Hollywood hasn't contributed official speakers to Barack Obama's convention this week. But, man, have celebrities flocked to Denver in droves. Oprah's in the house! Was that Matthew Modine just now? Oh, wow, there's Anne Hathaway.
Hollywood hasn't contributed official speakers to Barack Obama's convention this week. But, man, have celebrities flocked to Denver in droves. Oprah's in the house! Was that Matthew Modine just now? Oh, wow, there's Anne Hathaway.
All that, along with Thursday's final-night lineup featuring A-list performers like Sheryl Crow and Stevie Wonder and Obama's splashy acceptance speech in a packed football stadium, will be scooped up greedily by Republican John McCain, as grist for his refrain-of-the-moment: that his Democratic opponent is all flash and no pan.
Camp McCain has already gotten mileage out of mocking the Democrats' stage set for Thursday's speech at Invesco Field, where Obama will stand before four ivory columns on the 50-yard line. "The Temple of Obama," they call it.
They kept that drumbeat going so long that Democrats dug up a photo of George Bush accepting the 2004 GOP nomination on a stage with similar Greek columns. That shut up Republicans temporarily, but not for long.
Republicans have sought for months to pin the celebrity label on Obama, an effort that gathered steam after the Democrat's speech in Berlin drew over 200,000 people. Remember McCain's ad comparing Obama to Hollywood bad girls Paris Hilton and Britney Spears?
Now, there will no doubt be new ads, featuring footage from an Obama convention peopled with real Hollywood famous types scattered among 75,000 regular folks. Not that this has much to do with Obama, as Democratic conventions for years have drawn more Hollywood stars than the Republicans.
But the GOP ads serve a simple message: Obama is appealing, but an empty suit. They strive to turn some of Obama's strengths _ his youthful charisma, gift for oratory and magnet-like ability to draw enormous, jubilant crowds, all of which have made Republicans green with envy _ against him?
The question is whether voters buy it. Does all the glitz and glamour play Obama's way or into McCain's hands?
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, said Obama has more to gain than lose with the big-time events. "I think there is a balance. But at every political convention, there are celebrities that come," she said. Singer Crow noted Obama is hardly a celebrity hanger-on.
The Obama campaign said the convention's last night was moved to Invesco Field to increase the candidate's interaction with real people, not reduce it. As Obama said this summer, it's "an opportunity for 80,000 people who might otherwise not have been able to participate to get involved."
Obama's own polling shows that the GOP criticism has raised doubts about his experience.
This is one reason why Democratic convention planners have kept celebrities mostly at bay. Not one convention speaker has been a bona fide A-lister.
Most of the rich and famous milling around Denver have one thing in common: They came out of their own interest, without special invitation from the campaign. Not only are the politically active of Hollywood known to lean Democratic. But it's also a good time. The sideline events and afterparties alone are enough to occupy a person all week.
And the Republicans have some of their own stars, too. Former actor and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is slated to speak at next week's GOP convention, though state business may make him a no-show. In 2004, the Republicans had addresses from television talk show host Elizabeth Hasselbeck and the husband-and-wife team of actress Angie Harmon and former football star Jason Sehorn.
Still, there's no question that Obama's show on Thursday is turning up the wattage.
Sixteen-year-old gymnast Shawn Johnson, who won four Olympic medals in Beijing, helped get things underway with the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by the National Anthem sung by Academy Award-winner Jennifer Hudson. Later in the evening come performances from Crow, Wonder, and will.i.am (the Black Eyed Peas frontman who created a music video sensation around Obama's "Yes, we can" campaign rallying cry).
There was even talk that rock legends Bruce Springsteen or Bono or both could make a surprise appearance on stage.
Whether or not McCain capitalizes on it, such a star-studded, sports-arena extravaganza poses risks for Obama.
It generates high expectations, over and above the inevitable comparisons to John F. Kennedy's 1960 acceptance speech in the Los Angeles Coliseum and Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" address of precisely 45 years ago.
It also makes it harder for Obama to get personal with average voters. And for a candidate whose rocket-ship rise to this dizzying height was launched by his Democratic convention keynote address four years ago, this is something all agree he must do.
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AP Entertainment writer Ryan Pearson and reporters Ted Anthony and Liz Sidoti contributed to this story from Denver.
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