Obama’s an Early Winner in Oscars Sweep!

THE ACADEMY AWARDS: THE KODAK THEATER, HOLLYWOOD (CA)

An early winner in Oscars week will stride up the red carpet in Los Angeles on Tuesday night: U. S. Senator Barack Obama!!  The presidential candidate, who is presently attracting huge and wildly enthusiastic crowds of supporters at campaign stops all across the country, will be the guest of honor at a large fundraising party in posh Beverly Hills, where the number of “top-drawer” celebrities in attendance is predicted to match Sunday’s traditional Post-Oscar bashes.

The reception for Obama on Tuesday, which is being hosted by Steven Spielberg and his DreamWorks studio colleagues David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg, is expected to draw more than 700 of Hollywood’s most influential players, including already declared Obama supporters George Clooney, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Oprah Winfrey, Oliver Stone and super-agent Ari Emanuel.

It is not only a major financial salute from some of the most powerful people in Hollywood to the 45-year-old Senator from Illinois and his burgeoning political campaign.  It also represents yet another critical upsurge of support for Obama’s competition against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.  You can read more about this major Hollywood coup for Obama in The London Times.

In addition to the private  fundraiser in Beverly Hills Tuesday night and other large Hollywood celebrity donations to Obama, checks have been coming in from the major motion picture studio executives, including Paramount Pictures studio chief Brad Grey; Richard Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, and Ron Meyer of Universal Studios.  Obama has been on a three-day swing through California, his first since announcing his candidacy.  He also held a fundraiser in La Jolla, near San Diego.

New John F. Kennedy Pre-Assassination Film Footage Found

NEW JFK DALLAS ASSASSINATION FOOTAGE FOUND 

Previously unreleased footage of John F. Kennedy’s fateful motorcade in Dallas taken just moments before he was gunned down was released on Monday, a surprising new detail in a saga that has gripped America for four decades.  The brief silent 8mm film shows a beaming Jacqueline Kennedy up close in vivid color waving to the crowd, while a group of excited bystanders waves to the cameraman shortly before the motorcade sweeps past.  The president’s coat is clearly, although briefly, seen bunched up on his back, a detail that some say will be scrutinized by conspiracy theorists who see evidence of a plot in, among other things, the fact the bullet wounds on his jacket and body did not appear to match.

The film was released to coincide with Monday’s Presidents Day federal holiday.  It had been donated to the  The Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, which is located in the former Texas School Book Depository building where Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy from a sixth-floor window on November 22, 1963.  The museum is devoted to Kennedy’s presidency and the events surrounding his assassination.

Museum curator Gary Mack said that he was not surprised that the owners of the film had taken so long to come forward.  “Everyone who captured the motorcade before the assassination thinks their pictures are unimportant. But to historians, all photos and home movies are important to possibly answer questions that will be asked in the future,” he said.

The footage was taken less than 90 seconds before the fatal shots were fired.  The 40-second film also shows the scene of the crime the following day.  Mack said the new footage offered the best view of the motorcade that he had ever seen.

[Googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2038696815763382416&q=en]

VIDEO:  NEW PRE-ASSASSINATION FOOTAGE OF JFK