Vice President Joseph Biden will help raise money for California Sen. Barbara Boxer's 2010 re-election bid at a Saturday luncheon on Sept. 12 at Ron Burkle's Green Acres estate in Beverly Hills.

Carole King will perform, and special guests are billed as Candace and Derek Fisher, Cookie and Magic Johnson, and Holly Robinson Peete and Rodney Peete.

Tickets start at $1,000 per person for the reception, and $5,000 per person for the reception and luncheon (or $10,000 per couple).

Chairs of the event are Ron Burkle, Debra and Sim Farar, Ruth Singer and Mickey Meyers.

Barack Obama's team is finalizing the list of entertainment for its array of official inaugural events, and what I hear is that Barbra Streisand, Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder are among the top names extended invites to perform.

None of the names is a big surprise: Streisand, Springsteen and Wonder have each performed at fund-raisers and campaign events for the candidate, and Beyonce has expressed her desire to headline if asked.

This year, there are 10 official inaugural balls --- in other words, the events where the Obamas are the most likely to attend. On Monday, Obama's Presidential Inaugural Committee announced a "Neighborhood Inaugural Ball" which they call the "premier event of the inauguration evening." Held at the Washington Convention Center, the event is designed to be affordable, with a portion of the tickets set aside for D.C. residents. The event also will feature interactive links to neighborhoods across the country holding their own inauguration festivities.

Meanwhile, more names are being added to the three dozen or so unofficial inaugural balls. Among them is Obama: That One!, a pre-inaugural fete at the Newseum on Jan. 18. It's sponsored by Lifestyle Communications and HBO, and will feature the "CHANGE" Awards,  "presented to high-profile opinion-makers from the arts and entertainment, financial and political sectors that have been influential throughout the historic "CHANGE" movement."  Honorees so far: Obama's law school classmate Hill Harper, founder of Manifest Your Destiny; and Beverly Bond, founder of Black Girls Rock.

Another event: The Recording Industry Assn. of America is teaming with Feeding America for an inaugural event on Jan. 20, with Rihanna headlining. Proceeds will go to hunger relief.

Minnesota's Secretary of State says that state officials plan to declare Al Franken the winner of the Senate seat against incumbent Norm Coleman in certified election results on Monday.

But even though the most recent tally shows Franken with a 225-vote lead over Coleman --- the margin widened after additional absentee ballots were counted on Saturday --- there's still some question as to who will occupy the seat when the Senate convenes on Tuesday. Coleman is pressing the state Supreme Court to count an additional batch of ballots he says were improperly rejected. And Republicans have indicated that they plan to filibuster if attempts are made to seat Franken before the race is fully resolved.

If Franken wins, it will mark a stunning turn of events in one of the state's most expensive and contentious election battles. The day after the election, he trailed Coleman by nearly the same margin he now leads. But the results were so close that it triggered an automatic recount, one that has gone on for nearly two months.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who chaired the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee the past two election cycles, declared Franken the winner.

"There is no longer any doubt who will be the next senator from Minnesota," Schumer said, per CNN. "Even if all the ballots Coleman claims were double counted or erroneously added were resolved in his favor, he still wouldn't have enough votes to win."

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson withdrew his name from consideration as Secretary of Commerce as a federal grand jury investigates whether his administration gave "pay for play" contracts to a California financier.

Richardson said that he feared the investigation would create an "untenable delay" in the confirmation process.

As I stated earlier, Richardson would have been a friend to the entertainment business, with his state having one of the most lucrative packages of incentive programs for filmmakers. He practically made that a centerpiece of his efforts to lure industry donors. He was overshadowed by Obama, Clinton and Edwards, and with an regular guy persona, as well as a certain penchant for flubs and missteps, he didn't have the polish of other candidates.

What is surprising is how Richardson made it through the vetting process. As the New York Times reports, news of the investigation has been out there since August.  So either the Obama team was not aware of it, or didn't believe that the investigation posed a serious enough distraction to matter. During this transition period of vetting, most of the focus has been on contributions made to Bill Clinton's library and foundation, as Obama tapped Hillary Clinton as his choice for secretary of state. The Times recently reported on a developer who gave to the former president at the same time Sen. Clinton helped secure financial assistance for one of the developer's projects.

His withdrawal does spare Obama any lingering drama of having Richardson in a Cabinet post alongside Hillary Clinton. As one fund-raiser just noted to me, there are three very happy people today: Clinton, her husband and James Carville.

Edited and updated

The optimism that reigned on New Year's Eve will soon give way to the sober reality of the next 12 months, one likely defined by efforts to alleviate the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Politically, it's not hard to guess where Hollywood's efforts will lie, what with a stimulus package being floated and Barack Obama promising to restore millions of new jobs. New attempts surely will be made to promote entertainment as a promising source of manufacturing jobs, a healthy business compared to Detroit and other sectors. Before he withdrew his name as Commerce Secretary, a likely ally would have been Bill Richardson, who pushed incentives for filmmakers as governor of New Mexico. Of particular interest will be incoming House Energy & Commerce Committee chairman Henry Waxman, whose district encompasses many of the entertainment community's elite, and whether he offers a friendly approach to the industry's challenges.

Most predictions, however, are frought with peril. They are either too obvious or too absurd: Antonio Villaraigosa wins another term as Los Angeles mayor, or Fran Drescher is appointed to Hillary Clinton's New York Senate seat.

I've come up with a list of somewhere in between mere statements and soothsaying: ten moments most likely to get your attention in the world of politics and entertainment during the coming year, in chronological order.

Early January: Al Franken. If he wins the Senate seat in Minnesota, after a protracted recount, he will be under tremendous scrutiny in how positions himself as a freshman. He’ll already have the press attention, a chorus of critics and plenty of Hollywood cheerleaders, so the question is whether he plays it low key in a body of vaunted tradition and deference, or whether he returns to the acerbic wit that he largely muted during the campaign. Given the contentious nature of the recount, chances are he will play it safe, but over time he could try to establish a unique liberal voice, an heir to Paul Wellstone, and one that will certainly get other Democratic show business figures wondering whether to pursue their own political aspirations. If he loses to Norm Coleman, expect a “Saturday Night Live” hosting gig in the not-too-distant future.

January 20: Barack Obama's inauguration. It goes without saying that this will be one of the year's biggest events, kicking off not just a new presidency but an entirely new set of figures who will define the D.C. - Hollywood fusion over the next four years. As such, much attention will be on who, if anyone, gets face time with the First Family, the cabinet and the White House staff. It's doubtful that Obama will have any entertainment liaison per se, so industry figures will search for any and all connections to the White House, from those who know Rahm Emanuel to incoming social secretary Desiree Rogers. Obama is widely expected to keep the entertainment business at arm's length, but he also has indicated he would like to pay a new level of focus on the arts. A lot of consideration will be given to who lands the first invite to entertain at the first state dinner.

January 21: "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report." They don't have George Bush to kick around anymore. Political humor's new paradigm gets its first real test, as both shows respond to the first 24 hours of the Obama presidency, one that sets up a very different dynamic since it was little secret during the campaign who many comics favored. If Stewart and Colbert bomb, you can always take in an HBO showing of Will Ferrell's "You're Welcome America: A Final Night with George W. Bush."

February 13: "The International" and other pics. Even before Bernard Madoff, there has been little doubt as to who Hollywood's favorite villain will be: The Wall Street wizard. One of the first of the year will be the Clive Owen-Naomi Watts starrer "The International" posits that an entire bank is involved in nefarious shenanigans including arms trading and money laundering. What's more, Michael Moore turns his eye to the financial crisis in his next doc --- not great news for the likes of AIG.

"The International" also is part of a new wave of political thrillers, viewed as much more marketable than the pool of Iraq and war on terror pics. Others coming down the pike include "State of Play," an adaption of the BBC miniseries that stars Russell Crowe as a reporter investigating the suspicious death of a congressman's mistress, with Ben Affleck as the ambitious politico. It's set for release on April 17.

While we are at it, there's a few other projects to keep an eye on, ranging from Edward Norton's documentary about the Obama campaign, which HBO has picked up, to the cabler's followup to "Band of Brothers," "The Pacific." Clint Eastwood is expected to release his post-apartheid pic about a rugby player who befriends Nelson Mandela. Ang Lee tells the tale of the 1969 music festival to change all music festivals in "Taking Woodstock." And if you thought "The Da Vinci Code" was heretical, just wait until Ron Howard's sequel, "Angels & Demons."

February 22: The Academy Awards. Win or lose, "Slumdog Millionaire" will inspire a wave of essays on globalization of creative content, and America's efforts to restore its place as cultural ambassadors. But my eyes are on "Milk," and whether Sean Penn is awarded an acting nomination or win. Should he prevail, expect some statement on the ongoing battle over gay rights, perhaps addressing marriage and even Proposition 8, which banned same-sex nuptials in the state. Should he get shut out of a nomination..well, there's always the boycott, not a small threat when you consider the Oscar audience.

March: Prop 8. While we are at it, one of the biggest 2009 political events in California is expected during this month. It's the state Supreme Court's ruling on the legality of Proposition 8, and of the 18,000 weddings that were performed during the gay community's own Prague spring. One certainty: No decision will mean resolution. A decision to uphold the initiative and invalidate the marriages would inspire a new round of protest, including mobilization from the entertainment community in the form of celebrity-led marches and Internet video. An effort to wear white knots at high profile industry functions --- akin to the red ribbons for the AIDS crisis --- already is afoot. The entertainment industry's most creative commentary may very well be the May 15 release of Sacha Baron Cohen new film "Bruno," a feature version of his gay Austrian television character. Cohen already has been caught shooting scenes in which he is marching with unsuspecting Prop 8 supporters shortly before election day.

April 22: Earth Day. The Walt Disney Co. is among the studios releasing enviro-themed titles, the documentary "Earth," from a new nature films unit. But Hollywood's green lobbyists and activists will surely use the occasion to weigh on the Obama administration's progress or lack of progress, and will use the occasion to put added pressure on Washington to take more drastic action.

May: Fall schedules. With Obama as president, the pressure is on the networks to present a more diverse casts --- or more to the point, more leading minority characters. NBC has a buddy comedy in development called "Making Friends with Black People," a buddy comedy about the state of race relations in the United States that was greenlit after Obama's election. But with what may be a very dicey upfront ad environment, the tendency usually is for broadcasters to seek out safe bets rather than perceived risks.

June: The Supreme Court. By now, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to have issued its ruling in FCC vs. Fox Television Stations, its first opinion on the matter of broadcast indecency in 30 years. The case concerns the FCC's decision to give Fox a good slap after Cher and Nicole Richie uttered fleeting expletives at the Billboard Music Awards. Fox challenged the case, and said that because the feds' criteria was arbitrary, its First Amendment rights were violated.

It was hard to get a read on which way the justices were leaning in oral arguments that were presented, coincidentally, on Election Day. Antonin Scalia even quipped, "I mean, bawdy jokes are OK if they are really good." But there's been some speculation that the court will fall short of making a sweeping decision that could seriously limit the FCC's efforts to regulate indecency. Either way, the case will have an impact on a host of other challenges being pursued by the networks, which are reeling from a crackdown on content during the Bush years. There's pressure on an Obama-led FCC to overhaul the agency and respond to the fact that the body is still operating like its 1978.

Nov. 3: Election day. This is an off-year, but that doesn't mean politicos won't be on the money trail. On the perpetual hunt for PIN numbers to the Hollywood ATM, politicos will be looking to finance gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia. In the latter, Terry McAuliffe has formed an exploratory committee, and would surely mine his extensive entertainment sources for donations. What's more, prospects for California's gubernatorial race in '10 will be testing their financial viability, setting up a Democratic primary with notable prospects including Villaraigosa, Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsom, Steve Westly and even Diane Feinstein. On the GOP side, eBay's Meg Whitman and Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner are viewed as possible candidates, so attention will focus on whether they test their fund-raising prowess. But most of the speculation will be on the future political prospects of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who cannot run again because of term limits.

The entertainment industry poured record amounts of money into Barack Obama's campaign. Stars and execs manned get-out-the-vote phone banks, walked precincts, produced Web videos and stumped on the trail. Others capitalized on the unprecedented interest in the campaign to promote their pet causes.

Now many are wondering, What do we do next?

That's the subject of my latest column in Sunday's print edition of weekly Variety, which you can read here.

On the final day of 2008, we look back at what was the biggest story as the year began: The Iowa caucus, where Barack Obama's victory set him on a long (and bumpy) course toward the presidency. We talk with Jim Nam, Obama regional field organizer, about what lessons the president-elect can take away from Iowa for his incoming administration.

That's on the latest edition of Wilshire & Washington on the Radio, which you can listen to here.

That, and other news, in today's Roundup and Recap.

Al Franken may be on the cusp of declaring an ever-so-narrow victory in his protracted Senate battle with Norm Coleman, but he's not likely to inherit the mantle of Minnesota's legendary "Happy Warrior" Hubert Humphrey any time soon.

Franken campaigned with a kind of nostalgia for state politicians of the past, but he'll have his work cut out for him in moving on from a race that has left many state voters just plain weary. And given that he has already been a lightning rod for right-wing talk radio, Franken will have to endure a continued barrage of criticism that his victory was somehow not fair and square, akin to the assault that George W. Bush took from the left after his was declared victor in 2000.

As is the case in recounts, as much will depend on how Coleman concedes as on how Franken wins.

So Franken has been careful in choosing his words, although he indicated that his current 49-vote lead indicates victory is at hand.

Franken said in a statement yesterday, "Today, the state canvassing board completed an important step in this process. I'm glad to be ahead, and as it appears that we're on track to win, I want Minnesotans to know that I'm ready to get to work for them in Washington on Day One."

His backers are just as eager to move on from the race.

"At this stage, it appears that Franken will be certified the winner by the state Canvassing Board," Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday afternoon, per the Star Tribune.  "We're keeping abreast of the situation and will make a decision with regard to Senate action at the appropriate point in the process."

The current state of the race is a confusing set of challenges to ballots that have been rejected --- but may or may not have been right to do so. The Coleman camp is disputing some 654 absentee ballots that they say were improperly rejected, while Franken's side is trying to focus on 1,346 absentees that county officials are reviewing again.

Dean Barkley, the third party candidate who garnered 16% of the vote (and whom some considered a spoiler in the race), writes on the Star Tribune Website that a resolution should not be difficult.

"My message to Norm and Al is get over the petty bickering and agree on which of the 1300 absentee ballots should be included in the recount.  This should not be difficult.  The criteria is set so go to work and apply the criteria to these ballots.  One of you will eventually lose.  Quit playing political games and get this recount over with."

Angry at Axelrod: David Mixner takes issue with Obama advisor David Axelrod's defense of the choice of Rick Warren on "Meet the Press" on Sunday.

Axelrod said, "We have to find ways to work together on the things on which we do agree, even when we profoundly disagree on other things.”

He writes, "What hit me as Axelrod was speaking was the infuriating realization that it is the LGBT community which is always expected to make the sacrifice in order to bring people together. We seem to be the very first ones that they consider neglecting in the name of a greater good. Instead, with Obama's victory, isn't it time that he put LGBT people in a position of visibility and tell the rest of the nation to grow up and get beyond the hatred of LGBT people? How powerful it would have been to have invited Bishop Eugene Robinson to give the invocation! What a message that would have been to the this nation and to the world that indeed a new administration has arrived and that it has zero tolerance for discrimination against LGBT people."

Quotable: "Does that mean I can stop exercising? ... I'm afraid I'm still alive and kicking --- at least until George W. finally finds the right door and uses it." --- Comedy writer and satirist Larry Gelbart, responding to a Google discussion group, where a report surfaced that he was "gravely ill" after suffering a "a massive stroke."

Entertainment figures from Tom Hanks to Berry Gordy to Steven Spielberg have collectively given more than $1 million to help finance Barack Obama's inauguration.

According to the latest records made available on the Website of Obama's inaugural committee, dozens of donors have chipped in up to $50,000 each to cover the event, and many are expected to get tickets to inaugural balls and other events in return.

The money is being used to finance parties and other activities not covered by the federal government, which picks up the tab for such things as the swearing-in ceremony and security. Obama's team is capping individual contributions at $50,000, and not taking money from lobbyists or corporations.

Among the names on the list of contributors: William Morris Agency's John Ferriter, $50,000; actress Debrah Farentino, $25,000; Jamie Foxx, $50,000; Gordy, $50,000; comedian Christopher Guest, $25,000; Hanks, $50,000; producer Lisa Henson, $50,000; DreamWorks' Stacey Snider, $50,000; Spielberg, $50,000; Kate Capshaw, $50,000; writer-director Reginald Hudlin, $25,000; producer Gale Anne Hurd, $25,000; Magic Johnson, $25,000; producer Barry Josephson, $500; Jeffrey Katzenberg, $50,000; Marilyn Katzenberg, $50,000; producer Marta Kauffman, $50,000; producer Marcia Carsey, $50,000; CBS Viacom's John Keane, $50,000; DreamWorks' Katherine Kendrick, $25,000; producer James Lassiter, $50,000; Sharon Stone, $50,000; Agrama Films' Vilma Thomas, $25,000; producer Paula Weinstein, $10,000; Leslie and Robert Zemeckis, $50,000; Clarence Avant, $25,000; Halle Berry, $50,000; David Bohnett, $50,000; entertainment attorney Skip Brittenham, $50,000 and Mathe Music Group's Marcia Withers, $25,000.

A number of figures were listed as bundlers of contributions up to $300,000. They include producer Wendy Wanderman, producer-writers Bonnie and Terry Turner, John Emerson, the Tennis Channel's Ken Solomon, political consultant Andy Spahn, Marcia and Leo Carsey, Wild Brain CEO Charles Rivkin and music exec Nicole Avant.

The Los Angeles Times' Tina Daunt has created a list of ten moments to remember from 2008 when celebrity and politics merged, often in unexpected ways. Included: Paris Hilton's response to McCain's "Celeb" ad, Norman Lear's mobilization of young voters via Declare Yourself and George Clooney's play it cool support of Obama.

Not on the list, but not exactly an activist, is Tina Fey. She did, however, make it to the AFI's "moments of significance" of 2008.

Updated

That, and other news, in today's Roundup and Recap.

I'm back from a week in Minneapolis for the Christmas holiday, and there's a few items on the docket as 2008 winds to a close.

Shepard Fairey is among the panel of judges that will host an online contest calling on artists to "use positive messaging to convey the urgency and importance of encouraging a national dialouge about three themes - health care reform, the green Economy and workers' rights." The winners will see their works displayed in the lead up to the inauguration at the Manifest Hope:DC gallery, a makeshift space displaying artworks related to Barack Obama's election.

The gallery is an effort to translate the activism in the election to energy directed at specific issues --- which past history shows is no easy task.

The gallery, produced by Evolutionary Media Group, will be a larger version of a similar concept that was built in a Denver warehouse during the Democratic National Convention. Other judges include Spike Lee; Washington DC based musician, Eric Hilton of the Thievery Corporation; Anne Ellegood, curator of contemporary art at the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; SEIU 775NW Healthcare President, David Rolf, healthcare president of SEIU 775NW; Laura Dawn, creative and cultural director of MoveOn.org; and Van Jones, co-founder of Green for All.

Shades of Teddy?: In an interview with the New York Times, Caroline Kennedy told reporters, "You should write for women's magazines," as they queried her about her decision to seek Hillary Clinton's Senate seat. Politico's Michael Calderone highlights one aspect of the interview, when Kennedy is apparently annoyed at being asked why she threw her hat in the ring.

"You know, this is all for the governor," Kennedy said at one point. "And you guys are really focused on, kind of, the ins and outs and the comparisons of this process, and so, that’s really something that you should be asking him. Really. Um, you know, if you want to talk about, sort of, the economy or the issues, or me, that’s, you know — I’d be happy to do that."

You may remember the fumbling answer that her uncle, Edward Kennedy, gave to Roger Mudd in 1979 when asked why he was seeking the presidency the following year.

Lost in the Fray: Tobias Barrington Wolff, chief campaign adviser to Barack Obama on LGBT issues, writes in the Huffington Post that the Rev. Joseph Lowery has been all but lost in the flap over the president-elect's choice of Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at the swearing in ceremony. Lowery, co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King Jr., "experienced the full force of government power calculated to silence and oppress"  when he was targeted by Southern authorities who tried to silence him via libel laws in the early 1960s, Wolff writes.  Those laws eventually were struck down in the landmark Supreme Court decision in New York Times vs. Sullivan.

Warren has argued that he was in favor of Proposition 8 in part out of fear that he would be restricted in what he could say from the pulpit, a notion that critics have charged is absurd.

Wolff writes, "Every era has its civil rights struggles, and the struggle for LGBT equality is one of the great tests of our time. Rick Warren has chosen his role in that struggle, and history will judge the words that he uses in arguing that millions of Americans should not be full citizens. But the voice of Joseph Lowery is the one that matters."

For his part, Lowery is opposed to gay marriage but in favor of civil unions. On MSNBC last week, however, he condemned some of Warren's remarks.

"I think [Warrens equation of gay partnerships with incest and pedophilia is] wrong. I condemn it. I take all kinds of sharp and robust differences with that kind of denigration. But even so, I will not refuse to be on a program with him because we have these differences. That's what the president-elect proposes to do. Bring people together with different views and hopefully out of these discussions and out of association we can find common ground to serve common good."

A Bailout Plan: USA Today TV critic Robert Bianco offers a "TV bailout plan" for 2009, including a plea that the FCC abandon its efforts to crackdown on indecency.

He writes, "We need an FCC that focuses on its central role, regulating the business of TV, and only intrudes into content when we have no other recourse. What we don't need is a national scold or censor, particularly one that bends to the whim of interest groups expressing outrage for a community that clearly isn't outraged."

Also on his list: Making TV more diverse, a problem evidenced by the fact that "Saturday Night Live" has no one to play Michelle Obama. And he offers up a really good idea in reviving the PBS series "In Performance at the White House," which has been abandoned in recent years.

Bush, The Documentary: MSNBC debuts the new "Hardball" documentary this evening called "Decider," designed to "write history's first draft of the Bush presidency."  Included is rather harsh criticism coming from Steve Forbes on how Bush, Hank Paulsen and Ben Bernanke have handled the financial collapse.

Here's a reminder that in the face of strife and division, there can be unity around a single adventure.

A follow to the previous post, in which Melissa Etheridge echoes her wife's own views of Rick Warren and suggests that the pastor now believes that he made a poor choice of words.

She writes on Huffington Post, "I told my manager to reach out to Pastor Warren and say "In the spirit of unity I would like to talk to him." They gave him my phone number. On the day of the conference I received a call from Pastor Rick, and before I could say anything, he told me what a fan he was. He had most of my albums from the very first one. What? This didn't sound like a gay hater, much less a preacher. He explained in very thoughtful words that as a Christian he believed in equal rights for everyone. He believed every loving relationship should have equal protection. He struggled with proposition 8 because he didn't want to see marriage redefined as anything other than between a man and a woman. He said he regretted his choice of words in his video message to his congregation about proposition 8 when he mentioned pedophiles and those who commit incest. He said that in no way, is that how he thought about gays. He invited me to his church, I invited him to my home to meet my wife and kids. He told me of his wife's struggle with breast cancer just a year before mine.

"When we met later that night, he entered the room with open arms and an open heart. We agreed to build bridges to the future.

"Brothers and sisters the choice is ours now. We have the world's attention. We have the capability to create change, awesome change in this world, but before we change minds we must change hearts. Sure, there are plenty of hateful people who will always hold on to their bigotry like a child to a blanket. But there are also good people out there, Christian and otherwise that are beginning to listen. They don't hate us, they fear change. Maybe in our anger, as we consider marches and boycotts, perhaps we can consider stretching out our hands. Maybe instead of marching on his church, we can show up en mass and volunteer for one of the many organizations affiliated with his church that work for HIV/AIDS causes all around the world."

Chad Griffin, whose political consultancy encompasses entertainment and politics, was named one of the Advocate's People of the Year for 2008. Among other things, the magazine cited his work on defeating Proposition 8, which included rounding up star donors like Brad Pitt and Steve Bing, and coming up with ads featuring Diane Feinstein.

In the post Prop 8 environment, Griffin has been outspoken in criticizing those who donated and supported the Yes on 8 campaign, so I wanted to ask him today what he thought of Barack Obama's choice of Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his swearing in ceremony. This weekend, there are plans for a candlelight vigil in Los Angeles to protest Obama's move.

Griffin offers words of caution, and says, "I think right now it is too early to direct any protest at the president elect. The protest should be directed at Rick Warren himself."

He's requested a meeting with Warren but has yet to hear back.

Griffin singled out recent comments made by Warren to Beliefnet that compared same-sex marriage to incest and polygamy (below). "Such extreme discriminatory and homophobic remarks are powerful and dangerous," Griffin said.

But he said it would be unfair to assume that Obama shares those views. Warren's statements appear to have caught many off guard, and perhaps even to those on the Inaugural Committee. "My belief is that (Warren's) extreme views were not known by most people, and were not know by those in Washington and others," Griffin said.

Rather than call on Obama to drop Warren from the program, he thinks Warren should apologize for some of his statements, or voluntarily step aside from the swearing-in ceremony.

Update: California Attorney General Jerry Brown this evening offered an extraordinary legal brief arguing that "the amendment process cannot be used to extinguish fundamental constitutional rights without compelling justification." Ken Starr, representing backers of Proposition 8, argued that the existing 18,000 marriages should be invalidated.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other local politicians were all to ready to praise a developer's plans to demolish the Century Plaza Hotel for two new futuristic high rises.

The history of the site seems lost on them.

In fact, I'd say that the Century Plaza has been a late 20th century counterpart to the Ambassador Hotel, the 1920s era mid-Wilshire landmark that was raised just a few years ago despite a spirited protest among preservationists.

If ever there was a place where show biz merged with politics, the Century Plaza has been it.

Although built in the 1960s, of an architectural style that may seem hopelessly out of date to today's developers, the Century Plaza, has been the public place for award shows, fund-raisers, civic events, victory celebrations, protest rallies and fund-raisers (most recently Hillary Clinton and John McCain). It was where Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger held victory celebrations, Richard Nixon honored the Apollo 11 astronauts and just about every president since Lyndon Johnson stayed overnight.

A David Hume Kennerly picture here, published in Vanity Fair last year, shows Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan chatting in Ford's Century Plaza Hotel room in 1974, an image that Kennerly says "looks like a scene from 'The Godfather.'" Writer David friend wrote, "The image conveys a touch of Rat Pack swagger, an architectural elegance, and a hint of the California glamour that Reagan would eventually import to Washington."

It was just a few years ago that preservationists were mourning the demolition of the Ambassador Hotel, an historic meeting place of Hollywood and politics if there ever was one. It not only hosted just about every president stretching from FDR to Reagan, but was the site of countless movies like "The Graduate" and "The Best Man," and of course of Robert Kennedy's assassination.

This history is not lost on the many people who have attended the momentous events at the Ambassador or the Century Plaza, the most recent occasion being the Obama campaign's raucous California victory party on Nov. 4. But in the minds of some city leaders and developers, it's as if the proliferation of shindigs and public gatherings through the years at the Century Plaza makes it routine and stale, not historical. And if history is any guide, the Century Plaza's days are numbered.

Updated

The choice of celebrity evangelist Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at Barack Obama's inauguration is rather swift among gay activists: Drop him from the program.

The Human Rights Campaign's Joe Solmonese writes to Obama, "Let me get right to the point.  Your invitation to Reverend Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at your inauguration is a genuine blow to LGBT Americans.   Our loss in California over the passage of Proposition 8 which stripped loving, committed same-sex couples of their given legal right to marry is the greatest loss our community has faced in 40 years.  And by inviting Rick Warren to your inauguration, you have tarnished the view that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans have a place at your table.

"Rick Warren has not sat on the sidelines in the fight for basic equality and fairness.  In fact, Rev. Warren spoke out vocally in support of Prop 8 in California saying, “there is no need to change the universal, historical definition of marriage to appease 2 percent of our population ... This is not a political issue -- it is a moral issue that God has spoken clearly about."  Furthermore, he continues to misrepresent marriage equality as silencing his religious views. This was a lie during the battle over Proposition 8, and it's a lie today."

Official comment: Linda Douglass, spokeswoman for Obama's inaugural committee, said, "Our goal is to present the most open and most accessible inauguration in history, and that means all people and all points of view.”

She said that Obama has long said it was "important to seek common ground on areas where you disagree."

She added that while Obama and Warren have found common ground on issues like poverty and HIV and AIDS, the president-elect disagrees with Warren on a number of issues “that affect the LGBT community.”

She also pointed out that the Rev. Joseph Lowery, co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King Jr., will deliver a benediction and has a long history of supporting civil rights for gays and lesbians.

While Warren follows in the footsteps of Billy Graham, and certainly carries a smile and demeanor in contrast to the fire and brimstone of many televangelists, his positions on many social issues fall in line with the pastor class of old. I doubt that there would be much opposition if the pastor who delivered the invocation were a Catholic priest, also supportive of Prop 8 but much less visible about it.

What has irked many gay activists is not just that Warren so publicly opposed Proposition 8, but in the way he has characterized his views, including the argument that he was voting to uphold his right to free speech and that the redefinition of marriage is akin to allowing incest and child abuse. He also cites the fact that Al Rantel, the openly gay radio talk host, also supported Prop 8, as if Rantel was representative of the gay community.

For the record, Warren does not call his opposition to same-sex marriage homophobia. In his interview with Beliefnet, Warren says, "Most people know I have many gay friends. I’ve eaten dinner in gay homes. No church has probably done more for people with AIDS than Saddleback Church. Kay and I have given millions of dollars out of Purpose Driven Life helping people who got AIDS through gay relationships. So they can’t accuse me of homophobia. I just don’t believe in the redefinition of marriage."

People for the American Way called the choice of Warren "a grave disappointment," and noted that Warren himself has said that "the real difference between James Dobson and himself is one of tone rather than substance." Andrew Sullivan writes, "Shrewd politics, but if anyone is under any illusion that Obama is interested in advancing gay equality, they should probably sober up now. He won't be as bad as the Clintons (who, among leading Democrats, could?), but pandering to Christianists at his inauguration is a depressing omen. More evidence that a civil rights movement needs to realize that no politician can deliver for us what we have to deliver on our own."

Rick Jacobs of the Courage Campaign called the choice "a huge mistake."

“Can you imagine if he had a man of God doing the invocation who had deliberately said that Jews are not going to be saved and therefore should be excluded from what’s going on in America? People would be up in arms,” Jacobs told Politico.

The controversy is similar to one last year, when Obama selected singer Donnie McClurkin to go on a tour of ministers throughout South Carolina in support of his campaign there. McClurkin had come under fire for making what some groups called anti-gay comments.

The full letter from Solmonese is below:

Time unveiled its pick this morning, certainly one of the least surprising choices in years.

The cover is an original portrait from Shepard Fairey, whose image of Obama became iconic (and imitated) on posters throughout the campaign.

Zhang Yimou was one of the runners up, as the creative genius behind the Olympic opening ceremonies in Beijing. His entry was written by Steven Spielberg, who was to be an artistic adviser to the Games before he withdrew to protest China's lack of action in solving the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

He writes of Zhang, "In one evening of visual and emotional splendor, he educated, enlightened and entertained us all. In doing so, Zhang secured himself a place in world history."

Updated

That, and other news, in today's Roundup and Recap.

Jane Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Dave Brubeck, Quincy Jones, Jack LaLanne and Robert Graham were among the  famous figures inducted into the California Hall of Fame in Sacramento on Monday. The ceremony at the California Museum in Sacramento honors those who helped shape the state. California First Lady Maria Shriver started the Hall of Fame in 2006. Question I'd like to ask: Given the current governor's path to power, did LaLanne ever hold any political ambitions?

Al Franken today could get a clearer picture of his chances for overtaking Norm Coleman's 192 vote lead in their race for a Senate seat in Minnesota.

Jay Carney of Time is leaving the magazine to work as Joe Biden's communications director.

Time, meanwhile, announces its Person of the Year on Wednesday. The big shock will be if it is not Obama, so there will be some attention this year to the runners up.   

Rufus Wainwright isn't that gung ho about marriage, but he was still opposed to Prop 8. His line of reasoning, however, is a bit unique.

He tells the New York Press, "Oddly enough, I’m actually not a huge gay marriage supporter. I personally don’t want to get married but I think that any law or amendment to the constitution that deals with sex and love should just be banned in general. I don’t think any government should encroach on what goes on in the bedroom at all. Frankly, if you want to marry a dog, why don’t you go ahead and marry a dog, I don’t care. I’m a complete libertarian and so I really disagree with it."

On the Advocate.com, James Kirchick sees major contradictions in the praise Sean Penn is getting for playing Harvey Milk and the actor's recent interviews in the Nation with Cuban leader Raul Castro and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

In the piece, "A Friend to Gays and Antigay Dictators Alike," Kirchick, an assistant editor at the new Republic, writes of Penn's dinner with Castro, "It’s only in the closing moments of his otherwise adulatory, seven-hour interview that Penn bothers to ask about human rights abuses on the island, and just the “allegations” of abuses at that. The lack of interest in individual liberty, hardly surprising for a far-left fellow traveler like Penn, is nonetheless ironic given the Cuban regime’s treatment of gay people, a subject that one suspects Penn might have some interest in given his critically acclaimed performance in Milk. Not long after the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro ordered the internment of gay people in prison labor camps, where they were murdered or worked to death for their “counterrevolutionary tendencies.”

"Over the gate of one of these camps were the words “Work Will Make Men Out of You,” an eerie homage to the welcome sign at Auschwitz instructing Jews on their way to the gas chambers that “Work Will Make You Free.” (The plight of gays in the Cuban revolution is movingly told in the novel "Before Night Falls" by Reinaldo Arenas, made into a film starring Javier Bardem. Playing a gay character in a film that has both an antitotalitarian and pro-gay message, Bardem is an “ally” less morally compromised than Penn.) In the early years of the regime, Raul Castro was notorious for ordering the summary execution of its opponents, including people whose only crime was their homosexuality. This is the man with whom Penn was “in stitches” knocking back glasses of red wine."

As Kirchick points out, you only need to watch the movie "Before Night Falls," starring Javier Bardem, to see the treatment of gays in the early years of the Castro regime.

He's just as critical of Penn's meeting with Chavez, who is accused of an array of human rights abuses by the state department.

I doubt that this throws a wrench into Penn's Oscar hopes, but Kirchick is the first to connect the actor's performance with foreign policy. Penn can argue that he merely went to both countries and met with their leaders as a journalist, albeit he held back of just didn't get to some questions.

Penn writes in his piece, "The hour was getting late, but I didn't want to leave without asking Castro about allegations of human rights violations and alleged narco-trafficking facilitated by the Cuban government. A 2007 report by Human Rights Watch states that Cuba "remains the one country in Latin America that represses nearly all forms of political dissent." Furthermore, there are about 200 political prisoners in Cuba today, approximately 4 percent of whom are convicted of crimes of nonviolent dissent. As I await Castro's comments, I can't help but think of the nearby US prison at Guantánamo and the horrendous US offenses against human rights there.

""No country is 100 percent free of human rights abuses," Castro tells me. But, he insists, "reports in the US media are highly exaggerated and hypocritical." Indeed, even high-profile Cuban dissidents, such as Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo, acknowledge the manipulations, accusing the US Interests Section of gaining dissident testimony through cash payoffs. Ironically, in 1992 and '94, Human Rights Watch also described lawlessness and intimidation by anti-Castro groups in Miami as what author/journalist Reese Erlich termed "violations normally associated with Latin American dictatorships."

"Having said that, I'm a proud American and infinitely aware that if I were a Cuban citizen and were to write an article such as this about the Cuban leadership, I could be jailed. Furthermore, I'm proud that the system set up by our founding fathers, while not exactly intact today, was never dependent on just one great leader per epoch. These things remain in question for the romantic heroes of Cuba and Venezuela. I consider mentioning this, and perhaps should have, but I've got something else on my mind."

David Mamet writes in the Huffington Post on Gov. Rod Blagojevich:

"I am from Chicago, and, so, having been disillusioned with politics at an early age I do not become involved. The only reason I vote is because they pay me."

Rachel Maddow stages a re-enactment of Illinois Gov. Blagojevich's greatest hits.

The Creative Coalition has just added Sting to its list of musicians performing at its inaugural ball.

He'll perform with rock and roll legend Sam Moore, and joins an event headlined by Elvis Costello.

Among those expected at the event are Anne Hathaway, Ron Howard, Spike Lee and Ashley Judd.

That, and other news, in today's Political Panorama.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's wiretapped conversations were so profane that it struck more than one commentator as worthy of a David Mamet play.

Timothy Egan writes in the New York Times, "Putting aside the peculiar dialect of desperation that made the governor sound like a John Malkovich character in a David Mamet play, the complaint showed a man trolling the depths of darkness."

Marc Ambinder: "Wiretap porn -- un-bleeping believable, isn't it? It's like Fitzgerald hired David bleeping Mamet to write the indictment. To be sure, what captivated the press yesterday was not the allegation that Blagojevich held up hospital funding in exchange for a campaign contribution. That was merely (allegedly) evil. No, what was repeated ad nauseam was the non-criminal stuff. What he called Barack Obama. His banal musings about the value of the appointment -- cynical, not criminal; his Yosemite-Sam braggadacio -- eyerolling to some, sad to others, not criminal. The feds included all this to hurt Blagojevich and to build their case in public."

When I saw "November," Mamet's irreverent take on a corrupt commander in chief, played by Nathan Lane, my first reaction was that it was a bit too over the top. Maybe I was wrong.

Another Investigation: The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that the feds are investigating Sen. Norm Coleman's ties to businessman Nasser Kazeminy. They are looking into allegations that Kazeminy tried to steer money to personally benefit Coleman.

KCRW Rebuke: Ruth Seymour, general manager of KCRW, plans to issue a statement distancing itself from "The Business" host Claude Brodesser-Akner's remarks comparing LA Film Festival director Rich Raddon's to the Hollywood blacklist. Raddon resigned after it was publicly revealed that he had contributed to the Yes on 8 campaign, provoking an outcry from filmmakers and same-sex marriage activists. Seymour called Brodesser-Akner's remarks an "out of the blue opinion" and says she has "made it clear to those involved that it is unacceptable." (LA Observed).

But the Los Angeles Times editorializes on whether the Prop 8 boycotts amount to a blacklist.

"As much as we abhorred Proposition 8, there's nothing to cheer about when private individuals are afraid to donate to the political campaigns of their choice because it may cost them their livelihood. In the case of Scott Eckern, who resigned from the California Musical Theatre in Sacramento, the future of the nonprofit company was at stake after some artists refused to work with him. But what if that situation were reversed and Eckern were targeted because he opposed Proposition 8? Or because he was gay? Professionals have to look past their personal and political differences or everyone with an opinion will be on an official list of undesirables.

"The line between boycott and blacklist can be imprecise. Owners and officers of companies aren't just private individuals; they must accept that their political actions will reflect on the organizations they head and act accordingly. But a heated debate about a basic right -- in this case, the right to marry whom one chooses -- must also consider the rights of citizens to vote and donate without intimidation."

Political Film of the Year: Jeffrey Ressner of the Politico names "Milk," and ranks others in the top ten.

He writes, "Anchored by a near-perfect performance from Sean Penn, this biopic of the first openly gay American elected official focuses heavily on the political process that Harvey Milk saw as the gateway for social change. Director Gus Van Sant recently told Interview magazine about his first reaction to the script: “The personal parts of the story were always kind of filtered through the politics, which I’d never seen done before, really.” Van Sant needn’t have worried that the characters talk only about politics — Milk’s life was politics, and the film’s depiction of the struggle against 1978’s Proposition 6, regarding gay public school teachers, bears striking similarities to the ongoing battle over 2008’s anti-same-sex-marriage initiative, Proposition 8."

"Milk" was chosen as best film of the year by the New York Film Critics.

Updated

That, and other news, in today's Political Panorama.

The arrest of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich on corruption charges includes allegations that he tried to shake down the Chicago Tribune, suggesting that members of their editorial board be fired in exchange for help with the Tribune Co.'s deal to sell the Chicago Cubs.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Blagojevich's chief of staff John Harris, who also is under indictment, told the governor that the Tribune "owner" was "sensitive to the issue."

From the Sun-Times: "Harris told Blagojevich that according to Tribune Financial Advisor, there would be "certain corporate reorganizations and budget cuts coming and, reading between the lines, he's going after that section."

"Blagojevich allegedly responded: "Oh. That's fantastic.""

Chicago TV stations are reporting that Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel may have blown the whistle.

Did he know something? Obama on "Meet the Press" on Sunday, talking about the possibility of Caroline Kennedy taking Hillary Clinton's Senate seat.

"Well, let me tell you this.  Caroline Kennedy has become one of my dearest friends and is just a, a wonderful American, a wonderful person.  But the last thing I want to do is get involved in New York politics. I've got enough trouble in terms of Illinois politics. "

Tribune Co. Statement: "The actions of the company, its executives and advisors working on the disposition of Wrigley Field have been appropriate at all times. No one working for the company or on its behalf has ever attempted to influence staffing decisions at the Chicago Tribune or any aspect of the newspaper’s editorial coverage as a result of conversations with officials in the governor’s administration.

“No one within Tribune Company has ever complained to me about the positions taken by our editorial board, or attempted to influence our coverage of the governor in any way,” said Gerould Kern, editor of the Chicago Tribune. “It should be clear to anyone reading our recent coverage of the governor and his administration that it is fair, balanced and factual.”

"The staffing decisions of the Chicago Tribune are completely unrelated to the editorial positions expressed within its pages. In fact, the current leadership of the Chicago Tribune editorial board has been in place since 2000. The most recent change to the composition of the board occurred in November 2007, when a board member voluntarily left the company for other employment and was not replaced. Tribune Company and its executives will fully cooperate with the government during its
investigation of the governor."

The Chicago Tribune addressed the wiretapped conversations.

Tribune editor Gerould Kern told reporters, "There was never an instance where I was contacted or called where any influence at all was placed against me. There were no instances of that."

Tribune Editorial Page Editor Bruce Dold said he never had a "whiff" of pressure from the company over his staff's editorials.

"This whole thing comes as a complete surprise to me today," said Dold. "Sam Zell said when he took over the company that he didn't want to interfere with editorial decisions. He has been absolutely good to that."

Tribune columnist Eric Zorn writes that the charges are not only "staggering," but are beyond reason.

"These charges say that even as his predecessor sat in prison after a corruption conviction, even as his associates and fundraisers were going down, even as it was widely reported that he was at the center of a federal corruption probe ... even then, Blagojevich was selling out his office and otherwise abusing his power."

Zorn reminds that the media had long sounded alarm bells, including a Chicago magazine piece in which associates described the governor as a "sociopath."

Oprah's Anxiety: Oprah Winfrey says in the latest issue of her magazine that she is struggling with weight gain. She tells the AP, "I had a dress on the vision board, but I'm not sure that's gonna fit. So I have to work on something else." Her show has stopped taking ticket requests for her shows from Washington during inaugural week.

Equality Appointments: Wanda Sykes, Dolores Huerta and former Assemblyman Lloyd Levine have been apppointed to the board of Equality California, the group seeking same-sex marriage in the state.

At a time when media outlets are scaling way back on investigative reporting, Ben Affleck is looking to highlight the origins of one of its best known service organizations.

He's enlisted Sheldon Turner to write a script about Don Bolles, the Arizona Republic reporter who was killed in 1976 in a car bomb explosion as he was investigating the infiltration of organized crime into state government. The intent is for Affleck to direct the project, "Arizona," reports Variety's Michael Fleming.

Bolles was a co-founder of Investigative Reporters and Editors, and members of the org gathered a consortium of journalists from around the country to investigate his death. The resulting series of stories exposed a web of corruption, completing the work that Bolles had started.

Miramax, however, is depending on material in the public domain after trying to reach a rights deal with IRE.

Updated

That, and other news, in today's Political Panorama.

Kennedy Center honoree Barbra Streisand met --- albeit briefly --- face to face with President Bush at the White House on Sunday. The potentially awkward moment --- a visible and outspoken Bush critic meeting with the president himself --- was alleviated when Bush kissed Streisand on the cheek. "Art transcends politics this weekend," Streisand said, according to the Associated Press. The ceremony preceded events at the Kennedy Center.

Variety's Peter Bart was at the White House and writes, "The guests, an eclectic mix of showbiz and Washington celebs, were acutely conscious that the mood was quickly changing in this intensely political town. 'This feels like the final days of Saigon, and the choppers are about to take the regime away,' observed one esteemed visitor.

"But the president is not ready to surrender centerstage. Politicos at the Kennedy Center joked that Bush is single-handedly trying to solve the unemployment crisis -- at least among Republicans -- by making a flurry of last-minute political appointments, some 30 in the last couple of weeks alone."

On "Meet the Press" on Sunday, President-elect Barack Obama promised to invite artists and other entertainers to the White House to inspire young people. And Bart reports a rumor that Obama is quietly setting up an advisory board on arts and culture policy. George Stevens Jr. and Margo Lion chaired an advisory committee on the arts for the Obama campaign.

Obama told Tom Brokaw he was "thinking about the diversity of our culture and, and inviting jazz musicians and classical musicians and poetry readings in the White House so that, once again, we appreciate this incredible tapestry that's America.  I--you know, that, I think, is, is going to be incredibly important, particularly because we're going through hard times.  And, historically, what has always brought us through hard times is that national character, that sense of optimism, that willingness to look forward, that, that sense that better days are ahead.  I think that our art and our culture, our science, you know, that's the essence of what makes America special, and, and we want to project that as much as possible in the White House."

"Meet" Host: As expected, David Gregory was named the new host of "Meet the Press." He tells the New York Times that the task ahead is "daunting." Betsy Fisher also has reupped as the show's executive producer.

The Winner: Time picks the Couric-Palin interviews as the No. 1 campaign video moment of 2008.

Frost on "Nixon": David Frost points out liberties taken in "Frost/Nixon."

The Ad That Never Was: ABC News obtains an unused McCain campaign ad that features Rev. Wright. Produced by Fred Davis, it was never approved by the candidate himself. 

Prop 8: Caitlin Flanagan and Benjamin Schwarz write in a New York Times Op-Ed that the Prop 8 vote appears to have pitted black churches against the gay community, with Hollywood in the middle.

Hollywood, of course, is a city full of statesmen and moral authorities, and many of them ran to their pulpits and Web sites to get on the right side of this issue, but there was no way to hold both truths together in a position that was both acceptably liberal and coherent. “At some point in our lifetime,” said George Clooney, “gay marriage won’t be an issue, and everyone who stood against this civil right will look as outdated as George Wallace standing on the school steps keeping James Hood from entering the University of Alabama because he was black.”

To the opponents of Proposition 8, this kind of analogy is a rallying cry; but as white Hollywood has recently discovered, to the blacks who voted for the measure, it’s galling. Comparing the infringement on civil rights that gays are experiencing to that suffered by black Americans is to begin a game of “top my oppression” that you’re not going to win. The struggle for equality — beginning with freedom from human bondage (see: references to the book of Exodus at the Gospel Brunch) — has been so central to African-American identity that many blacks find homosexual claims of a commensurate level of injustice frivolous, and even offensive."

What is a bit confusing is that Flanagan and Schwarz seem to be referring more to Hollywood, the place, and even then as a catchall for Los Angeles' liberal elite encalves including the Westside and Hancock Park. Hollywood, the industry, actually was far less involved in Prop 8 than Silicon Valley.

The Nanny for Senate?: Fran Drescher has her eyes on Hillary Clinton's Senate seat.

El Coyote Manager Resigns: Chris Lisotta of Frontiers reports that a manager of El Coyote restaurant in Los Angeles has resigned after giving money in support of Prop 8. The restaurant had come under fire after the passage of the proposition, and demonstrators even staged a protest outside the eatery. The director of a Sacramento theater and the leader of the Los Angeles Film Festival also have resigned after their contributions to Prop 8 raised the threat of boycott of their orgs.

In Case You Missed It: Chris Matthews expected to forgo Senate bid and re-sign with MSNBC.

In Case You Missed It II: Jack Black and the stars of the Prop 8 video appear on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann."

Hollywood will descend on Washington DC for the inauguration of Barack Obama, but the collapsing economy will put extra pressure on preventing a lavish display of excess.

That's my latest column in Sunday's print edition of weekly Variety, which you can read here.

That, and other news, in today's Political Panorama.

The recount of the U.S. Senate race in Minnesota is completed, Norm Coleman leads Al Franken by 192 votes, but the disputed election could go on for weeks. Still remaining is a resolution of thousands of  ballots being challenged by each campaign, as well as the whereabouts of some 133 missing ballots from Minneapolis.

The Franken campaign claims that it has a four-vote lead when the thousands of challenged ballots are counted, while the Coleman campaign contends that it will be ahead when those ballots are resolved. Such positioning is ever important politically at this point, especially if Franken has to make a case to the Senate to keep his efforts to win the seat going.

Flashback '77: A few items upon today's release of "Frost/Nixon": Ron Howard says he voted for Nixon in 1972 and had a draft number of just 41 ... You can't ask for better promotion: Nixon Library and Museum releases the latest Nixon tapes here and here...Howard does his imitation of Nixon for Jon Stewart ... and David Frost pitches the release of the actual Frost-Nixon interviews.

Variety's theater critic David Rooney weighs in:

"So what if by composer Marc Shaiman’s own admission it’s six weeks too late -- the song is funny, the performers have a blast mugging up a storm and the argument of shoring up the ailing economy by accessing the pink dollar is not without merit. Plus, there are other dividends. Outside of a bizarrely cast “Hair” revival, where else could you see an operatically earnest John C. Reilly crooning about sodomy? Or Allison Janney doing a backdoor bump? Or Jack Black trading his crazed rocker persona to play Jesus as a vaudevillian song-and-dance man, imparting the lesson that same-sex coupling is not so far from shellfish on the Biblical damnation scale?"

Access Hollywood reports that Oprah Winfrey will do her show from the Opera House at the Kennedy Center.

“I’m going to break that right here; that’s where I’m going to be,” Oprah told the show. “See you there . . . that’s the place to be.”

Other inaugural news: More plans were announced today for the American Music Inaugural Ball, with Dionne Warwick hosting a Legends Ball and Ludacris headlining the Urban Ball at the Marriott Wardman Park. The two events, with tickets starting at $350 per person, are being billed as more affordable compared to other galas.

Tom Hanks wants to go. He tells the AP, "Look, I'll be in the back," the 52-year-old Oscar winner said backstage Tuesday night at a benefit for the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. "I'll sit on the Lincoln steps and just watch it from the distance on a Jumbotron. I've never been to anything like that, and — finally — a guy I voted for won. That hasn't happened most of my life."

On this week's "Wilshire & Washington On the Radio," Ron Howard talks about the present-day parallels in "Frost/Nixon" at a Variety screening (and even shares his Nixon impersonation). Plus: Is the media changing its tone in covering the Obama transition?

You can listen to the latest show here.

That, and other news, in today's Political Panorama.

There is one remaining Senate race outstanding, but it's anyone's guess as to when it can be resolved. In fact, Al Franken and Norm Coleman can't even agree on recount totals in their protracted race for a seat in Minnesota. According to Politico, Franken's camp now claims it is winning by 22 votes, although the StarTribune's official state tally has a Coleman lead of 295 votes.

Rick Klein reports on ABC News' The Note that Saxby Chambliss' win in Georgia could sap Democratic enthusiasm for a protracted recount fight in Minnesota, given that his victory sapped any hopes of the party gaining a 60-vote supermajority.

The Prop 8 Musical: A note about the Funny or Die! Prop 8 musical we posted earlier. It was written by composer Marc Shaiman, who was among the leading critics of Scott Eckern, the director of California Musical Theatre in Sacramento who gave money to the Yes on 8 campaign. Eckern later resigned. So it is no coincidence that the video is based in Sacramento. The director was Adam Shankman, a donor to the No on 8 campaign.

Inaugural Plans: More notes about Jan. 20, from the AP: Maya Angelou is writing a poem about Barack Obama's election...Dionne Warwick will reportedly host the American Music Inaugural Ball.... Lou Gossett Jr. will host the Purple Ball, where Ashley Judd and Patricia Arquette are among the expected guests....Human Rights Campaign Foundation will also throw a party with Cyndi Lauper, Melissa Etheridge and others.

RN Redux: Roger Simon writes in the Politico that Richard Nixon is "hot again." There's "Frost/Nixon," which opens on Friday, but also yesterday's release of even more Nixon tapes, more than 34 years after he resigned from office. He quotes James Reston Jr., an advisor on the film who worked with David Frost on the interviews. Reston says, “The younger generation feels Richard Nixon was railroaded out of office and what he did was trivial compared to what George W. Bush did.” Simon also writes, "The movie ends with Nixon a little sad and very alone, looking out at the Pacific Ocean from his estate in San Clemente. But Ron Howard had shot an alternate ending in which Nixon does a funny little piece of business with a pair of loafers given to him by Frost. When Howard tested that ending with audiences, they loved it. But people wrote on their comment cards that they loved it because it showed how Nixon had “changed” and how he had become a more sympathetic figure. So Howard scrapped that ending. Sad and alone is the image of Nixon that he wanted."

CNN is projecting that Sen. Saxby Chambliss will win reelection in Georgia in a runoff election against Democratic challenger Jim Martin.

His victory dashes Democratic hopes of a filibuster-proof 60 vote majority in the Senate.

Only one race remains outstanding, that of Norm Coleman's bid for reelection in Minnesota against Al Franken. A recount is expected to drag on for much of the month, although Coleman has a slight lead.

Donny Osmond is one of the most famous Mormon celebrities, so it is a bit surprising that it has taken him this long to be asked for his opinion of same-sex marriage.

On his Website, Donny.com, he answered a question about his views on the simmering issue, which has put Proposition 8 supporters in a perilous position in the entertainment business.

Osmond writes that his views are "beautifully stated in The Family - A Proclamation To The World, a document published by the leaders of our church back in 1995," and he reprints the statement.

He also writes, "There are many gay individuals that are members of our church. I know many of them. In fact, some of my best friends are gay. You ask how I react regarding their marriages. Well, I do support our Church leaders who say that we can accept those with gay tendencies in our church as long as they do not act upon their temptations. Everyone has tenancies to succumb to temptation, but we all have the same standard given to us by our Father in Heaven. Whether we may be tempted to be immoral with members of our own sex or of the opposite sex, we are expected to live chaste lives. This is very well explained not only in the Book of Mormon, but in the Bible as well.

"You see, the whole beauty of God's plan is that we all have our free agency to live our lives the way we want to live them. Personally, I believe in the words stated above and that they came from a living prophet, so I abide by them.

"We all determine for ourselves what is right and what is not right for our own lives and how we live God's commandments. I am not a judge and I will never judge anyone for the decisions they make unless they are causing harm to another individual. I love my friends, including my gay friends. We are all God's children. It is their choice, not mine on how they conduct their lives and choose to live the commandments according to the dictates of their own conscience."

Same-sex marriage supporters have been outraged at the financial and grassroots support of Proposition 8 by Mormon church leaders and members.

(Via the Daily Dish)

Updated

That, and other news, in today's Political Panorama.

Hollywood's award season kicked off in earnest this morning with the announcement of the nominations for the Independent Spirit Awards. The biggest surprise? "Milk" was not among the nominees for best picture. The movie did collect four nominations, including Sean Penn for actor, James Franco for supporting actor and cinematography and screenplay.

The Independent Spirit Awards are administered by Film Independent, the same group that also oversees the Los Angeles Film Festival. Its director, Richard Raddon, resigned last week in the face of criticism and threats of boycott from filmmakers and same-sex marriage advocates over his donation to Proposition 8, which bans gay marriage in California.

It's a big stretch to say there is a link, but it is a bit ironic. "Milk" producers Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks were involved in the No on 8 campaigns, and its screenwriter Dustin Lance Black helped create No on 8 Web ads and participated in post-election protests.

Oprah's Anti-Obama Donor: Fox News's Roger Friedman keys in on Harold Simmons, a big donor and supporter of John McCain's during the election who also happens to be a big donor to her Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Friedman writes, "This past August it was revealed that Simmons was the single donor to a 527 committee called American Issues Project. Its only issue: to run ads linking Obama to William Ayers, the political activist who was once part of the Weather Underground. Simmons paid $2.9 million to try and make Ayers the Obama campaign’s “Swift Boat,” an issue that might have sidelined permanently the Illinois senator’s chances and advance John McCain — Simmons’s candidate — to the White House."

Simmons is friends with Winfrey, and the two are neighbors in Montecito, Calif.

Prop 8 Postmortem: Karen Ocamb of IN Magazine investigates what went wrong with the No on 8 campaign. Steve Smith, campaign consultant for the campaign, tells her it came down to who could define the issue first via ads.

Ocamb writes, "For all the finger-pointing following the devastating loss, Smith says it all came down to that final ad featuring the front-page San Francisco Chronicle story of kindergarten children attending their lesbian teacher’s wedding.

“I think we lost because fundamentally we didn’t get enough votes from women,” says Smith. “We lost women by about a point, instead of winning them by nine points. That’s where we lost the election.”

“You could see in the polling numbers people were starting to doubt the other side’s claim. And then the wedding on the steps happened. And it was like confirmation—it is true. … That, more than anything else, is why we lost women. Was everything perfect [with the campaign]? No. There were lots of little mistakes … But who defines the issues in these campaigns wins. We didn’t quite have enough resources to really define it, so when they hit us on kids … The debate stayed, ‘Was it about schools or not?’ And once the debate stayed there, we were cooked. You can’t win a marriage campaign debating kids in school because people will vote for their kids every time,” says Smith. “Without the wedding on the steps at City Hall, I think we would have won the campaign.”

In Case you Missed It: Longtime gay activist Torie Osborn connects "Milk" to the problems of the way that the No on 8 campaign was run. She writes, "1978 was a different era, a time of widespread social activism on the progressive side; organizing and coalition-building was the norm, and the latest human rights movement - the gay and lesbian movement -- learned how. Critical to Harvey Milk's election was promoting the Coors boycott in the gay community and thus building trust with labor. We came from a 25-point deficit to beat Briggs because we did exactly in 1978 what Barack Obama did this year to win the presidency: Build BOTH a professionally run, disciplined, topnotch top-down campaign AND an inclusive huge grassroots movement that engaged every single person possible in activist support."

She adds, "But even that mass grassroots movement would not have defeated the right wing's vicious campaign without our professional political consultant, David Mixner, who got Ronald Reagan to do a 30-second radio ad that ran the last two weeks of the campaign. Mixner also had briefly run Tom Bradley's Mayoral campaign and worked with African American political leaders to deliver the Black vote in LA. Unfortunately, No on 8 did little coalition-building with the all-important black, Latino, and labor communities."

"But most importantly, this year's No on 8 equivalent of that Reagan ad designed to reach the "moveable middle" should have been Barack Obama. Obama opposed Prop 8 immediately, but the campaign failed to use his endorsement until the last days of the campaign when it was too late. When Obama's CA campaign director asked me in early October why Barack's face wasn't plastered all over mailers and TV and radio - which might have made a big difference in Black and Brown communities that overwhelmingly voted for him -- I was told by a friend in No on 8's inner circle that Barack's position was "too confusing" (he says he opposes gay marriage)."

The LA Weekly's Patrick Range McDonald writes that Osborn "did something few people in her A-list position have been willing to do: Publicly criticize the "No on 8" campaign."   

The temptation in watching "Frost/Nixon," Ron Howard's compelling adaptation of Peter Morgan's stage play, is to compare now to then, one president with historically low approval ratings to another, and Bush to Nixon.

It's already stirred debate during screenings, as when Howard told a D.C. audience on Monday that there was a link of Nixon's abuse of power to that of the current president's. According to the Washington Times, he was followed by the man who interviewed him, historian Robert Dallek, who said, "We've been, back in the past eight years, through this anguish about an imperial presidency." And James Reston Jr., an adviser on the film who was David Frost's researcher, said that the movie was "driven by the metaphor of George W. Bush."

As the Washington Times reports, all of this was too much for Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, who was in the audience and said there was no comparison to Nixon, a president who faced criminal charges before he was pardoned, and Bush, who will leave office with no such cloud hanging over him, albeit with similar degrees of unpopularity.

Historic differences aside, what is similar is the question of whether Bush will ever sit down for an interview similar to the eight hour marathon (broken up into several days) that Nixon did with Frost; and whether there will ever be a more candid and emotional Bush and a frank discussion of his administration's mistakes, even if there is not, as some of his detractors would like, an actual apology.

Thirty one years ago, Nixon admitted that he "let down the American people" and all but said that he was engaged in a cover up and therefore an obstruction of justice.

On Monday, ABC News began airing portions of Charles Gibson's interview with George and Laura Bush, the first such sitdown since Barack Obama was elected. It was perhaps the closest thing to an exit interview, and may very well be the closest thing that we will see to "Frost/Nixon." Bush said that his biggest regret was that the intelligence has been off in the search for weapons of mass destruction. "I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess." Asked whether he would have gone to war had he known there were no weapons of mass destruction, he said, "That is a do-over I can't do," Bush said.

The interview was more candid than we've seen Bush, but it is far different from Frost's interview with an exiled Nixon. Bush was adamant that he would leave office with his "head held high," and warned that he planned to spend his initial post-presidential phase out of the limelight.

Howard told me in a Q&A a few weeks ago that he came to the belief that it was better to release the movie after the election, and not before, as he originally wanted. Otherwise, the comparisons of Nixon to Bush may be "misunderstood."

Test "audiences," he said, "were not responding to it on the whole as a sort of a direct correlation to the Bush administration. That wasn't a primary response. ....I ultimately think it is a great drama, beautifully written, and I am sort of glad that it is not in a position to be characterized as a political movie with its trying to make a point, pre-election."

The real comparison is whether the media can actually capture anything like the confessional of the Frost-Nixon interviews in an era where politics and personality are ever more stage managed. Only rarely, like with Sarah Palin's disastrous interview with Katie Couric, are public officials caught off guard.

"Actually getting Nixon to sit for that number of hours --- I don't think could be achieved today," Howard says. "I don't think it would be allowed. and you know, Nixon needed the money. Nixon I think had this hubris to believe that he could beat television. It had beaten him, and I think he felt that it would be a great irony that he could redeem himself through the medium that had caused him some pain over the years. And I do believe he thought that he could probably control things and have his best chance with Frost. But I don't think another president would sit for hours like that."

I'd be willing to bet that he's right.

I'll have more on "Frost/Nixon" in my monthly column for the Politico, which should be posted later today.

The Washington Examiner has more from the D.C. screening of "Frost/Nixon" here. Screenwriter and playwright Peter Morgan also doubts that there will be a Frost/Nixon style interview with Bush. "I don't think we'll get it. I don't get a sense that he'll be as haunted [as Nixon] by a need to leave a legacy."

The Huffington Post reports that David Gregory will take the helm of "Meet the Press," succeeding Tom Brokaw, who has been filling in since the death of Tim Russert.

As the Website reported, a short list of contenders had emerged, including Chuck Todd, Andrea Mitchell, Gwen Ifill and Gregory. Gregory has hosted his own MSNBC show and served as White House correspondent during the Bush administration.

An NBC spokesperson told Politico, "I don't know where they are getting this. We have nothing to announce."

Things don't look so good for Al Franken's bid to prevail in the Senate race against Norm Coleman. He lost an effort today to count rejected absentee ballots.

Given that the margin actually has widened in the recount, Franken needs every vote he can get.

The new movie "Milk" may prove to be inspirational to those who are leading protests and boycotts against Proposition 8. But are activists going too far?

Plus, my take on the movie, which stars Sean Penn and opens today.

And Latino radio host and CNN contributor Fernando Espuelas talks about criticism that the No On 8 didn't enough to reach out to minority communities.

That's on the latest edition of "Wilshire & Washington: On the Radio," where I am joined by my co-hosts Maegan Carberry and Teresa Valdez Klein. You can listen to it here.

MTV plans to throw the "Be the Change Inaugural Ball" at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington.

Just hearing about it gives me flashbacks to 1993, when an MTV ball for Bill Clinton drew the likes of Natalie Merchant and Michael Stipe, with Tabitha Soren offering the commentary.

This ball, to be shown on MTV and MTV.com, will feature hundreds of young people chosen to attend based on their demonstrated volunteerism.

Other events planned at what the Wall Street Journal is calling "Washington's Woodstock": a Creative Coalition gala, with Elvis Costello apparently performing; Bytes and Books Inaugural Ball, the National Coalition for Technology In Education and Training plans to honor George Lucas and Sen. Ted Kennedy; a Human Rights Foundation gala "Equality Ball" with Melissa Etheridge, Cyndi Lauper and Rufus Wainwright; and an after-hours party co-hosted by Hill Harper and Nicole Avant.

Other highlights here.

Time's Michael Scherer has a very amusing post-election profile of Fred Davis, whose Hollywood-based ad firm a big share of the McCain campaign's 30-second spots.

The most famous one that Davis created was the "Celeb" ad --- he just wanted to do many followups.

Scherer writes, "What if the McCain campaign had run ads using footage of Barack Obama dancing with Ellen DeGeneres to show his coziness with celebrity? Or followed up on its Paris Hilton ad with others featuring Donald Trump and Jessica Simpson? All of that was on the drawing board of Fred Davis III, the advertising whiz that John McCain has used for almost all of his campaign media and one of the most talented conservative political operatives in America. Oh yes, he also had an Internet ad up his sleeve that would attack Obama's celebrity by associating him with Oprah. But in the end, he scotched that one. "We decided you don't really fight Santa Claus or Oprah," he says, "so we removed her.""

Davis was among the campaign's most colorful personalities: affable, accessible and outspoken, and unabashed in his defense of spots that sometimes were criticized as juvenile or misleading.

Although such Hollywood figures as Jason Alexander have confronted Davis on his tactics ("He basically wanted to know how I sleep at night," he tells Scherer), the admaker doesn't seem to take McCain's loss personally.

"You've got to look at it and say, my Lord, it was just Obama's time. You know, his stars aligned right," Davis says. "And I think he's an incredibly gifted candidate. Let's hope, and I do hope, and I hope I'm right, that he'll be a very gifted President. And I hope he'll rule from the middle. And I hope he'll, you know, be inclusive of Republicans. And if he does those things, he could be one of the great Presidents in history."

There's been a palpable shift in the anger over Prop 8, going from outrage at the Mormons to criticism of the No on 8 campaign itself. The assumption is that it was a campaign that should have been won, but it lacked a coherent strategy, an effective ground game, hard hitting ads and the right leadership.

As for the latter, many bloggers are pointing fingers, charging that the leaders of No on 8 were too insular in a campaign that desperately needed more outreach to minority leaders. (Some, like the Rev. Eric Lee, from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Southern California, were never tapped, according to the Courage Campaign's Rick Jacobs). Or there's the contention that they withheld internal polling information that could have helped from giving supporters a false sense of complacency. Lorri L. Jean, the CEO of the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center, has come under fire for  taking a month-long vacation during the summer. The Advocate's Ben Ehrenreich writes, "Observers say problems were evident from the start. (Campaign manager Dale Kelly) Bankhead had never run a campaign of anything approaching this magnitude. In July, when the Mormon Church was beginning to build its organizing machine -- signing up volunteers, raising money, spreading the word -- key members of the No on 8 leadership were literally absent. Kors took a 2½-week vacation. Jean went to Alaska for the month. “Any time that anybody took off did not in any way have a negative impact on the campaign,” Jean says in her defense. “I’m flattered to think I was that indispensable.”"

Jean, however, has offered a point-by-point rebuttal to criticisms, including the notion that the No on 8 campaign was unwilling to feature any gay couples in their advertising.

And at 6 p.m. tonight, she will be part of a "virtual town hall" on the campaign that is being moderated by IN Los Angeles magazine's Karen Ocamb. Also on the panel is Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California; Steve Smith, senior campaign consultant for No on 8 and the Rev. Lee, among others.

Hopefully, it will be an illuminating panel --- but one that balances constructive criticism as a solution for going forward.

From William Triplett in Washington.

President-elect Barack Obama announced “unprecedented limits” on donations for inaugural activities, including a $50,000 cap on individual contributions.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee, which is coordinating events for Jan. 20, said Tuesday that it would not accept any donations from “corporations, political action committees, current federally-registered lobbyists, non-U.S. citizens and registered foreign agents.”

Despite no legal restrictions on inaugural donations, the committee pledged to limit individual contributions to $50,000 while noting that previous inaugural committees have allowed contributions to “run as high as $250,000.”

Obama's team in Southern California has been inundated with requests for inaugural tickets, from studio executives, celebrities and other creative types. They are reportedly offering packages that include four tickets for every $50,000 contribution.

The PIC said the limits are intended to underscore campaign pledges by Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden “to change business as usual in Washington.”

Still, news reports have surface in recent days that the Obama camp needs to raise money for inaugural festivities, perhaps as much as $18 million.

David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, sent out a call for donations today, keyed to the transition, directing them to here.

Variety's Michael Jones reports that Rich Raddon resigned as director of the Los Angeles Film Festival, which had come under fire because he had contributed to the campaign to pass Proposition 8.

Backers of boycotts of Proposition 8 donors said that their actions are justified. As Chad Griffin, who worked on the No on 8 campaign, said recently, "You are either on one side or the other."

Raddon "chose to make that donation and he will have to live with the consequences," he said.

The Los Angeles Film Festival faced not just picketers at its event, but pressure from filmmakers, perhaps to withhold their titles. (For a look at some of their letters to Film Independent, which oversees the film festival, see here.)

Griffin also brought up a good point: Given that the festival works with so many gay and lesbian filmmakers, why did he make the donation in the first place? In the runup to the election, I talked to a number of Hollywood conservatives who laughed in my face when I asked whether they though anyone in the entertainment industry would give to the Yes on 8 campaign.

In fact, very few did. That may be one reason that Raddon and Cinemark CEO Alan Stock have been targeted so aggressively. There are so few other high profile donors in the business to be found.

Raddon, who is a Mormon, said in a statement, “I have always held the belief that all people, no matter race, religion, or sexual orientation are entitled to equal rights.  I prefer to keep the details around my contribution through my church a private matter.  But I am profoundly sorry for the negative attention that my actions have drawn to Film Independent and for the hurt and pain that is being experienced in the GLBT community.”

Inevitably, there will be blowback focused on whether Raddon was merely expressing his right to free speech. In the creative community, it's a right that ranks right up there in importance along with civil rights, so there could be some consternation as to what it the right approach going forward.

Meanwhile, my fellow blogger and veteran Variety columnist Army Archerd writes up the pre-election wedding of Michael Feinstein and Terrence Flannigan, with 95-year-old Tony Martin and Liza Minnelli providing the music.

Archerd writes, "I cannot help but mourn for friends in/out of the industry and all who have been affected by the passage if Prop. 8 and for its defiance of the Constitution. The daily reverberations (see the front page of today's L.A. Times)  emphasize the importance of the California Supreme Court hearings next year. But meanwhile, Prop. 8 would try to have us believe all of us are not created equal. Frightening."

There's been considerable buzz in Washington as to who would land the first "exit" interview with President Bush, as he's granted little access since the presidential election.

The winner: ABC News.

Charles Gibson will sit down with George Bush and First Lady Laura Bush at Camp David this week, and Gibson will fly with the Bushes aboard Marine One.

ABC News says that the interview "will cover a variety of topics, including: their reflections on the past eight years and the current state of the country, what life outside of Washington will hold, and their advice for the incoming first family."

The interview will air on Dec. 1 on "World News Tonight," as well as on “Good Morning America,” ABC News Radio, ABCNEWS.com and ABC News NOW.

After a Variety screening of "Frost/Nixon," Ron Howard told me in a Q&A that he initially wanted the movie to be released before the election, to capitalize on an environment of all things politics, but eventually changed his mind.

"I'm glad that it's not in a position to be characterized as a political movie trying to make a point pre-election," he said.

Howard recently made a Web video --- albeit a bit reluctantly --- in which he reprised his Richie Cunningham and Opie Taylor characters as a way of calling attention to Barack Obama's candidacy. It was one of the best endorsement videos of the campaign season.

For a brief moment in the Q&A, he took on another character. He spiked up his shoulders, rolled his jowls and did a pretty mean Nixon himself.

Last night, following a screening of Focus Features' upcoming "Milk," the story of gay civil rights leader Harvey Milk, screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, producers Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen and executive producer Michael London sat down for a Q&A at the Arclight.

Obviously, it was impossible not to talk about this movie without also delving into Prop 8, the recently passed California ban on gay marriage that has inspired protests around the country. Some of those protests have been at Cinemark Theatres, including those that plan to screen "Milk" when it starts its release on Wednesday. Alan Stock, the CEO of Cinemark, gave $9,999 to the Yes on 8 campaign, while the chain itself argues that it should not be held responsible for the political activity of one of its employees.

This has stirred some debate in the entertainment community: Where does a boycott end and free speech begin?

In the LA Weekly, Patrick Range McDonald takes some of the industry's gay professionals to task, calling them "apologists for straight, entertainment industry honchos who donated to the "Yes on 8" campaign." He sees a rift among generational lines, with younger industry gays more likely to back more forceful actions, like the pickets that went up a few weeks ago in front of El Coyote restaurant because its manager donated to the Yes on 8 campaign.

One aspect of "Milk" deals with the Milk-led effort to boycott Coors beer in the early 1970s. So I asked whether the current efforts at boycotts were justified.

Black said at the Q&A, "I think that we have to be really careful and make sure it is targeted. Boycotts have been successful. What I have had trouble seeing is some of the language. You know --- I grew up Mormon, I have a lot of problems with the Mormon church, trust me. But seeing some of the folks who are so angry and talk about taking down the church and wiping off the face of the planet, I don't think that is necessarily helpful. We could put all this energy in wiping out the Mormon church and still not have equal rights. That I get wary about. And I think we need to be really careful when we look at who the donors are and be a bit more targeted when you are talking about things like Cinemark. When you are talking about Cinemark, I actually know some people who are high up there and are gay and lesbian and who are hiorrified with what happened. So it is figuring out how to target specific organizations and groups and invidiuals in a way that is peaceful, legal and effective, like Harvey did with the Coors beer boycott."

Executive producer Michael London added, "I think that touches on the main issue, that this is an individual at Cinemark and this was not an action on behalf of the corporation. You don't want to be squelching free speech. As much as we loathe the message that that individual put out there, he is entitled to have whatever opinions he wants. And in a larger corporate sense, Cinemark has actually been a supporter of independent cinema. 'Brokeback Mountain' was a movie that played in any number of Cinemark theaters. At the same time, it is an individual in a position of power at that company, so we have not wanted to censor people who are taking issue with him, but we also haven't wanted to insist that the chain shouldn't be showing the movie."

Updated

That, and other news, in today's Political Panorama.

James Poniewozik of Time delves into the reasons for the media's hyper coverage of the Obama family.

"After Obama won, there was talk of a "Huxtable effect"--the idea that pop-cultural portrayals of African Americans from The Cosby Show to 24's David Palmer readied white America for a black President. But maybe there's an opposite factor at work here too--the 50 Cent effect. The impact of the Obamas comes partly from the unspoken contrast to a decades-old media archive of images of black people as problems or threats, from news to cop shows to hip-hop. Broken families, perp walks, AKs and Cristal."

More on "Milk": USA Today looks at the ties between the new movie and the Prop 8 debate.

Sanb Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom starts to suggest that the movie should have come out before the election, to help defeat the proposition. "But maybe it's good it's out now," he says. "'Milk' is such a hopeful movie, and people need to believe again."

Rob Epstein, director of the doc "The Times of Harvey Milk," writes on Huffington Post: "Although there are many parallels to be made between Proposition 6 (1978) and Proposition 8 (2008) there are also many differences. Unlike Proposition 8, Proposition 6 had a name, a face, and a personality as its figurehead in the person of State Senator John Briggs. Briggs came across as a seemingly opportunistic and somewhat ineffectual politician, but regardless of his baboonery, the issue that he and his supporters tapped into -- "gay teachers" -- was volatile enough to find large-scale support among the electorate. Only one month before the election it looked as if it would be a very close vote, with the majority of California voters in favor of its passage.

"On the other side, we had Harvey Milk as our figurehead, a "community organizer" who understood the value and importance of a well-coordinated grass-roots campaign. As a coordinated master plan, Harvey debated Briggs in high school gyms and on TV and radio, while an army of well-trained volunteers went about "canvassing" door-to-door, speaking with people on the streets and in the shopping centers about the potential consequences of the "anti-gay" Briggs Initiative. Eventually, enough voters were convinced that the measure was both unnecessary and a possible violation of constitutional rights. Proposition 6 went down by a resounding 59 to 42 percent. "

Obama Bias: Time's Mark Halperin said at a USC post-election panel on Friday that the media's coverage of the election was "the most disgusting failure of people in our business since the Iraq war. It was extreme bias, extreme pro-Obama coverage." As an example, he cited the New York Times profiles of Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama in the waning days of the campaign. "The story about Cindy McCain was vicious. It looked for every negative thing they could find about her and it case her in an extraordinarily negative light. It didn't talk about her work, for instance, as a mother for her children, and they cherry-picked every negative thing that's ever been written about her." The story of Michelle Obama, by contrast, was like a "front-page endorsement." The Los Angeles Times' Mark Barabak had a different take, and New York's John Heileman, who is co-authoring a book on the 2008 race with Halperin, said, "The biggest bias in the press is toward effectiveness." Politico's take on the event here.

Happy Birthday Hilary: Via Haddad Media comes this 50th birthday video for Hilary Rosen, with a message from the "other Hillary" and  a certain vice presidential contender.

Thursday marks 30 years since Harvey Milk and George Moscone were assassinated in San Francisco City Hall. One of the first images you see in the upcoming "Milk," as well as the 1984 documentary "The Times of Harvey Milk," is news footage of Diane Feinstein announcing their deaths, to the screams of those gathered to hear what had happened.

Feinstein, who was a supervisor at the time along with Milk and Dan White, the assailant, has talked little about the tragedy until only recently.

She tells Maureen Dowd, “It’s very painful for me. It took me seven years before I could sit in George Moscone’s chair. It took me a long time to talk about it. I was only recently able to talk about it.”

Dowd, too, finds the parallels between the movie and Proposition 8.

Feinstein tells her, “I think people are beginning to look at it differently, I know it’s happened for me. I started out not supporting it. The longer I’ve lived, the more I’ve seen the happiness of people, the stability that these commitments bring to a life. Many adopted children who would have ended up in foster care now have good solid homes and are brought up learning the difference between right and wrong. It’s a very positive thing."

My latest column, on the film and Prop 8, didn't have the space to include this comment from one of the producers, Bruce Cohen, who also worked on the No on 8 campaign --- but it also underscores the ties between then and now.

He says, "The similarities between what happened 30 years ago and what has happened this time around are so stunning that as this whole story is unfolding, the movie keeps changing every time we see it. And fortunately, i didn't watch it (after Prop 8 passed). I think if I had seen the movie two or three days after the election, I would have been so depressed. I wouldn't even know how it would affect me. But the first time I saw it after the election was about a week later, and by that point, the protests were already going full speed, people were already out in the streets, and there is that scene in the film near the end where Cleve Jones asks Harvey 'What do we do if we lose this thing?' And Harvey says, I am a supervisor so I can't tell you this, but fight the hell back. So to see now that part of history has repeated itself, and people are fighting back nationwide, it just makes it feel like the film is more timely now than ever."

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times looks at how the threats of boycotts against some Hollywood donors to Yes on 8 has created uncertainty among some filmmakers who want to support civil rights and others who want to back free speech --- with studios and other orgs caught in the middle.

Entertainment Weekly examines what pop culture will look like in an age of Obama --- and the conclusion is well, pretty much inconclusive.

"Six months from now, which movie will best connect with the national mood?

"Three weeks after the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States, a lot of folks in Hollywood are asking themselves that kind of question. Never mind the change Obama's about to bring to Washington; what's his presidency going to mean to entertainment? Most Commanders-in-Chief leave big footprints on the culture. JFK launched America into the New Frontier amid visions of Camelot and cheery fare like "The Dick Van Dyke Show." Reagan made it morning in America with a patriotic surge that produced Tom Cruise in "Top Gun" and the sweet excesses of "Dynasty." George W. Bush set the world stage for jittery, paranoid dramas brimming with government conspiracies (even the Dark Knight violated wiretapping laws). And now there's a new guy moving into the West Wing — elected on a platform of hope — with the potential to plant Sasquatch-size tracks all over the zeitgeist. ''The idea of change and hope has permeated the country, regardless of politics, and that includes Hollywood,'' says Kevin Feige, president of production at Marvel Studios, home to "Iron Man" and the soon-to-be-launched "Captain America." ''Discussions in all our development meetings include the zeitgeist and how it's changed in the last two weeks. Things are being adjusted.''

I don't doubt that there will be a shift in what comes out of Hollywood in the coming years. The whole idea that Marvel would make a "Captain America" with an eye for a worldwide release was considered a joke not too long ago. Warner Bros. even refrained from using the phrase "truth, justice and the American way" when it released "Superman Returns" a few years back. 

But it still seems way too early to predict a cultural shift, or even whether it would be motivated by Obama's presidency. The collapsing economy could have just as much impact --- or even the same impact. Moviegoers and TV viewers may need to watch anything that carries a message of hope as they struggle with lost jobs and depleted savings accounts.