The State Department this week is hosting 48 foreign ambassadors based in D.C. on a trip to Los Angeles this week, in an itinerary that includes a breakfast on "Hollywood and social change" at CAA and a lunch on the "internationalization of film" at Warner Bros. on Thursday as well as meetings with studio officials.

Among the topics expected: Wooing location film production to their own countries.

But on Tuesday night at an opening reception dinner at the Getty Museum, Hollywood pitched itself, via a film short, "City of Dreams," from exec producers Barbara Glazer and Richard Kaufman. It makes heavy use of clips of movies shot in L.A., most prominently best picture winner  "The Artist." It was the only film among all of hte best picture nominees shot entirely in Los Angeles. Also included were clips from "Chinatown" and "L.A. Story," while the makers steered clear of the apocalyptic visions of recent megapics like "Battle: Los Angeles" and "The Day After Tomorrow."

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, fighting off the flu, addressed the diplomats with a mix of boosterism and a tinge of politics, telling them, "This is a city that doesn't care who your father was. In my case, they didn't care that I didn't have one, and with the new federal court decision on marriage equality, they don't care if you have two of them." It drew extensive cheers from the crowd, which also included Lisa Ling, Geena Davis and Kareem Abdul Jabbar, the latter recently appointed as a cultural ambassador for the State Department.

The visit --- which today included a trek to the Inner-City Arts program --- is part of the State Department's Experience America program, designed to boost the government's use of soft diplomacy. Show biz was a theme of the film short, but the visit also includes treks to the Fashion Institute of Design and an event from the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.

Capricia Marshall, U.S. chief of protocol, said, "This is a sector of our great American society that they want to engage with, primarily, I will say, for business purposes. They are there to network and meet people to bring interest back to their country, to engage in relationships between both countries."

One ambassador, Gilles Alexandre Noghes of Monoco, was quick to remind that his country was the locale of Alfred Hitchcock's "To Catch a Thief." (The embassy in Washington includes portraits of star Grace Kelly, who married Prince Rainier and became princess). Of course, he said he'd welcome another classic.

HBO is defending the accuracy of "Game Change," its upcoming movie about the McCain-Palin campaign in 2008, in the face of claims by Palin aides that the movie contains fictitious situations.

Noting the "noise about the film," HBO exec VP Quentin Schaffer said that "much of it has come from several Palin aides trying to discredit it even though they haven't yet seen it."

"HBO has a long track record of producing fact-based dramas, going to great lengths to get the story right," he wrote.

Schaffer noted that Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, authors of the book on which the project was based, served as consultants and checked "every draft of the script to ensure its historical accuracy and throroughness." "When their book came out in 2010, it went unchallenged and unrefuted by the Palin camp," he wrote.

He also said that the screenwriter, Danny Strong, spoke to 25 people "intimately involved in the campaign," including "the most senior advisers." Palin and McCain declined to talk to him, and also declined an offer to see the finished movie. Other sources included Palin's own book, "Going Rogue," and Palin's deputy chief of staff during the 2008 campaign, Chris Edwards, served as technical adviser and 'was there for many of the scenes in the film to ensure its accuracy."

"The result is a balanced portrayal of the McCain-Palin campaign," Schaffer wrote.

Meanwhile, Bristol Palin has landed a new reality show, this time with Lifetime. The title: "Bristol Palin: Life's a Tripp."

Famed litigator Pierce O’Donnell has agreed to a new plea deal in which he would be sentenced to two months in prison, 12 months of supervised release and 500 hours of community service for making illegal campaign contributions to John Edwards’ 2004 presidential campaign.

The new plea deal still must be approved by U.S. District Court Judge James Otero, who in November rejected a plea agreement which would have seen O’Donnell serve six months in prison. Otero said that he felt that jail time was unwarranted, but federal prosecutor Dennis Mitchell refused to agree to a sentence without it.

O’Donnell has told friends that he wants to put the case behind him, and that the deal will allow him to retain his license to practice law. He plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of violating election law, but prosecutors had originally sought a felony conviction, something that would have in all likelihood led to disbarment.

The charges had to do with so-called "conduit campaign" contributions, in which he got 10 employees of his law firm to each contribute $2,000 to the Edwards campaign, for which he would then reimburse them. His new plea agreement also calls for him to pay a fine of $20,000.

If Otero rejects the new deal, O’Donnell and prosecutors are asking that the court transfer the case to a magistrate judge to review the case.

O’Donnell is perhaps most famous in the entertainment community for representing Art Buchwald in his case against Paramount that exposed studio accounting practices.

Mitt Romney tonight avoided the land mine of a loss in Michigan, something that would have sent his campaign scrambling and the media searching for ever different kinds of superlatives to define the herky jerky Republican contest. "We didn't win by a lot, but we won by enough," he said about his 3-point margin in his home state (one of them) over Rick Santorum. So Romney is back in the front runner's position, at least until next week, Super Tuesday. Meanwhile, Santorum spent a great deal of his speech this evening talking about his mother, wife and daughter, undoubtedly an effort to recast his appeal to women.

Romney's victory speech is below.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Former News Corp. COO Peter Chernin and Harvey Weinstein, fresh off of his company's "The Artist" winning best picture, are among the cohosts of President Obama's swing through Manhattan for fundraisers on Thursday.

According to Politico, Chernin and Weinstein are co-hosting along with designers Tory Burch and Michael Kors, as well as HBO's Richard Plepler. The event will be held at the home of Michael Smith, First Lady Michelle Obama's designer, and his partner James Costos, an HBO executive.

Chernin hosted a fundraiser for President Obama's reelection campaign at his home in October that featured Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. It was the first Los Angeles "Obama Speaker Series" events, a new twist on fundraising started this cycle by his reelection campaign that feature administration officials and other figures like Warren Buffett.

In August, Obama courted donors at Weinstein's Manhattan home for a fundraiser that was cohosted by Anna Wintour.

And Smith and Costos hosted Michelle Obama at their home in June, again to raise money for the reelection campaign.

As Politico points out, other events on Thursday will feature Deepak Chopra nad Russell Simmons.

Bill Maher continued his pitch for support for pro-Obama SuperPACs today, telling Chris Matthews that in giving $1 million to Priorities USA Action he was "trying to throw a snowball and create an avalanche."

His message is that the election will be far closer than liberals realize, and unless more welathy donors start writing six- and seven- figure checks to SuperPACs, Democrats will be greatly outgunned when Election Day rolls along.

"The game has changed from small contributions to large contributions," he told Matthews on "Hardball."

The full video is below.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Asghar Farhadi, director of Iran's "A Separation," gave one of the most eloquent speeches last night at the Oscars, saying that hias movie was "communicating with the people" rather than making a statement about the country's tensions with the west.

But the pic's victory in the foreign language film category is being treated by Iranian state-controlled media as a victory over Israel, as that country had an entry called "Footnote."

In the buildup to HBO's premiere of "Game Change," one of the more intriguing events is bound to be a morning panel at the MPAA on March 9 featuring the movie's director, Jay Roach, and writer, Danny Strong; Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, the authors of the book; and Steve Schmidt, the senior adviser to the McCain campaign who is played in the movie by Woody Harrelson. Politico's Mike Allen moderates.

As I wrote earlier, the movie is unlikely to get Sarah Palin's endorsement, and John McCain repeated over the weekend that "it'll be a cold day in Gila Bend, Arizona" before he sees it. But it will be hard for them to ignore: HBO is hosting a premiere in New York on March 7 and another screening in D.C. on March 8.

Although Julianne Moore has been saying in interviews that she is sympathetic to the way that Sarah Palin was thrust into the limelight in 2008, her supporters are criticizing the movie and former aides even held a conference call last week to blast the movie, even though none have seen it. Perhaps the most damaging thing revealed in the movie, because it wasn't in the book, is when McCain aides realize that Palin thinks Queen Elizabeth really shapes British foreign policy.

Clarification: An earlier version of this post suggested that some Palin aides had seen "Game Change." But on a conference call last week to counter "Game Change," none of her current and former aides said they had seen the movie.

As predictable as this years Oscarcast was --- perhaps more so than any recent year I can recall --- there were some moving moments, as when Asghar Farhadi won for the Iranian film "A Separation."

With the current standoff over Iran's development of a nuclear program, and attention on whether Israel will take action to halt its development, Farhadi's speech was loaded with political meaning.

"At this time, many Iranians all over the world are watching us and I imagine them to be very happy," he said.

"At a time of talk of war, intimidation and aggression is exchanged between politicians, the name of their county, Iran, is spoken here through her glorious culture, a rich and ancient culture that has been hidden under the heavy dust of politics."

"I proudly offer this award to the people of my country, the people who respect all cultures and civilizations and despise hostility and resentment."

A delegation from the Academy, including Sid Ganis and Annette Bening, visited Iran in March, 2009, in what was supposed to be a cultural exchange. But that was just a couple of months before the green protests.

"The Chris Matthews Show" created this video of GOP front runner mashed up with this year's Oscar front runner, "The Artist." It's called "Mitt: Better Off Mute."

Davis Guggenheim is returning to the Obama campaign to direct a short campaign film, just as he did for the 2008 election.

According to campaign finance reports, the Obama campaign spent $162,834 on production of a short film via Guggenheim's film unit in Washington. Bloomberg reported that the film, less than 30 minutes in length, will focus on Obama's first three years in office. Exact plans for the film have not been decided.

Guggenheim, who won an Oscar for "An Inconvenient Truth," and directed "Waiting for Superman," helmed Obama's 2008 convention film, parts of which were used later in the campaign.

Bill Maher is now among the top donors to Obama-leaning SuperPACs. But as the Los Angeles Times points out, Maher engaged panelists on his show on the influence of the independent expenditure committees just a few weeks ago, and Rob Reiner was dead set against them.

"This to me is one of the worst things to have happened this election cycle," Reiner said. "When you think about what's happened in this country in the last year. You have this huge movement with the tea partiers. You have this huge movement with the occupiers. These are disenfranchised people from both ends of the political spectrum who are very angry because they don't have jobs. And they are not going to matter one bit in this election because of all this money that's coming from very wealthy people .... And it's disgraceful."

In many ways SuperPACs are akin the soft money that flowed into the system before McCain-Feingold put a stop to them. In 1996, Bill Clinton, the last Democratic president to face reelection, came to rely heavily on unlimited soft money, which could go not to his campaign but to the party for certain vague activities like "party building." Figures like Haim Saban and Steve Bing emerged as some of the Democratic Party's most prolific donors, writing seven figure checks to help finance such things as the 2000 Democratic Convention and the new DNC headquarters. Both are being tapped again this cycle.

But back then there also was unease over the flow of money in politics. The Hollywood Women's Political Committee, an org of liberal women executives and creatives in the industry, disbanded in part over the influence of money in politics, and Warren Beatty teased an independent run for the presidency largely to focus attention on the need for campaign finance reform.

This time around, with the Maher donation, Jeffrey Katzenberg's $2 million contribution to Priorities, and a spate of other donors, show biz is again opening up its wallets. The hope among the fundraisers for the Democratic SuperPACs is that the threat from the right will be enough to convince even millionaires and billionaire good government types to put aside their ideals and step up to the plate. Maher helps them make their case, especially when you listen to the unedited remarks that he said in his Yahoo special last night. Several blogs, including PoliticsUSA, are linking to the longer footage.

He says, "I am doing this because I truly believe that the difference between a country governed by Barack Obama and one governed by Santorum or Mitt Romney is worth a million dollars, but I want to make this very key point. This hurt, okay. I am not really a millionaire, alright. And if there is one takeaway from tonight, you know for all the rich liberals out there, if Bill Maher can do it, you can do it too. If the Republican world that we have seen described in the last year in these debates and over the last hour in my performance for you tonight, doesn’t scare the shit out of you, I don’t know what does…I’ll tell you something folks who look I know look at these Republican clowns and think it’s in the bag. No, it’s not. Obama could lose. This is America. You only get two parties and half the country is f**king nuts."

Update: Maher also tells the Times that he hopes his donation will "nudge liberals with far fatter pocketbooks."

He told ABC News that his pitch will be, "Hey, rich liberals, If I can do this, there’s a lot of people who can do it even easier."

Priorities USA Action sent out a tweet thanking Maher. "Thx to @billmaher for the generous donation, we'll direct his $ to our efforts to 'kick ass', per his request."

The sheer number of GOP debates this season has allowed underfunded candidates to shine and front-runners the chance to sink or swim. But the drama, bickering and occasional pettiness has invited comparisons to reality shows. With Jon Huntsman and Jeb Bush among those publicly wondering whether the party's candidates have been hurt, not helped, by their introduction on the national stage, the party may be reaching a consensus that it's time to put a brake on the debates. Join Kristen Soltis and myself for the latest Wilshire & Washington on the Radio, which you can listen to here, or on the link below.

Updated

Nicole Avant served as co-chair of President Obama's Southern California finance team in 2008, and after his election, she was appointed to the post as Ambassador to the Bahamas.

She left the post in November, citing the demands of family back here in Los Angeles, and has since helped raise money for Obama's reelection campaign.

But the State Department's Inspector General released a report this week that, while offering praise for building up the reputation of the embassy among residents of the Bahamas, finds fault in the number of times that Avant was away from her post.

The report said that Avant was absent from her post for 276 days during a 670-day period. "The 276 days include 84 nonwork days (weekends and holidays) and 102 personal leave days. The Ambassador also traveled to the United States for 77 work days on what she identified as business, with 23 days on what appear to have been official travel orders. All travel was at her personal expense except when she was on official travel orders."

It went on to state that she requested permission from the State Department each time that she visited the U.S., and each time the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs approved her request. The inspector found that the absences exceeded those allowed by the State Department, but said that it was the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs that did "not follow procedures" for vetting them.

The inspector also said that the embassy was "recovering from an extended period of dysfunctional leadership and mismanagement," but said that as of October, Avant and a new deputy chief of mission, a careerist in the foreign service, were "forging a good team" and were taking "informal steps" to boost morale. She formally left her post on Nov. 21.

The inspector did say that "by drawing on her personal contacts with prominent Americans, organizing civil society related conferences, highlighting her travel to outlying Bahamanian islands, and undertaking activities to promote business connections between American and Bahamian communities, she and her staff have improved the embassy's reputation among Bahamians. This, in turn, has fostered a close bilateral environment that is conducive to excellent law enforcement cooperation."

To a certain extent the report seems to reflect a tension that has long existed between careerists and appointees. Foreign Service vets pressed Obama to limit the number of non-career diplomats he appointed --- they called it the last vestiges of the 19th century spoils system --- although as I wrote about here, there are plenty of non-career ambassadors around to argue their case.

The full report, first reported in Foreign Policy, is here.

Update: The Tribune in the Bahamas reported that the U.S. Embassy Chargé d'Affaires John Dinkelman issued a statement in response:

Even in copyright, the cover up can be worse than the offense.

Street artist Shepard Fairey, responsible for the iconic "HOPE" poster that became a sensation of the 2008 campaign, plead guilty to one count of criminal contempt in a copyright infringement case brought against him by the Associated Press.

The AP claimed that it owned the photo on which Fairey's work was based, but before the case was brought to trial, Fairey settled with the news org. A big reason may have been because he admitted destroying evidence and submitting false images in the legal tangle, something that he calls a "terrible mistake," according to Courthouse News Service.

He faces up to six months in prison and a $250,000 fine, and sentencing is scheduled for July 16.

The Oscars may have some suspense this year, but the political affinities of the nominees are hardly surprising.

The Sunlight Foundation examined the political giving habits of major nominees and found all of them had a history of support to Democrats. The sole exception may be Mike De Luca, co-producer of "Moneyball," who gave to the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2004 but more recently gave to Kamala Harris, California's attorney general and a rising star in the Democratic party.

The top donor among all nominees, again to little surprise, was Jeffrey Katzenberg, whose DreamWorks Animation is responsible for "Kung Fu Panda" in the animated feature category. Also atop the list if Steven Spielberg, director of "War Horse," nominated for best picture.

Sunlight's full list is here.

Performing in San Jose tonight, Bill Maher unveiled an oversized, $1 million check he wrote out to Priorities USA Action, the SuperPAC supporting President Obama's reelection campaign.

If he's serious, the SuperPAC will need it. It is being far outpaced in fundraising by the SuperPACs of Obama's potential Republican rivals, although there is an expectation that will change as the election nears and with the official Obama campaign giving Priorities its endorsement. (Via Mediaite). The concert was shown on Yahoo.

He tweeted late Thursday, "Thank u everybody who's hit me up after the show, and a great San Jose audience. Obama donation was a surprise to Yahoo too fyi!" He called it "the wisest investment I think I could make."

Priorities, set up by former Obama aides Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney, has collected donations from Jeffrey Katzenberg ($2 million) and Steven Spielberg ($100,000), but their fundraising had slowed as of January. Maher's donation not only gives the org a high-profile boost, but it also could send a message that even though there is some disappointment on the left over Obama's performance, that shouldn't mean that they should sit on the sidelines. Maher has been critical of the administration --- last summer he wondered whether Hillary Clinton would have been better --- but he's also made it clear he's not leaning toward any alternative.

Update: Sarah Fuller, Maher's publicist, confirms that yes, the donation is real.

Here's the video of Maher's announcement:

"Seinfeld" star Jason Alexander took note of Mitt Romney's botched attempt to quote George Costanza, enough to trigger a momentary "Costanza 4 Prez" thread on Twitter.

"Thrilled Gov. Romney enjoys my old character. I enjoyed the character he used 2 b 2. If he'd embrace that again, he'd b a great candidate," Alexander wrote.

At the start of the debate, as candidates were given time to introduce themselves, Romney cited Costanza and quipped, “When they’re applauding, you sit down."

That's a pretty liberal paraphrase for a line that actually was used by Jerry Seinfeld in response to George, as Buzzfeed noted.

Alexander has given extensively to Democratic party committees, and was a donor to Al Franken in his 2008 Senate bid. Larry David, co-creator of "Seinfeld" who has said that Costanza was loosely based on himself, is also a longtime donor to Democratic candidates.

This morning he was still poking fun as the injection of his character into presidential politics. "Costanza 4 Prez: finally a President who is master of his domain," he wrote.

Judging by the reviews of last night's debate, a curious mix of Beltway bluster and drawn-out talk about birth control, there may be a more apt "Seinfeld" reference to the faceoff: A show about nothing.

Two more, and Republican candidates will have filled a network full season series order. Outside of SuperPACs, the debates have altered the dynamics of the nomination battle in ways few predicted at the start of this election cycle, adding a dose of high drama, biting comedy, low blows and cheap shots --- pretty much what makes up much of reality television. (Many, many have made the comparison, including President Obama and Newt Gingrich.) I'll be watching and tweeting, and the CNN debate is being streamed here.

Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), already engaged in an acrimonious fight for a San Fernando Valley congressional seat, sparred over the Stop Online Piracy Act, the anti-piracy bill that stalled out last month after an unprecedented online protest.

At a debate in Tarzana, Berman touted his support of anti-piracy legislation that has made him one of the staunchest defenders of copyright in Congress. He's also being backed heavily by studio and creative types, who played no small part in helping him erase a fund-raising disadvantage against Sherman.

But Sherman said the legislation was flawed --- even though he is a cosponsor of it.

"My co-sponsorship is a symbol that I want the bill to go forward in the process, but it may very well need changes," he said to a packed crowd at the Temple Judea, adding that he supported the objective of the legislation. "...We need to make it clear that you got to pay for the entertainment and at the same time, we have to make sure that there isn’t a system that unduly interferes with YouTube, Facebook, and the rest of them."

Berman jumped on that remark. "I try not to sponsor or cosponsor a bill as a symbol of my general position even though I think the language is stupid," he said. He also defended the bill, saying that "the fact is a campaign of disinformation and massive exaggeration and hyperbole was made against this bill by brilliant strategists in the Silicon Valley, but they carried the day."

Because of redistricting, Berman and Sherman are facing each other in the west Valley district, which includes not just studios but a significant number of industry employees. Their race already is bitter, and there is a chance that they will face each other not just in the June primary but in the general election. California's new open primary system means that the two top vote getters will face each other in November.

One of the Republican candidates in the race, Mark Reed, was much less nuanced about SOPA. He's against it.

He said that the positions of Sherman and Berman are "a great example of these two people appeasing the entertainment industry by trying to get the government to do something to protect intellectual property rights when it is absolutely incumbent on the industry to monitor themselves and protect it."

Berman responded, "We are talking about property rights. That is what the government is there for, to enforce the law and to ensure people don't violate it, and go after people who do violate it."

A federal judge in San Francisco has found that a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional.

U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White, appointed by George W. Bush, ruled against a provision that allowed the government to deny benefits to a court workers' same-sex spouse.

White wrote, "Prejudice, we are beginning to understand, rises not from malice or hostile animus alone. It may result as well from insensitivity caused by simple want of careful, rational reflection or from some instinctive mechanism to guard against people who appear to be different in some respects from ourselves." (via MetroWeekly).

A federal judge in Massachusetts also found a key portion of DOMA unconstitutional in 2010, and the case is pending before the First Circuit Court of Appeals. The Obama administration announced last year that it would not defend the law, but conservatives in Congress have mounted their own defense.

Late Tuesday, proponents of California's Proposition 8 asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to review the recent appellate decision en banc, meaning that an 11-judge panel would review the constitutionality of the same-sex marriage ban instead of the three judges who issued a decision earlier this month. The result: It could be quite a while before the case comes before the Supreme Court, and there's a chance the Massachusetts DOMA case could come first.

There's not a lot of hurry to get anti-piracy legislation back on track, but consumers will soon be getting a very real feel for Hollywood's latest front in fighting online theft of movies, TV shows and music. As I point out in my latest piece for the print version of Variety, the rollout of Copyright Alerts begs the question of why this isn't the path forward for some of the goals of the Stop Online Piracy Act.

Hollywood and its supporters are feeling something akin to a hangover following the sidelining of the Stop Online Piracy Act and a companion bill in the Senate.

It's been just over a month since an Internet blackout called attention to the legislation, and an accompanying protest forced congressional leaders to put it on hold. Although emotions have been somewhat diffused, frustrated lobbyists and skittish lawmakers don't seem in a hurry to jump back into the fray to try and craft a compromise.

The election year makes it even less likely that Congress will act on something if it appears the legislation could become a liability.

But that doesn't mean that the problem of piracy will be off the radar of the average consumer. In fact, this spring, consumers will start to get a very clear message from the entertainment industry as it tries to curb online copyright infringement. Following a landmark agreement finalized last year with the studios and record labels, the country's major Internet service providers, including AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon, will start sending out "copyright alerts" to users who illegally download copyrighted movies, music and TV shows. If users continue to access pirated content, they would face possible sanctions at a certain point that could include slower Internet speeds.

The agreement was reached last year without legislation -- which begs the question of why at least some goals of the SOPA legislation couldn't be achieved via a similar pact. The White House, which was critical of parts of the legislation, also said at the time that "this is not just a matter for legislation" and urged the sparring parties "to adopt voluntary measures and best practices to reduce online piracy."

But that's easier said than done.

The agreement for "copyright alerts" took almost three years to complete, and the biggest challenge may be just getting parties to the table. Cary Sherman, chairman-CEO of the Recording Industry Assn. of America, said that while agreements for "best practices" to combat piracy are in place with payment processors, and in the works with advertisers, search engines "have essentially declined to participate in conversations."

Sherman, who played a major role in crafting the agreement for the copyright alerts, said that they are an "indication that if you want to make progress, you can."

"We would love for it to be a model," he said.

Markham Erickson, executive director of the NetCoalition, the association of Internet firms that opposed the antipiracy bills, said, "Search engines have been at the table and have created solutions on their own."

He expects discussions of some sort this year but said that a "significant lack of trust between Hollywood and Silicon Valley" has to be overcome. "There needs to be more conversations so we can understand better where they are coming from and they can understand where we are coming from," he added.

Stephen Bannon, director-writer of the pro-Sarah Palin doc "The Undefeated," believes that HBO deliberately scheduled "Game Change," which is less than flattering toward the former Alaska governor, right after Super Tuesday.

She decided not to enter the race, but the movie has been in the works since she was pondering a presidential bid. "They would use this fictionalized account to destroy here," Bannon says.

In a statement to the Los Angeles Times, however, HBO says that "we hope that people will withhold any judgment until they have viewed the film. In the tradition of past HBO Films' release schedules, 'Game Change' is set to debut in the spring."

The movie is written by Danny Strong and directed by Jay Roach, the team behind HBO's "Recount," about the 2000 battle over the presidential vote count in Florida. They also faced criticism for that movie, although it came largely from former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who initially represented the Gore camp, upset about the way that he was portrayed. By contrast, former Secretary of State James Baker, who represented the Bush campaign, actually hosted a screening of the movie.

Update: Palin staffers held a conference call today to do a pre-emptive strike on the movie, although none said they had seen it. John McCain's senior adviser in 2008, Steve Schmidt, who is played by Woody Harrelson in the movie, is praising it as an accurate portrayal of what happened. (Via The Fix.)

Eva Longoria and Kal Penn are among the Obama re-election campaign's co chairs, joining a list that includes Caroline Kennedy, California Attorney General Kamala Harris and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Longoria is among the Obama campaign's bundlers, and co-hosted a fund-raising event in October aimed at drawing Latino support. She recently formed her own foundation and is on the board of the National Museum of the American Latino.

Penn, whose real name is Kalpen Modi, is the star of the "Harold and Kumar" films and served as associate director in the White House's Office of Public Engagement, where he focused on outreach to the Asian-American and the Pacific Islander communities, as well as to young constituents.

At the latest "In Performance at the White House," this one focsing on the blues, President Obama sang a few lines from "Sweet Home Chicago" in a groiup finale that included B.B. King and Mick Jagger.

Watch here.

Democrats have a tenuous hold on the Senate, but this week and in the next month, show biz figures are hosting a flurry of candidates and incumbents in an effort to maintain the majority.

On Wednesday, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) raises money at the Hancock Park home of Steve and Lizzie Blatt, with Martin Sheen, Chad Lowe and Tim Hoy among the co-hosts. Tickets start at $250 per person.

Alan and Cindy Horn are planning a reception on March 9 at their Bel Air home for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, featuring nine women 2012 candidates. The event is called "Women on the Road to the Senate: 12 and Counting," and is scheduled to include Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Sen. Clare McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.). Also expected are challengers Tammy Baldwin from Wisconsin, Shelley Berkley from Nevada and Heidi Heitkamp from North Dakota.

Others expected include Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the chair of the DSCC; Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), chair of the Women's Senate Network; and Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.).

Tickets to the event start at $1,000 per person, and contributions are being collected by a joint fundraising committee. Contributions are being divided 60% to the DSCC and 40% to be divided evenly among candidate committees. The exception is Cantwell, whose campaign does not accept contributions from multi-candidate committees.

Other cohosts of the event include J.J. Abrams and Katie McGrath, Dayna and Steven Bochco, Marcy Carsey, Michael and Jena King, Kelly Meyer, Nancy Stephens and Rick Rosenthal, Corky and Mike Stoller, Barbra Streisand, John and Marilyn Wells and Peg Yorkin.

Baldwin --- facing a tough campaign to keep a Senate seat in Wisconsin in Democratic hands --- will also raise money on March 12 at the home of Stanley and Betty Sheinbaum. Bradley Whitford is billed as the special guest. Tickets start at $250 per person, and the event is organized by the JStreet PAC.

It's probably testament to the power of Stephen Colbert that an unexplained absence for a few days last week can generate so much attention and speculation.

On his return to "The Colbert Report" on Monday, the host stayed almost completely in character as he rattled off some of the wildest rumors. Reportedly he was visiting his ailing, 91-year-old mother. "having 11 children makes you tough as nails," Colbert said on his show, a reference to the fact that he's the last of 11 kids.

Here's the complete clip:

Reelz Channel has acquired TV rights to Stephen Bannon's Sarah Palin documentary "The Undefeated" and will premiere it on March 11, just a day after HBO debuts "Game Change," the adaptation of the best selling book chronicling the Alaska governor's entrance into the 2008 race.

The two projects will certainly be a study in contrasts: "The Undefeated," which had a theatrical and pay-per-view run last year, is a reverential look at Palin, from how she took on the good-old-boys club of Alaska politics to her battles against the entrenched media and Beltway establishment as she rose to national prominence. Palin attended the film's premiere last summer in Iowa.

"Game Change" is based on the 2008 campaign tome by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, but the HBO movie focuses on the drama surrounding John McCain selection of Palin as his running mate. While it portrays her 2008 convention speech and vice presidential debate as triumphs and her defense of family and special needs children as strengths, she's also shown as a mercurial figure way in over her head, particularly when it comes to foreign policy. Palin already has denounced the movie.

Bannon said that Reelz's showing "will be a counterweight" to the HBO film, which he called a "fictionalized account of what happened."

The makers of "Game Change," director Jay Roach and writer Danny Strong, have defended not only the research from the book but their own research. They said they reached out to Palin for her input, but she declined.

Stanley E. Hubbard, CEO of Reelz Channel, said that Palin "is a charismatic figure who burst
onto the political scene, and whatever your leanings, if you have any interest or curiosity
in politics, social change or the Sarah Palin phenomenon, this is a must-see movie.”

Reelz Channel stepped into the political fray last year when it acquired the miniseries "The Kennedys" from History channel, which dropped the controversial project in the face of criticism from some historians. It went on to garner 10 Emmy nominations.

Bannon, host of KABC's nationally syndicated "Victory Sessions," is currently at work on the documentary "Occupy Unmasked," a conservative counter to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Citizens United Prods. is producing.

This is being hailed as a big breakthrough in the studios' long, frustrating effort to tap into the Chinese marketplace. Here's our story from last night on the new agreement that Vice President Joseph Biden announced after meeting with Chinese Vice President Xi Jingping.

On his blog post, Pat Buchanan lays out a long list of reasons for his departure from MSNBC --- including protest from Color of Change, the Anti-Defamation League, the Human Rights Campaign and Media Matters.

Buchanan, 73, was suspended from the cable channel earlier this year, what he says was because of his book "Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?"

But what about demographics? Cable channels median viewership skews well beyond the age of the audience most coveted by advertisers. Like the rest of TV, the pressure is to go young.We'll see where Buchanan lands next.

In the meantime, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, stars of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," issued a statement criticizing the decision.

"Everyone at Morning Joe considers Pat Buchanan to be a friend and a member of the family. Even though we strongly disagree with the contents of Pat's latest book, Mika and I believe those differences should have been debated in public. An open dialogue with Morning Joe regulars like Al Sharpton and Harold Ford, Jr. could have developed into an important debate on the future of race relations in America.

"Because we believe that sunlight is the best disinfectant, Mika and I strongly disagree with this outcome. We understand that the parting was amicable. Still, we will miss Pat."

Keying off of the $35,800-per-plate dinner for President Obama this week in Holmby Hills, Jon Stewart took aim at the high price donors are paying for a "pork chop." He also notices the disparity in the price for the dinner and that of the event before, a Foo Fighters concert in which many donors paid $250 to get in.

That is outrageous! $35,000 for a ticket to dinner but only $250 to see the Foo Fighters?" Stewart said. "That is an insult to this fine young man, Dave Grohl, who has spent the last 15 years of his life tenaciously fighting foo."

MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell doesn't quite know what to make of Santorum campaign benefactor Foster Friess' wonderment at what all the fuss is over birth control. "Back in my days, they [woman] used Bayer aspirin for contraceptives," he says. "The gals put it between their knees and it wasn't that costly."

"Excuse me, I am just trying to catch my breath from that, Mr. Friess, frankly," Mitchell said.

He seems to be just as amused as she is.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Al Green will perform one song at one of President Obama's fundraisers tonight. (Via TPM).

Updated

At a $35,800-per-person dinner with stars like George Clooney and Jim Belushi, President Obama took to quoting Mario Cuomo and his famous line of campaigning through poetry and governing in prose.

"We've been slogging through prose," Obama said.

The dinner for 80 people was at the same Holmby Hills estate, owned by Colleen and Bradley Bell, where the Foo Fighters performed earlier in the evening. But the more intimate affair, in an ornate dining room with high wood-beamed ceilings, gave donors some face time with the president. Also there were Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former Ambassador to the Bahamas Nicole Avant and Charlotte Mayor Anthony Fox, per the pool report.

As he has before, he acknowledged the frustration of supporters, mentioning the continued operation of the Guantanomo Bay detention facility and the war in Afghanistan.

"I understand that I feel the same way some times," he said.

"What's required...stick-to-itiveness, determination, it's saying we don't quit."

The Wednesday events were expected to raise about $3 million.

Update: Also at the dinner were Valerie Jarrett, Jerry and Ann Moss, Berry Gordy, Mike and Irena Medavoy, Cynthia Yorkin and Michael and Jena King, and Victoria Jackson and Bill Guthy. Obama answered questions and mingled with guests.

"People came away that we were going to be in for a fight with the Republicans but we were going to win this one," said one attendee. "And it's not about the poetry but about the work that he has done."

Obama's full remarks at the dinner are below:

Despite rising poll numbers and signs of disarray among his potential rivals, President Obama warned hundreds of donors at a posh Holmby Hills estate that this year’s presidential campaign “is not going to be easier this time, it’s going to be harder this time.”

“I’m going to need you,” he said. “You’re going to carry this thing like you did in 2008.”

Obama spoke for nearly a half an hour outside the home of producers Colleen and Bradley Bell, best known for “The Bold and the Beautiful.” With tickets starting at $250-per-person, the fundraiser took on the air of a rally, with Jack Black and Rashida Jones giving remarks, and the Foo Fighters performing songs like “Hero,” “Walk” and “Learn to Fly.” Dave Grohl performed a solo of the song “Everlong.”

According to a pool report, Obama’s speech did not address an issue that has, by and large, pitted Hollywood against Silicon Valley, a pair of anti-piracy bills in Congress that were sidelined after White House criticism and a storm of protest from the netroots.

In fact, as his campaign is seeking to deploy celebrity surrogates as a way to boost enthusiasm, the starry introduction for Obama seemed to belie studio chiefs’ unhappiness over the way that the White House staked out its position.

Instead, Obama focused a great deal on the economy --- “We’re starting to see the economy rebound,” he said --- and he spoke to the frustrations of the sputtering recovery.

He told the crowd, “We did not realize how long it was going to take. We didn’t realize how profound the nature of the crisis was. ... We did not fully comprehend how deep this crisis would be. ... But don’t underestimate the nature of the change we’ve made.”

Obama was to travel to Orange County on Thursday morning for more fund-raising, and to San Francisco for a trio of events expected to draw donors from Silicon Valley.

Earlier on Wednesday, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that they expected to continue to enjoy support from both communities, and are “absolutely committed to working to find solutions to the problem of copyright infringement and intellectual property rights infringement, but we need to do it in a way that doesn’t restrict Internet freedom. We believe that it’s a both/and, not and either/or proposition.”

Lisa Chan, the actress who starred in the infamous Pete Hoekstra ad that took aim at rival Debbie Stabenow, has apologized for taking the role that was criticized for reinforcing sterotypes.

"I am deeply sorry for any pain that the character I portrayed brought to my communities," Chan said in a Facebook message. "As a recent college grad who has spent time working to improve communities and empower those without a voice, this role is not in any way representative of who I am. It was absolutely a mistake on my part and one that, over time, I hope can be forgiven. I feel horrible about my participation and I am determined to resolve my actions."

In the spot, Chan, riding a bicycle through a rice field, speaks in broken English and "thanks" Stabenow for helping to send jobs to China.

Megadeth guitarist Dave Mustaine is backing Rick Santorum, saying that he has "presidential qualities" and noting the deficiencies of other GOP contenders. (Via TPM).

Kevin Bacon, Chris Colfer and John C. Reilly have been added to the performance of "8," Dustin Lance Black's play about the Prop 8 trial that will be staged at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles on March 3.

The event is a benefit organized by the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the org of entertainment and political activists pursuing the case in federal court, and Broadway Impact, the nonprofit set up to mobilize the theater community in support of same-sex marriage equality.

Reilly will play U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who ruled that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional; Bacon will play Charles Cooper, the attorney for supporters of the initiative; and Colfer will play Ryan Kendall, a witness who testified about the harmful effects of "reparative therapy."

Others in the cast include George Clooney and Martin Sheen as David Boies and Ted Olson, respectively, the lead counsels for the plaintiffs in the case. Rob Reiner is directing, and has a role in the play.

Sarah Palin has already dismissed HBO's "Game Change" as a "false narrative," but it certainly isn't a dull one.

Woody Harrelson, playing senior McCain campaign strategist Steve Schmidt, laments on election night, 2008, when it is abundantly clear that the ticket was going to lose, "This wasn't a campaign. It was a bad reality show."

The movie, premiering on March 10, is based on the best-selling book about the 2008 campaign by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, but it focuses solely on the McCain candidacy, and even then on his unexpected selection of Palin as his running mate.

Surely aware from the book what would likely to end up in the movie, Palin is about as likely to endorse this movie as she is to support President Obama. Julianne Moore's portrayal highlights the intense pressure that she faced when she was thrust into the race, unaware of what she was getting herself into, as well as the devotion she had to her family and the dismay when the media scrutiny turned to her children.

But the arc of Palin's story is that of eager No. 2, to rising star, to something that was almost diva like.  The McCain team realizes that there is much that she does not know: What the Fed is, the fact that North and South Korea are separate countries, and even suggests that the Queen is the head of British government, not the Prime Minister. But as the campaign does their best to prep her --- "She's a great actress, why don't we just give her some lines?" Schmidt says--- she gets ever more unresponsive, particularly to her communications chief, Nicolle Wallace. Instead of prepping for the disastrous Katie Couric interview, Palin is fixated on her approval numbers in Alaska.

"You have ruined me. You have ruined my reputation. I am ruined in Alaska," Palin shouts at Wallace after the interview, slamming a cell phone against a wall.

Only when Schmidt chucks the traditional debate prep, and essentially gives her a 25 Q&A script, does Palin survive and even thrive in the debate with Joseph Biden, but it is not enough to change the trajectory of the race.

Palin goes rogue, countering the campaign's directives to the point where Schmidt asks McCain to step in and talk to her and perhaps rein her in. "She is not going to do it, Steve," McCain, played by Ed Harris, says. "She might start turning on me."

The movie has a nifty climax, in the form of words that McCain shared with Palin on Election Night, warning of getting "co-opted" by Rush Limbaugh and other extremists. A theme is how politics has become an entertainment --- so perhaps it is fitting that there are several clips of Tina Fey in her infamous Palin sketches on "Saturday Night Live." They also help contrast her caricature with Moore's portrayal, nuanced for sure, but not enough to cede the spotlight.

Nevertheless, Schmidt is the moral center of "Game Change," and is practically haunted by the fact that he was the one who so pushed for Palin to be the game changer, only to see it all go so awry.

The authors, Heilemann and Halperin, have a cameo, as reporters hounding Schmidt during the Republican National Convention. Schmidt is complaining about the unfair, personal media coverage of Palin in the initial days of the St. Paul convention, and even points out that he's been asked the "shameful" question of when the Alaska governor's fluid leaked during her pregnancy. Heilemann then shoots back, "So when did it start leaking?"

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will serve as chairman of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. slated for the first week of September.

Villaraigosa is expected to join President Obama at the Holmby Hills fundraiser he will be attending on Wednesday night, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Updated

President Obama treks to Los Angeles on Wednesday for his ninth visit since taking office and, once again, he’ll be raising money at a handful of Hollywood-centric events.

Scheduled to land at LAX at 4 p.m., again in the midst of rush hour, Obama will head to the Holmby Hills home of producers Colleen and Bradley Bell, best known for the soap opera “The Bold and the Beautiful.” Obama will headline two events: One featuring a live performance by the Foo Fighters is aimed at younger donors, with tickets starting at $250-per-person, and the other is a dinner and reception with tickets set at $35,800 per person. Cohosts of the dinner are the Bells, John Emerson and Kimberly Marteau, Will and Viveca Ferrell, Noah Mamet, Nicole Avant and Ted Sarandos, and Ken and Lissa Solomon.

This will be Obama’s first visit to L.A. in 2012, in what bundlers hope will mark increased interest and enthusiasm in his reelection campaign.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Obama has raised $1.2 million from TV, movie and music sources so far this cycle. That is down from the nearly $2.8 million he raised by this point in the last cycle, when he was locked in a fierce primary battle with Hillary Clinton. In fact, Obama and Clinton raised nearly equal amounts from Hollywood through the end of 2007. Another caveat: His fundraising didn't start until the spring of 2007, and the figure also does not include sums raised for the Democratic National Committee via the joint Obama Victory Fund.

Obama fund-raisers expect the pace to pick up once a GOP candidate locks in the nomination. To little surprise, Obama’s fund-raising from show biz far exceeds that of the leader on the GOP side, Mitt Romney, who has so far raised $228,750, according to the CRP.

Also on the president’s itinerary is a breakfast on Thursday at the Corona del Mar home of Jeff and Nancy Stack, with tickets starting at $2,500 per person. He’ll then head to San Francisco for more fund-raising, including an event with Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, and will undoubtedly draw a fair share of Silicon Valley support. So far this cycle, computer and Internet sources have given $1.7 million, slightly more than show biz, according to CRP.

Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton will lead the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the agency that overseas all U.S. government international broadcasting like the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe.

Lynton was named interim presiding governor of the board after the departure of Walter Isaacson, its chairman since July, 2010. President Obama has yet to appoint a new chairman.

"It is a pleasure to work with this multi-talented, bipartisan board , and an honor to be elected to help lead the organization," Lynton said in a statement. "We are each committed to the cause of making this agency the best it can be. And with our various strengths and diverse backgrounds, we all bring something to the table."

Lynton has been a member of the board's governance committee, and his appointment to the board was confirmed by the Senate in summer, 2010.

The next In Performance at the White House will be devoted to the blues, with B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Mick Jagger and Keb Mo among the artists who will be performing.

The Feb. 21 event --- to be shown on PBS six days later --- will be the eighth "In Performance at the White House" hosted by the Obamas. The event will be streamed live on the White House website.

Also scheduled to perform will be Try "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, Jeff Beck, Gary Clark Jr., Shemekia Copeland, Warren Haynes, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks. Taraji P. Henson will be the host and Booker T. Jones will be music director and band leader.

First Lady Michelle Obama will host a daytime event for 120 middle and high school students with a workshop, "At the Crossroads: A History of Blues in America."

Conservative blogs are jumping on comments that Samuel L. Jackson made to Ebony magazine.

"I voted for Barack because he was black," Jackson said."Cuz that's why other folks vote for other people—because they look like them."

But he went on in an expletive-filled explanation of why he was disappointed in Obama.

"I just hoped he would do some of what he said he was gonna do," Jackson said. "I know politicians say [bleep]; they lie. ’Cuz they want to get elected."

Jackson and his wife LaTanya hosted Michelle Obama for a fundraiser in the last cycle, and Politico says that he attended a re-election fundraiser earlier this month.

On the blog Weeping Elvis, Patrick Ferrise interviewed R.E.M.'s longtime manager Bertis Downs, who was so associated with the group that he became known as the fifth member of the band. But he got the job by fate: He had wanted to work in public interest law in Washington at what was the start of the Reagan era.

Downs says, "I got out of law school in 1981, in the spring. That was the spring after Ronald Reagan had been inaugurated president.  I graduated from Davidson where I thought I was going to become a public interest lawyer.  I thought I was going to be an advocate on issues around poverty, prison and public service. There were no jobs. Places like Legal Services or Legal Aid, anybody I wrote to, wrote me back to say: “Dear Mr. Downs, thanks for your letter, we think you are very qualified, but we have no money, we’re not hiring, we don’t think we’re going to be around in a year.

"I stayed in Athens to sort of tread water—to pay the bills, I taught at the law school and I moonlighted by helping these guys out in a band. A few years later it became like a job. I’d gone to DC; I’d done my clerkship. I came back to Athens and there was enough work that we had a career. That was kind of gradual from ’81-85. If it hadn’t been for Reagan getting elected I probably would have gotten a job in Virginia, or West Virginia, I applied at various places and I got all rejections because nobody was hiring because it was such a bad time for the public interest sector."

Al Pacino, Mel Tillis and Andre Watts are among the honorees at the White House today as President Obama awards the National Medal for the Arts.

Also receiving honors are painter Will Barnet, poet Rita Dove, philanthropist Emily Rauh Pulitzer, sculptor Martin Puryear and the United Service Organization.

The honorees are selected by the National Council on the Arts, which advises the National Endowment for the Arts. Members of the council include Terry Teachout, Frank Price and Lee Greenwood. The honors are given to individuals or organizations "...deserving of special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth, support and availability of the arts in the United States."

Obama also will award the National Humanities Medal to Kwame Anthony Appiah, John Ashbery, Robert Darnton, Andrew Delbanco, Charles Rosen, Teoflio Ruiz, Ramon Saldivar, Amartya Sen and to National History Day.

"Halftime is over," Clint Eastwood declares, in the "Saturday Night Live" parody of Chrysler's "It's Halftime in America" Super Bowl spot that was meant to promote national unity but ended up becoming yet another partisan target.

President Obama's visit to Hollywood to raise money this week comes as studio chiefs threaten to withhold support in the fallout over the White House response to anti-piracy bills in Congress. In my latest column for the print version of Variety, moguls are finding out that all of show biz doesn't fall in line when it comes to the industry's own self-interest.

When President Obama treks to Los Angeles -- again -- on Feb. 15, he'll be looking to convey the sense of a winner: Improved poll numbers and a brightening economy, as well as the bandwagon effect of a smattering of stars coming out in support. The Foo Fighters will be playing for him, and Will Ferrell is among the co-hosts of a high-dollar event at a posh Beverly Hills estate.
But even as the campaign tries to reignite enthusiasm of the last election cycle, there remains some dismay among the highest echelons of studio and media executives over the way the White House responded in mid-January to a pair of anti-piracy bills in Congress, stopped in their tracks after the administration criticized parts of the legislation amid an Internet-fueled e-mail storm of protest that flooded Capitol Hill to oppose the measures.

In the immediate aftermath, MPAA chairman Chris Dodd and some studio chiefs suggested that the industry wouldn't be as willing to step up to the plate and serve as a favorite campaign ATM if politicians weren't onboard to back Hollywood anti-piracy initiatives. In the days after the Internet blackout, Fox's Jim Gianopulos said, "I have been a very early and ardent supporter of the president, but I couldn't say at this time that I am very enthusiastic about providing support. If you went to Detroit and said, 'I think the Japanese build better cars,' I don't think you would feel a wellspring of support if, as a candidate for office, you went there for fund-raisers the next week."

As headline-making and attention grabbing as the Stop Online Piracy Act fracas was, what it has yet to do, and is unlikely to do, is realign the way that Hollywood has traditionally stepped up to the plate in the political process: There are the motivations at the corporate level, and there are those of the broader creative community. The former is generally more mindful of the industry's self-interest; the latter has a host of concerns and causes on which they will choose one candidate or the other.

This is not to say that studio anger isn't real: One Obama fundraiser said that became clear when he sent out queries to some in the upper studio ranks, and the response was an immediate no.

What particularly irked studio chiefs was that the administration appeared to buy in to the idea that the legislation as written would pose a threat to free speech, a prospect that the Hollywood lobbies have long argued is a fiction advanced by the Googles of the world to stir up grassroots opposition.

But in the days that followed the SOPA lather, high-ranking studio execs were especially irritated when Obama's reelection campaign sent out an e-mail trumpeting the White House's position, noting that the administration had taken a stand that they "will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet." "Folks spoke out on this issue -- and President Obama listened," James Kvaal, national policy director for the campaign, wrote to supporters. Included was a link to a campaign petition gathering names to "stand with the president for a free and open Internet."

One high-level media executive who did not want to be named said that it was like salt in the wound, something that will not be easily glossed over in the months ahead.

But in the days that followed, it became immediately clear that if moguls were going to abandon Obama, they were going to be sitting it out rather than switching over to a Republican candidate friendlier to their concerns. All the 2012 contenders from the right came out against SOPA. (It also will take GOP front-runner Mitt Romney quite a while to catch up as concerns showbiz donations: According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Obama has raised $1.2 million from biz sources to Romney's $152,900.)

Other influential figures, like Jeffrey Katzenberg, quickly made it clear that they were not backing away from Obama's campaign. And few if any star names, the ones who can really draw attention from the broader public, were willing to publicly express their dismay at either the White House or the way that the whole debate played out. On Jan. 18, the day of the Internet blackout, Obama was rasing money at the home of Spike Lee. As was noted at the event, Lee has been a critic of the president, but it hasn't been over SOPA.

Americans Elect is gathering signatures to get an independent candidate on the ballot in all 50 states, hoping to break the partisanship that has plagued the two major political parties. Unlike past efforts to break the monopoly on the system, Americans Elect is driven by an innovative way of selecting a nominee via the Internet. On the latest Wilshire and Washington on the Radio, we are joined by Elliot Ackerman, COO of Americans Elect, and screenwriter and director George Nolfi, who serves on their board of advisers.

Join Maegan Carberry, Kristen Soltis and myself for our latest show, which you can listen to here, or on the link below.

Nancy Pelosi is trying to drum up support for the DISCLOSE Act, which would make more transparent the flood of donors investing in SuperPACS, so to draw attention she's released a new video that takes aim (satirically) at Stephen Colbert.

"Stephen Colbert used to be my friend. I even signed the poor baby's cast when he hurt his hand," she says. "But since the day he started his super PAC, taking secret money from special interests, he's been out of control, even using his super PAC to attack my friend, Newt Gingrich. And if that weren't enough, I hear he doesn't even like kittens."

Colbert has been in the midst of his own campaign to promote his SuperPAC, as a way to highlight the confusing and contradictory nature of election law. Campaign finance advocates praise him for using humor to draw attention to otherwise wonkish issues.

As for Pelosi, she's got a good sense of deadpan, but I'm not sure about the timing.