratic fund raiser. "Everyone respects Hillary, of course, although most people I talk to are hoping she'll decide...