Posts Tagged ‘Barack Obama’

John McCain recently called Barack Obama “the biggest celebrity in the world.” If so, then it’s appropriate Hollywood’s biggest celebrities would come out to celebrate Obama and this week’s Democratic National Convention in Denver last week.

Among the stars included Oprah Winfrey, Scarlett Johansson, Steven Spielberg and wife Kate Capshaw, Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck, Kerry Washington, Jennifer Lopez, Rosario Dawson, Jessica Alba, Charlize Theron, Angela Bassett, Ashley Judd, Kirsten Dunst, Chevy Chase, Forest Whitaker, Josh Brolin, Hill Harper, Fran Drescher, Annette Bening, Spike Lee and Jamie Foxx.

And it wasn’t just actors. Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson sang the national anthem, and singers Sheryl Crow, Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Kanye West and the Black Eyed Peas were also on hand.

Celebrities publicly endorsing candidates and making a spectacle at the convention is both criticized and embraced by citizens – even among the celebrities themselves.

Private Practice and Wings star Tim Daly, who is the president of the nonprofit group Creative Coalition that brings stars together to discuss important issues, thinks celebrities have every right to discuss their viewpoints.

“Performers are citizens and in the U.S., we are allowed to talk about our beliefs. It’s also the privilege of people not to listen,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “The interesting thing about celebrity involvement is that they’re the only group of so-called lobbyists who stand to gain nothing from what they do, except to support the causes they believe in.”

Yet, Kid Rock tells Showbiz Tonight he thinks stars shouldn’t publicly endorse candidates. In fact, when a big star announces who he or she picked, he doesn’t want to vote for that candidate.

Nevertheless, the stars will continue to mingle with politics. Daly told the L.A. Times the Creative Coalition will also be bringing stars to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul this week.

In accepting the nomination for president, TV Decoder reports that Barack Obama not only enticed the attention of the nearly 80,000 supports at the Denver Broncos football stadium, but almost 38 million television viewers too.

The ratings topped last year’s Oscars (32 million), every night of the Beijing Olympic Games (which, at its best had 34.9 million), and last spring’s American Idol finale (31.7 million) according to US Weekly.

Compared to other empowering speeches from Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Obama’s running-mate Joe Biden, Obama’s acceptance speech was easily the most-watched hour of the Democratic convention.

The four days of the convention combined averaged 27.7 million viewers, making it the most-watched convention, Democratic or Republican, on record according to Nielsen Media Research.  (Note Nielsen viewership has only been calculated since 2000).

John Kerry’s speech in 2004 drew 24.4 million viewers and George W. Bush’s was watched by 27.5 million, reports US Weekly.

E! News reports that after Obama, the week’s next-biggest draw was his primaries rival Hillary Clinton.  Tuesday’s prime-time coverage, featuring a speech by Clinton, averaged 26 million. Wednesday night, featuring a speech by former President Bill Clinton, averaged 24 million.

Like many celebrities, the former American Idol star Jennifer Hudson isn’t afraid to express her political views, and is an avid supporter of Presidential hopeful Barack Obama. 

Hudson broke the news to ET that she’ll be singing the national anthem on the night Obama accepts the nomination for the president at the Democratic National Convention. 

“This is definitely one of the biggest honors for me,” she tells ET. “It’s something that I’ve really wanted to do.”

Hudson thinks Obama is a “great role model,” adding that his popularity is comparable to celebrity status.

“He attracts the youth,” the Oscar winner said.  “We need celebrities like that to look up to.”

Though fashion may be the last thing on Barack Obama’s mind, it’s not the same for the ladies. 

Michelle Obama set off a dress fire alarm when she wore an “off-the rack” Donna Ricco dress on ABC’s The View, prompting women all over the country to get a “White House Style” dress. The frenzy also made the designer famous.

Michelle Obama’s speech will be the main event at the Democratic National Convention’s opening night in Denver, People Magazine says. 

Prime time and nationally televised- how is Michelle dealing?  Well she’s got her speech down and she’s “‘ready to roll,’” People says.  But what will the possible future first lady wear? Just like any woman, she hasn’t decided.  Looks like it will be a closet free for all until the last minute.

Robert Downey Jr. wears blackface for a new role in “Tropic Thunder” – something not new in Hollywood.

Robert Downey Jr. has played some high profile roles: Armored superhero Iron Man, silent film star Charlie Chaplin and British sleuth Sherlock Holmes in the upcoming Guy Ritchie film. Now in the new comedy “Tropic Thunder” he plays a black man. What’s so noteworthy about that? Well, he’s white.

In the film opening August 13, he plays an Oscar-winning actor cast in a big-budget Vietnam War movie. So you see, Downey isn’t playing a black man. He’s playing a white actor playing a role originally written for a black actor. But is a white guy appearing in blackface racist? Controversial?

Downey and Ben Stiller, the film’s co-writer and director, think satire. Stiller told Entertainment Weekly that he and Downey “always focused on the fact that they were skewering insufferable actors, not African-Americans.”

So far there’s been no uproar from early screening goers or moral outrage from Al Sharpton. In fact, Stiller told EW that he was relieved at the positive reaction from black audience members after screening a rough cut of the film. “It seems people really embrace it,” he said. Downey’s black co-star Brandon T. Jackson also embraced Downey’s portrayal.

“When I first read the script, I was like, ‘What? Black face?’ But when I saw him (Downey Jr.) (act) he, like, became a black man. To be honest, he played a black dude better than anybody I’ve seen!” Jackson told starpulse.com.

A white actor wearing blackface isn’t new to Hollywood. Old Hollywood actors Judy Garland, Joan Crawford and Shirley Temple to contemporary stars Sarah Silverman, Billy Crystal and Angelina Jolie have all performed in blackface. Fred Armisen (of Venezuelan and Japanese descent) even plays Barack Obama on “Saturday Night Live.”

The newest Hollywood actor to don blackface isn’t worried his performance is disrespectful. “At the end of the day, it’s always about how well you commit to the character,” Downey told EW. “If I didn’t feel it was morally sound, or that it would be easily misinterpreted that I’m just C. Thomas Howell in , I would’ve stayed home.”

“He’s the biggest celebrity in the world, but is he ready to lead?” This is a fair question indeed. Even at the apex of his fame, Tom Cruise could only roust Renee Zellweger when he asked, “Who’s coming with me?”

The governator seems be holding his own in Kuhlifahnia, but he may be the biggest celebrity in the world according to girth, not fame, which presents all sorts of semantic questions best not explored.

Thankfully, the good folks at the McCain campaign have provided us with a definitive answer to this question, which, coincidentally enough, they themselves posed.

A recent ad approved by Senator McCain features a picture of his opponent, Barack Obama, alongside photos of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. After what some have called Obama’s “rock-star” reception overseas, the comparison could not be more apt to Britney Spears, who just last week was met with raucous applause by 200,000 enraptured Germans after she personally met with several acting heads of state. Come to think of it, that was probably Obama.

Also, Britney’s position on offshore drilling is presently unknown, but I’m working on it. Okay, so maybe the Britney Spears connection is somewhat tenuous, but hey, do you know what else is in Europe besides an entire continent of people who want Obama elected and a bunch of restaurants owned by Johnny Depp? You guessed it: Paris.

What’s more, Obama probably had to stay in hotels over there, and one of them could well have been a Hilton, or a Hyatt, and that would be close enough for anyone who would seriously compare Barack Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.

In an anti-Obama ad, which aired for the first time on Wednesday, Republican candidate John McCain references Paris Hilton to convey the message to the public that Barack Obama has become a celebrity.

In the ad, images of Paris, Britney Spears, and Obama appear on the screen as a voiceover says, “He’s the biggest celebrity in the world. But is he ready to lead?”

The Hilton family donated close to $60,000 to McCain and a Republican Party senate fund over the past few years, and to see their daughter depicted in such an unflattering manner in return, well…they were less than jubilant. They have sent a series of angry messages to McCain demanding an explanation.

According to ET, a spokesperson for Paris stated “Miss Hilton was neither asked, nor did she give permission, for the use of her likeness in the ad, and has no further comment.” Despite the barrage of controversy surrounding the ad, Paris has not seen it.

“She hasn’t even seen the ad. She knows about it, people have told her, but she hasn’t seen it, and she doesn’t plan to,” says a close friend of the heiress.