Multiple reports indicate that Hollywood director Steven Spielberg is strategically working with President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign and is helping to plan the Democratic National Convention.
Puck News’s Matt Belloni was the first to report Spielberg “has been quietly but actively working with the Joe Biden campaign to help choreograph August’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago,” as his colleague Dylan Byers pointed out in a post on X.
Scoop via @MattBelloni: Steven Spielberg “has been quietly but actively working with the Joe Biden campaign to help choreograph August’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago. … participating in multiple strategy sessions on how to best tell the president’s story…”… https://t.co/3CL1Mifqof
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) April 26, 2024
His work with the campaign also includes “participating in multiple strategy sessions on how to best tell the president’s story,” Belloni wrote.
The report was confirmed by Deadline and the Hollywood Reporter Friday afternoon, with the Reporter’s Zoe G. Phillips writing Spielberg is “joining the Biden campaign” and Deadline’s Dominic Patten noting he will be “involved strategically” in both the campaign and convention.
Spielberg’s representatives did not respond to comment requests from the outlets, but one “well-placed source” told Deadline the Poltergeist director “wants to be as helpful as possible to the president.”
“He believes this is one of the most important elections in the nation’s history,” the source added to the outlet.
This is not the first time Spielberg will be helping a Democrat candidate or his first time having a hand in a convention.
“Puck also reported that Spielberg helped with the 2020 convention, held virtually at the height of COVID-19,” Phillips noted. “The director does not currently have plans to create a film portion for this summer’s events, though he did produce a film for President Obama’s campaign in 2008.”
Notably, Biden campaign co-chair Jeffrey Katzenberg was Spielberg’s former partner at Dreamworks, and the pair remain friends, per Phillips.
News of Spielberg’s involvement comes as worry has mounted on the left about the potential for widespread anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian protests at the convention. Notably, the 1968 convention in Chicago was marred by protests over the Vietnam War. Time has noted an estimated 10,000 demonstrators took to the streets, and nearly 700 were arrested.
Politico, citing organizers, recently reported the number of protesters at the August 19-22 convention could be 30,000.
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