Hillary and ShowBiz

[Madspirit]

I debated whether to put this in the Lounge or here at GD. It was posted at my "Buffy, Angel and Firefly" Group. It is Showbiz...Variety...but it's also about Hillary. It shows a lot of the people who support her so I decided to post it here. I hope it's not a dupe and I hope it's OK here.

Lee

(Thanks to John at my Group, "Buffy, Angel and Firefly":
http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/buffyangelfirefly):

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117966081.html?categoryId=18&cs=1

Hillary Clinton draws a crowd (Including Michelle Trachtenberg)

Campaign trail returns to Hollywood

By TED JOHNSON

Hillary Clinton drew a mix of politics and paparazzi in a series of events through Hollywood circles, showing continuing strength in the entertainment industry for her campaign even as Barack Obama competes aggressively for support.

Her event at the home of Brett Ratner was certainly the media highlight of this round of fund-raising through Los Angeles, for which she raised what organizers said was over $1 million. About $250,000 of that came at the Ratner event alone, and an estimated $850,000 to $900,000 was raised at an earlier event at the home of Peter Chernin.

Ratner's event was billed as "young Hollywood," but you might want to revise that to say "young-ish." Website TMZ.com captured donors as they crossed Benedict Canyon Road to the event, held at at his home called Hilhaven. Inside, many people were in their 20s, 30s and 40s, so the atmosphere was hardly the hardcore nightclub crowd you'd see on Sunset on the weekend. Ratner opened up his disco for the fete, but it certainly wasn't like Ratner's recent cameo on "Entourage" --- where bikini clad women wandered around his property in a daytime party atmosphere.

At Ratner's event stars like Eric Dane, Rebecca Gayheart, Will.I.Am, Jeremy Piven, Angie Banicki, Michelle Trachtenberg, Brent Bolthouse and Chris Klein mixed with Steve Bing, James Toback, Quincy Jones, Brian Grazer and Kevin Smith, among others. New NBC chief Ben Silverman also was there, often consumed with pressing business, and eying and typing into his Blackberry. Absent were any gift bags --- people asked --- as the campaign forbids such gifts at the risk of violating finance laws.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who endorsed Clinton earlier in the day, spoke briefly before Clinton delivered about 10 minutes of remarks to about 400 people from the veranda of Ratner's home, called Hilhaven Lodge. She earlier met one on one with VIP paying guests inside the home, with Ratner insisting that guests take off their shoes. Ratner did deliver brief remarks on how great it was that so many younger people were getting involved.

Clinton talked quite a bit about health care and her proposals, and when it looked as if an overhead light fixture was about to fall and injure someone, she quipped about not wanting to have someone face the insurance system. All was fine, though.

Clinton's campaign has been especially trying to reach out for young women professionals. One of the fund-raisers for the event, Christina Martin of Equity Strategic Relations, said that she got involved in the event because Clinton is an inspirational figure. And on the issues, "we are basically on the same page."

Chernin's event, co-sponsored by Steven Spielberg and Haim and Cheryl Saban, was a much more traditional fund-raiser, drawing a crowd that included Tobey Maguire, J.J. Abrams, Ben Stiller, Jodie Foster, Jon Feltheimer and Sam Gores. Clinton took questions in what was a 20-minute Q&A, addressing her plans to get the U.S. out of Iraq and what to do about the threat of Iran. She also was asked about her competition in Obama and John Edwards --- but didn't get overly political.


On the other side of the spectrum, Rudolph Giuliani held a fund raiser at the same time at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. He spoke about health care (comparing his approach to Clinton's and Barack Obama's), terrorism and the economy to about 550 people, with tickets starting at $250 each. Radio hosts Hen and John opened up the event, followed by short speeches by Bill Simon and Brillstein Grey's Jon Liebman and an intro from Dennis Miller. Among those attending from the industry were Paramount's Rob Moore and Brillstein Grey's Sandy Wernick.

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If the apocalypse comes, beep me.
Buffy
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[Madspirit]

1. Notice How

Notice how Hillary had cool people and Ghoulliani had that loser Dennis Miller.
Lee

[freesqueeze]

2. I'm so out-of-it

I recognize about 5% of these names of movers and shakers.

I guess if you're rich enough you can move over to your purse and shake your checkbook out and make a candidate smile. If your dream is of a campaign where money is not master, hollywood is not where dreams are made.



"you look mahvelous, dahling"