{"id":712152,"date":"2026-06-18T20:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T20:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/712152\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T20:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T20:23:09","slug":"hollywood-has-a-heavy-presence-at-opening-of-obama-presidential-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/712152\/","title":{"rendered":"Hollywood Has A Heavy Presence At Opening Of Obama Presidential Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe entertainment bill for the opening of the Obama Presidential Center on Thursday included U2\u2019s Bono, Bruce Springsteen<\/a>, John Legend and Jennifer Hudson, who sang the National Anthem.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the crowd offstage was even more of a reminder of just how much Hollywood embraced President Barack Obama<\/a> and his wife, First Lady Michelle Obama<\/a>: Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Tom Hanks, David Letterman<\/a>, Stephen Colbert<\/a> and Conan O\u2019Brien were among those present.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cA-listers all over the place,\u201d said Sara Sidner, on the scene for CNN. While the network and MS NOW featured extensive coverage during the three-hour ceremony, Fox News featured only part of Barack Obama\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring his eight years, Obama enlisted many of the entertainers for White House concerts and campaign appearances, but the sheer turnout also offered an implicit contrast to the current president, Donald Trump<\/a>, who has turned to the recent UFC event and country music figures for his cultural agenda, in addition to a takeover of the Kennedy Center. A lineup of artists who were to perform at a National Mall Freedom 250 concert series next week largely dropped out over concerns that the event would be partisan; Trump has instead scheduled a rally with Lee Greenwood among the performers.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tStephen Colbert and Conan O\u2019Brien attend the dedication ceremony for the opening of the Barack Obama Presidential Center.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto by Win McNamee\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile George and Laura Bush, Joe and Jill Biden and Bill and Hillary Clinton were present for the Obama ceremony, Trump was not. Often scathing in his criticism, he was not invited. <\/p>\n

\n\tAlthough his name was not mentioned, throughout the ceremony, there were obvious efforts to paint a contrast.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNo one has a right to sit in judgment of who is American enough,\u201d Michelle Obama said. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe White House did not apologize earlier this week after one UFC fighter, after winning a match at the South Lawn event, blurted out, \u201cMichelle Obama is a man.\u201d That reignited a conspiracy theory that dated to the Obama years.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe former first lady, in her remarks, referred to her husband\u2019s ability to withstand attacks during his tenure. She said that he endured \u201cthe claims that a U.S. Senator and constitutional law expert wasn\u2019t qualified for the job, the lies about your birthright, your faith, your patriotism, the outrage when you stated the biological fact that if you\u2019d had a son that he too would be black. Yet you were unflappable at every turn \u2014 always focused always calm, always looking at the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe also drew applause when she noted that her husband won the Nobel Peace Prize, long coveted by Trump. At that line, Hillary Clinton could be seen laughing and whispering something to her husband.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe privately held center, in Jackson Park on the south side of Chicago, is on an 18-acre campus that includes a museum, theater, meeting spaces, Oval Office replica, public library and even basketball court. The actual records of the Obama administration are held by the National Archives and Records Administration at a separate facility, but the documents are part of a digitization project.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe event ended with Stevie Wonder singing Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I\u2019m Yours, and a finale of Higher Ground with many of the performers. <\/p>\n

\n\tMore to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The entertainment bill for the opening of the Obama Presidential Center on Thursday included U2\u2019s Bono, Bruce Springsteen,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[8833,16755,236,13724,12,5109,88,25248,10674],"class_list":["post-712152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-barack-obama","tag-bruce-springsteen","tag-celebrities","tag-david-letterman","tag-donald-trump","tag-electionline","tag-entertainment","tag-michelle-obama","tag-stephen-colbert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}