Why Was Barack Obama At CAA? Your Early Theories: UPDATE
[Ed.note—Update after the jump.] Some intial attempts at answering our earlier question about why Sen. Barack Obama might have been at CAA yesterday:
The Hollywood Really, Really, Wants A Democrat In Office Theory: "Quick answer: He is fundraising for his future political campaigns - President Obama? You are not going anywhere as a Democratic unless you kiss some serious Hollywood pseudo-intellectual ass. A-list talent, studio executives, and producers, prepare to drop your pants. A bunch of Hollywood power players gave him money during his last campaign - even though it was in Illinois."
The Harnessing CAA's Evil Hollywood Powers For Personal Gain Theory: "Regarding your post asking why Sen. Barak Obama was at CAA...he's putting out a book in October called Audacity of Hope. Can only imagine that CAA is repping/packaging it."
The "Both Of The Above" Theory: (via commenter Double Banger) "I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that Wendy Smith, former member of the Clinton White House inner circle, is a branding agent and political liaison for CAA. Or perhaps it is due to Bryan Lourd being a political bigshot in his own right, occasionally credited as an "advisor" to Rocky Delgadillo's campaign. Regardless, political candidates often come to CAA to speak to the staff. They do it for fundraising and to ask for introductions to the agency's clients (which, ultimately, is good for fundraising)."
The He Wasn't Even In Los Angeles Yesterday, So Why Are We Bothering? Theory: "The Senator was in Chicago yesterday, meeting with Chicago Aldermen in the morning and speaking at a benefit last night. Judge Joe Brown is safe. For now.
We don't know why anyone would trust some blurry Flickr photos over someone who may have mistaken a guy hanging around with agents in the lobby of the CAA building for one of America's rising political leaders, but we nevertheless thank you for your help in this possibly moot thought experiment.
UPDATE: As we feared, it looks as if the answer is the mistaken-identity-based "Hey, Some Of My Best Friends Are Black Agents" Theory, according to a reader who claims to be "pretty well informed": "I find these theories equally hilarious, troubling, and ridiculous, seeing as how it WAS A CAA AGENT: newly minted agent Billy Hawkins- a tall, handsome, Barack-ish looking man who spent a good deal of time chatting in the atrium yesterday.
So, basically, some wanna-be starfucker who works somewhere such as CAA- a place teeming with ACTUAL celebrities- is getting laughed at right now by all of their friends they ran and told yesterday that they saw US savior Obama yesterday. When CAA takes over the world he'll probably be their client too... but he wan't there yesterday."