Obama At DreamWorks Animation For Speech On Economy (LIVE)

Obama At DreamWorks Animation For Speech On Economy (LIVE)

President Obama is taking to the stage today for his speech at DreamWorks Animation, the company run by one of his biggest Hollywood bundlers Jeffrey Katzenberg. After being introduced by Mellody Hopkins, a DWA board member from Aerial Investments and a Chicago native, he thanked Katzenberg for inviting him. “His place in the entertainment business is legendary — don&# 8217;t need to puff him up too much he has a healthy sense of self”, he joked, with the president adding that “my ears were the inspiration for Shrek”. The Glendale stop, coming on the second day of a two-day LA fundraising swing for the president, is drawing a who’s who of Hollywood moguls including CBS Corp’s Les Moonves, NBCUniversal’s Ron Meyer, Jeff Shell and Robert Greenblatt, Sony’s Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton, Paramount’s Rob Moore, Fox’s Jim Gianoplulos and Peter Rice, Lionsgate’s Jon Feltheimer, Warner Bros’ Kevin Tsujihara, Disney’s Alan Horn and Anne Sweeney, LA Film Czar Tom Sherak and the MPAA’s Chris Dodd. About 400 invited guest and studio employees are in front of a stage in the middle of the DWA campus for the speech, which will focus on the economy. Here’s the White House’s live feed of Obama’s remarks (after the jump — thanks to autoplay):

Before the speech, Katzenberg led Obama on a tour of DWA’s Glendale’s headquarters, including watching a demonstration of the motion capture process — DWA is currently using mocap for How to Train Your Dragon 2. He then watched Steve Martin and Jim Parsons record lines for the upcoming film Home. Martin was among four greeters in the recording studio, and told Obama he got a cold in anticipation of his visit, according to pool reports.

Meanwhile, a group of VFX professionals gathered about a mile away at Griffith Manor Park for a march to DWA to protest lost jobs in their industry. (Check out some photos here.) The activists are upset Obama would praise employment at a studio hit by layoffs in the last year in the face of an animation and VFX community that’s struggling to survive — though they say raising the issue, not dinging Obama and Katzenberg, is their focus. The plan was to have attendees inside the event wear green T-shirts in support of the protest, but only 3 or 4 green shirts were seen as the crowd gathered to hear Obama speak.

Earlier on Tuesday, Obama made a stop at the home of Friends co-creator Marta Kaufmann and Jeffrey Skloff in Hancock Park, which was closed to press. According to pool reports, about 30 supporters attended the roundtable DNC fundraiser contributing up to $ 32,400. On Monday, the president hit a pair of high-profile homes — Magic Johnson’s and Haim Saban’s — for fundraisers.

Related: Haim Saban Praises Obama’s Middle East Policy At Fundraiser

Deadline.com