Celebrity Gossip

George Lucas was among the entertainers and Hollywood types who were spotted in the halls of Invesco Field on Thursday in the hours leading up to Barack Obama’s historic acceptance speech. Forest Whitaker arrived with his wife Keisha and Star Jones, while will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas was spotted leaving the field level following Stevie Wonder’s sound check.

Before singing the national anthem to a slowly filling stadium, Jennifer Hudson appeared lost in thought, wearing a casual grey dress and listening to iPod earphones as her handlers asked for directions to the podium. While waiting, she typed on a Sidekick.

Also spotted on the field in the hours leading up to the presentation: Daniel Dae Kim of “Lost,” new mom Jessica Alba and her husband Cash Warren, Rosario Dawson, Wilmer Valderrama and Fergie — who waved to fans shouting her name.

“Fired up!” said an excited Spike Lee. “Bigger than the Super Bowl!”

The musical lineup for the evening included will.i.am performing with John Legend, Sheryl Crow (who Obama has said is among the artists on his iPod), Wonder and Michael McDonald.

Spielberg, J.Lo and many more
Earlier in the day, Steven Spielberg, who directed a short film on veterans that shown Wednesday at the convention, was spotted entering the Pepsi Center.

Jennifer Lopez spoke at a reception honoring children’s rights activist Marian Wright Edelman. Ben Affleck read excerpts from a Howard Zinn book and made an appearance at the city’s food bank for America’s Second Harvest.

Affleck was joined by his wife, Jennifer Garner, at the book reading at the Starz Green Room across the street from the Pepsi Center. Also participating: Rosario Dawson, Kerry Washington, Taye Diggs, Hill Harper and Josh Brolin.

Other celebrity sightings around Denver
The Black Eyed Peas performed a concert at the Fillmore Auditorium for the Creative Coalition. Fergie praised Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Tuesday-night speech, saying Clinton “really spoke to me as a woman. And I think she spoke to a lot of people in that way.”

Politicians including former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner attended a ONE Campaign party featuring a Kanye West performance. Also in attendance: Forest Whitaker, Kal Penn, Jamie Foxx and director Davis Guggenheim.

Muhammad Ali sat in the convention audience.

Fran Drescher, Ashley Judd and Joy Bryant joined Lopez at the reception honoring Edelman.
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Why evan hold the election in my opinion.

Obama called Clinton and they spoke for about 20 minutes Monday morning, the Obama campaign said.

Clinton wants to campaign “with and for” Obama after the hard-fought primary campaign between Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton, Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna said. Clinton “renewed his offer to do whatever he can to ensure Sen. Obama is our next president.”

Obama “had a terrific conversation with President Clinton and is honored to have his support in this campaign,” Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said.

The chairman of Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful presidential bid, Terry McAuliffe, said Sunday the former president was angered by media reports suggesting he did not plan to actively support Obama in the general election.

“He was angry that these ridiculous stories were out here, and these supposed close friends of the president — none of the close friends ever got called,” McAuliffe said, referring to anonymous sources quoted in some stories. “What happens, a lot of the time, is people like to pretend they’re close so they can tell the reporters that they’re close, but, you know, they’re just talking.”

McAuliffe said he spoke to Bill Clinton on Sunday morning. The former president recently returned from a trip to Europe.

Obama and Hillary Clinton appeared together Friday in Unity, New Hampshire, where the former first lady said of her ex-rival, “we may have started on different paths … [but] today our hearts are set on the same destination for America … to elect Barack Obama as the next president of the United States.”

The two had met the night before at a gathering of Clinton’s biggest political donors, at which Clinton delivered the maximum legal donations to Obama’s campaign from herself and her husband and Obama and his wife, Michelle, donated the maximum to Clinton’s campaign — which remains mired in debt.

But some analysts read bitterness into the fact that Bill Clinton did not appear at either event and had made no personal comments supporting Obama since his wife conceded the nomination. Instead, the former president released a statement through a spokesman saying he “is obviously committed to doing whatever he can and is asked to do” for Obama.

McAuliffe said Bill Clinton merely was waiting in order to avoid taking the public’s focus off Obama and Hillary Clinton’s joint appearances.
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He also joked about rumors that the ex-president remains angry at Obama from the Democratic campaign.
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