Call it a tale of two types of towns.
Barack Obama’s appearance in Las Vegas Tuesday night at a Caesar’s Palace fundraiser that brought in $2 million for incumbent Harry Reid saw the President share billing with Bette Midler and Sheryl Crow.
Wednesday night, the leader of the Free World broke bread with the likes of David Geffen, Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg at a sold-out $1,000-a-ticket reception and $25,000-a-plate dinner of over 200 guests the Beverly Hilton. The dinner was expected to raise over $3 million for the Democratic Party.
The company may have been glamorous, but the allures of Sin City and pulling the one-armed bandit for the Senate Majority Leader must seem like a welcoming memory to Obama.
After all, this was the President’s first fundraising appearance in front of the Hollywood community since taking office. And, in a time of an ailing economy, bailouts and mergers, Hollywood -- which has been a constant source of public and financial support for Obama and the Democrats -- must have been looking at the head table and asking the Celebrity-in-Chief, to quote that old Janet Jackson song, “What have you done for me lately?”
While aware of the criticism, it is not a question John Emerson, who along with Spielberg, Katzenberg and Geffen -- the latter an early Obama supporter when most of the town was lining up behind Hillary for the Democratic nomination -- is one of the organizers of the fundraiser, gives much credence to. Even though he is acutely aware of the blowback both his former boss, 2004 nominee John Kerry, and other Democrats have got for being seen as too close to Hollywood.
“I think that for promoting a message, whether in a campaign context or sometimes in a governing context, it may be appropriate to have Hollywood closely involved,” said the former assistant to Bill Clinton, Music Center CEO and Capital Guardian Trust VP who has become both a local fixture and a fixer for Democratic Party politics here in L.A. “Right now, the focus of the administration is on trying to solve the problems that we’re facing.”
Most noticeably, the President has been accused of snubbing the entertainment industry that did so much to help him get elected in 2008 on his first post-inaugural visit to L.A. in March. In town for two days mid-month Obama’s only public brush with Hollywood, besides sharing the stage at an event with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was an appearance on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” on March 13.
The first late-night TV visit by a sitting President was overshadowed, as was much of the policy heavy trip, by an ill conceived aside from Obama about his abilities on the basketball court and the Special Olympics.
It’s certainly not like back in the Clinton days when Barbra Streisand, Spielberg and Geffen, among others, all dropped big contribution bucks to sleep over in the White House and grunge rockers like Soul Asylum got a picture in the Oval Office with the President.
