NEW YORK — Hollywood loves the Next Big Thing, and four years ago, that was Barack Obama, the equivalent of a break out movie star.
“He is ‘The One,’ ” said Oprah Winfrey, his most influential celebrity champion.
“The best candidate I’ve ever seen,” said George Clooney.
Halle Berry said she’d “collect paper cups off the ground to make his pathway clear.”
Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am chimed in with the famous “Yes We Can” video.
But you can’t be the Next Big Thing twice. As a new election year dawns, there’s clearly a different mood in heavily Democratic Hollywood. That means less gushing, not to mention snippets of criticism.
Actor Matt Damon, who campaigned for Obama last time, now makes no secret of his disillusionment.
“I think he misinterpreted his mandate,” Damon said last year. He recently told Elle magazine the country would have been better off with a one-term president with guts, although he used a saltier word.
The adulation of the 2008 election might be significantly muted among Hollywood liberals, as with liberals elsewhere, but Obama’s supporters say that’s only natural, given the circumstances. Fundraisers there say that events have been selling out and there is plenty of enthusiasm.
They also say the nation has focused on a GOP challenger to Obama and that once that choice is made, the Democratic base will become energized.
“The moment the Republicans have their nominee is when you’re going to see anyone still on the fence jump in,” says Chad Griffin, a Los Angeles-based communications strategist and Democratic fundraiser.
Numbers compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics show that although overall political contributions were up in Hollywood for the first three quarters of this year compared with the same period four years ago, contributions to Democrats were slightly down.
According to the group, the movie, television and recording industries gave $17,639,267 in the first three quarters to federal candidates and parties, with, 71 percent going to Democrats. But numbers for all donations to Democrats were down by more than $2.5 million from four years ago — $9,249,303 this year compared with $11,966,077 four years ago.
“A re-election is always different,” says Andy Spahn, a longtime political adviser to one of the top Democratic fundraisers in the nation, DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, along with his partners Steven Spielberg and David Geffen.
