THE RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE
Big Stars Play Supporting Role to Kerry
Top-name entertainers and industry players pack a gala that raises $5million for the Democrat. Earlier stops in north rake it in too.
By Matea Gold and Geoff Boucher, Times Staff WritersSen. John F. Kerry scooped up $5 million for his presidential bid in a lavish gala in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday night that featured an array of Hollywood heavy hitters who took center stage in calling for President Bush's defeat.
The Democratic presidential hopeful was feted by entertainers such as Barbra Streisand, Billy Crystal and Willie Nelson at a two-hour program before 2,000 donors at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Though Streisand and Nelson represent longtime liberal voices from the music industry, a parade of younger Hollywood celebrities was on hand as well, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck, Jamie Foxx and Ben Stiller lending their names and time to Kerry's candidacy.
At a pre-show dinner in an airy foyer of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, where top donors dined on shrimp and filet mignon, Kerry embraced Streisand and glad-handed a roster of political and entertainment heavyweights: actor Robert De Niro, producer Harvey Weinstein, former California Gov. Gray Davis, City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa and mayoral candidate Bob Hertzberg...
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Streisand performed her 1964 hit "People," but with new lyrics: "Rumsfeld, we must get rid of Rumsfeld/He's the spookiest person in the world…. This war we're lost in/Don't ask what it's costing/What's a trillion or two to rule the world?"
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Across the street from Disney Hall, a cluster of Bush supporters toted signs with slogans such as "Kerry is not Catholic." Some of the 50 or so demonstrators held inflatable dolphins, with one of the supporters dressed as Flipper, in a jab at Kerry's reputation among Republicans as flip-flopping on issues...CLICK HERE for the rest of that article