Celebrity Presence At Obama Presidential Center Opening Gives A Reminder Of Hollywood’s Embrace Of 44

The entertainment bill for the opening of the Obama Presidential Center on Thursday included U2’s Bono, Bruce Springsteen, John Legend and Jennifer Hudson, who sang the National Anthem.

In the crowd offstage was even more of a reminder of just how much Hollywood embraced President Barack Obama and his wife, First Lady Michelle Obama: Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks, David Letterman, Stephen Colbert and Conan O’Brien were among those present.

“A-listers all over the place,” said Sara Sidner, on the scene for CNN.

During 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, 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.

While 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.

Although his name was not mentioned, throughout the ceremony, there were obvious efforts to paint a contrast.

“No one has a right to sit in judgment of who is American enough,” Michelle Obama said.

The White House did not apologize earlier this week after one UFC fighter, after winning a match at the South Lawn event, blurted out, “Michelle Obama is a man.” That reignited a conspiracy theory that dated to the Obama years.

The former first lady, in her remarks, referred to her husband’s ability to withstand attacks during his tenure. She said that he endured “the claims that a U.S. Senator and constitutional law expert wasn’t qualified for the job, the lies about your birthright, your faith, your patriotism, the outrage when you stated the biological fact that if you’d had a son that he too would be black. Yet you were unflappable at every turn — always focused always calm, always looking at the long term.”

She 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.

The 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, 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.

More to come.