The president Obama re-election campaign is setting its sights on Hollywood for more cash. Vice President Joe Biden will be back in Southern California for a series of events April 20, including a $2,500-a-head shindig at a house on the beach in Santa Barbara. Obama will swing through town for an event hosted by DreamWorks Animation’s Jeffrey Katzenberg on May 10 that is expected to generate $2 million for the battle against presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney (whose own Hollywood fund-raiser generated $1.5 million in March). Organizers hope to have the Obama dinner at Katzenberg’s $35 million Beverly Hills mansion, if it is finished in time, and sources say the Democrats’ favorite diva, Barbra Streisand, could perform. Four years ago, Streisand sang for Obama at the Beverly Wilshire, and despite the industry’s muted enthusiasm for the president this time around, a Streisand-Obama bill probably could sell out the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The entertainment industry donated $1.54 million directly to the Obama campaign in 2011. That compares with $2.8?million four years earlier, but the campaign hopes the industry will step up with the race becoming clearer. To that end, the president is expected back in June for a concert and fund-raiser hosted by the industry’s LGBT community. “They have obviously figured out the reality of fund-raising here — there are infinite opportunities,” says veteran political consultant Bill Carrick. “They’re just going to keep on coming.”
