The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
Los Angeles—Hollywood A-listers, including Academy Award winners Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, recently participated in a farewell video honoring outgoing United States President Barack Obama.
In the video “Yes We Can: Your Most Memorable Moments from the Obama Presidency”, celebrities talked about Obama’s accomplishments during his eight years in the White House, People magazine reported.
The video was shared just one day before Obama, 55, and his wife Michelle hosted a party for their friends and major donors at the White House.
Those who attended included actor George Clooney and his lawyer-wife Amal; Oscar winner Robert de Niro; and singers Nick Jonas, Jordin Sparks, Kelly Rowland, and John Legend and his wife Chrissy Teigen.
“When I was at the United States and I heard our president say that climate change is the most important issue facing not only this generation, but also future generations, it was inspiring,” DiCaprio said in the video.
“When he just changed all the rules on the table [with regard] to Cuba with the most succinct motivation imaginable, which is ‘What we’ve been doing hasn’t worked,’ [it] made all the sense in the world,” Hanks said.
For many celebrities, simply seeing Obama’s election in 2008 was their favorite moment.
“I never cried before from an election result,” Legend said in the video.
Actress Kerry Washington said: “You really felt those first three words of the Constitution: ‘We the People.’ It was one of the first times in my life that I felt like I was really part of that ‘We.’”
For her part, Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes reflected on watching the Obama family celebrate at Grant Park in 2008.
“Just the magic of that moment of that man, who we’d all been on this journey with, take that stage with his family. I was sitting at home in my living room and I felt like I was a part of that crowd in the park,” Rhimes said.
Actor Samuel L. Jackson named the passage of Obama’s signature law, the Affordable Care Act, as his most unforgettable moment “because I have relatives who can’t afford health insurance, so it was really a great thing to know that if something happened to them, they could get cared for.”
Comedian and television host Ellen DeGeneres and basketball player Kobe Bryant looked back on the funnier moments of the last eight years, saying, “The CVS experience with [Michelle Obama] was pretty cool and dancing with Barack at his birthday party. And he’s a good dancer. He should not get any flack for that you’re a good dancer.”
And for basketball superstar Michael Jordan, Obama’s legacy is what he will always remember.
“How often do we remember Jackie Robinson everybody knows him. To me, he will be the Jackie Robinson of politics,” Jordan said. PNA/PTI