Opinion: Race, money and Hollywood

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It’s worth noting, and our colleague Tina Daunt does so here, that the national divide among Democrats over who to back for the party’s presidential nomination extends to African Americans in Hollywood and other realms of the entertainment world, too.

Oprah Winfrey is backing Sen. Barack Obama with a fund raiser Sept. 8 at her Santa Barbara area estate, a gathering expected to be among the campaign’s top-grossing political events -- 1,500 invited guests forking over up to $2,300 each for one-night total of $2 million to $3 million. But Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson is backing Sen. Hillary Clinton, despite an earlier $2,300 contribution to Obama.

And six days after Winfrey’s bash he and his wife, Cookie, are hosting an event for Clinton at their Beverly Hills home. It’s unclear how much that party will bring in, but it’s not likely to exceed the mega-bash Winfrey is planning.

As Obama supporter Kerman Maddox told Daunt: ‘Maybe the single biggest fund raiser in the history of America is being organized by an African American, and the people raising the bulk of the money are African Americans? It’s a sea change.’

Indeed.

-- Scott Martelle