Posted by Mike Dorning at 6:30 am CST.
Barack Obama the presidential candidate made his Hollywood debut Tuesday night.
At the Beverly Hilton, site of the Golden Globe Awards, the stars of the entertainment world came out for a $2,300-per-ticket campaign fundraiser with the political celebrity of the moment.
There was no red carpet. But flashes popped in the hotel lobby as tourists spotted Jennifer Aniston entering.Actors Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Morgan Freeman, Taye Diggs and, from the TV show “Scrubs,” Zach Braff also showed up.
Singers Jackson Browne and the Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines were there. And so were producers Norman Lear and Ron Howard, along with Laurence Bender, producer of Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” and J.J. Abrams, creator of the TV series “Lost.”
The heads of several major studios also attended.
DreamWorks SKG partners Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg hosted the fundraiser.
But despite the star power, the event was a low-key affair. No cameras were permitted inside the fundraiser, which drew 300 and raised about $1.3 million, according to Katzenberg.
Hotel security ejected camera crews and ushered out several reporters who had not registered as guests, explaining that they were acting on instructions from the organizers.
Obama and his wife, Michelle, came and left through a back entrance out of sight of the media and guests in the lobby.
Inside the ballroom, according to a pool reporter allowed in for the senator’s remarks, Obama spoke of the entertainment industry’s “enormous power” which he said comes with an “enormous responsibility” because of Hollywood’s impact on American culture.
“Don’t sell yourselves short,” Obama said. “You are the storytellers of our age.”
Most of the celebrities had little to say on their way in or out.
“Mr. Stiller? What did you think of Senator Obama?” asked one reporter. No answer.
Jennifer Anniston did not slow down for her two-word response: “He’s lovely.”
When the Dixie Chicks’ Maines stopped to speak to a knot of reporters, a hotel security man tried to do what President George Bush could not: Shut her up. As she engaged reporters, a security man nudged his way into the middle: “No interviews,” he told the Grammy-Award-winning anti-war singer.
