(Bloomberg) -- Hollywood loves a plot twist — especially one it played a part in.
Some of the biggest names in the US entertainment industry welcomed Joe Biden’s decision to end his reelection bid and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination for president. It was a move that many of them had been pressing Biden to make after a disastrous debate last month raised new questions about the 81-year-old’s fitness for a second term.
“All in behind Kamala Harris!” said Andy Spahn, a political adviser to entertainment titans Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg. On X, Barbra Streisand wrote that Biden “will go down in history as a man who accomplished significant achievements in his four-year term.” Jamie Lee Curtis took to Instagram to signal her support for Harris, calling her “a fierce advocate for women’s rights and people of color.”
Such optimism marked a significant change in mood among Democrats in the US movie-making capital.
Netflix Inc. Chairman Reed Hastings, super agent Ari Emanuel and late-night host Stephen Colbert, among other powerful figures in the entertainment industry, had all publicly called on Biden to end his campaign and make way for another candidate who could more easily defeat former President Donald Trump.
Those calls reached a fever pitch when movie star George Clooney, a lifelong Democrat who had helped raise $30 million for the president at an event hosted by late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, wrote in a July 10 New York Times op-ed that Biden needed to step aside.
“We can put our heads in the sand and pray for a miracle in November,” Clooney wrote, “or we can speak the truth.”
On Tuesday, Clooney hailed Biden’s decision to step aside and signaled his support for Harris. “We’re all so excited to do whatever we can” to back the vice president’s candidacy, he said in a statement.
Amid the calls for Biden to leave the race, prominent Democratic donors had said that they would withhold further contributions to the president’s reelection effort until another candidate replaced him atop the ticket.
Growing Support
Now, campaign bundlers and advisers are throwing their support behind Harris, who has secured the support of a majority of Democratic delegates to become the party’s nominee for president.
“I am thrilled at how excited people are about Kamala,” said Leslie Gilbert-Lurie, a former television executive and a Democratic party fundraiser.
Philip Recht, a Democratic bundler and former Clinton administration official, noted that Harris has her own ties to Hollywood. The vice president’s husband, Doug Emhoff, was formerly an entertainment lawyer.
Netflix’s Hastings on Tuesday congratulated Harris in a post on X, saying “now it is time to win.”
Still, after weeks of party turmoil, worries of a Trump victory still loomed large for some donors.
“I was excited that Biden dropped out, but I am not sure it’s gonna make a difference,” said Todd Morgan, chairman of Beverly Hills-based Bel Air Investment Advisors. “I think the damage has been done.”
(Updates with Clooney endorsement of Harris in eighth paragraph and Hastings support in 13th paragraph)
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