LOS ANGELES — For years,President Obamahas largely been absent in Hollywood, a point of unhappiness with a community accustomed to the constant doting of Bill Clinton. But over the last few months, Mr. Obama and his representatives have held a series of meetings and telephone calls with some of the region’s most influential donors and fund-raisers, reflecting Hollywood’s new importance in the president’s re-election campaign.
The fruit of that effort became clear this week as Mr. Obama is scheduled to attend a fund-raiser on Thursday night at the Fryman Canyon home of the actorGeorge Clooney. At last count, organizers said, the event had raised well over $6 million, plus many millions more through an online raffle, record territory. They said they stopped selling $40,000-a-plate tickets last week because there was no room to squeeze in any more tables.
Mr. Obama’s announcement on Wednesday that he now supportedsame-sex marriageshould assure him a warm reception at the Clooney residence. Organizers had expected the president to face tough questions from an audience that had grown increasingly uncomfortable with his tentativeness on an issue of great importance here.
Norman Lear, the television producer, said moments after the announcement that he and his wife, Lyn, who had held back from giving money to Mr. Obama, would now contribute the maximum allowed, $80,000 between them. “This is the kind of leadership we support, and we are happy to max out today to his re-election campaign,” he said.
Mr. Obama’s growing fund-raising prowess here, in a region of California packed mansion-to-mansion with wealthy liberal donors, is crucial for the campaign, as it confronts the likelihood that it cannot match Mitt Romney, the presumed Republican nominee, in drawing “super PAC” money, or draw the big-dollar support from Wall Street that was central to Mr. Obama’s 2008 victory.