KEY POINTS:
Hollywood has long maintained a mutual love affair with the presidency.
John F Kennedy was famously friendly with Marilyn Monroe, and his father, Joseph, financed movie studios and dallied with Gloria Swanson.
Barack Obama's historic presidential drive took a great leap forward in early 2007 when David Geffen publicly dissed Hillary Clinton around the time Geffen and his DreamWorks partners, Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, threw a US$1.3 million fundraiser for Obama.
After eight years of George W Bush, Hollywood is eager to embrace a president that it passionately backed.
But does that mark a return to the Clinton years, when the White House's Lincoln Bedroom had a revolving-door policy for such star supporter-donors as Barbra Streisand, Tom Hanks, Ted Danson, Chevy Chase, Spielberg and Geffen? Or will Obama keep the celebrity crowd at more of an arm's distance?
"I just think he is a different quality person," Katzenberg said of Obama, for whom he was one of the top fundraisers. "I think he is way less fascinated by Hollywood."
One key difference: Clinton basked in the glow of celebrities. Now celebrities bask in the glow of Obama while hoping not to diminish him.
Throughout the campaign, stars such as George Clooney were careful not to be too public in their Obama support for fear of stirring up an anti-Obama backlash.
"I think we were all quite aware that we didn't want to blow it for him by endorsing him too loudly," actress Sigourney Weaver said.
Matthew Broderick, who made a "Ferris Bueller"-themed campaign message for Obama shortly before the election, said he is reluctant to attend the inauguration out of concern for the new president's image. "I know it wouldn't look good if a lot of celebrities pushed out regular Joes to get on that lawn," said Broderick.
Will Smith, however, has no such reservations and says he plans to be there. "He's all-inclusive," the megastar said.
This dynamic marks a dramatic change from the previous eight years. During the Bush presidency, the entertainment world maintained an adversarial relationship with the man who lost the popular vote but gained the presidency over Hollywood-backed Al Gore - and who presided over an unpopular war, as well as a cultural clash that saw the Federal Communications Commission levying record fines against television networks and radio stations for perceived obscenity.
Hollywood's feelings about the Bush administration were reflected in a wave of cynicism-tinged dramas such as Syriana, Rendition and Body of Lies.
"There was a reason people felt they needed to generate that storytelling," said Greystone entertainment company president Craig Haffner, a prominent Hollywood Republican. "I'm very bullish that [Obama's election] has the potential to push down the divisive and let everybody say, 'Okay, let's get back to the business of doing what we do best'."
The Clinton era wasn't lacking in cynicism either, particularly after the Monica Lewinsky scandal, but the President maintained much closer ties with the entertainment industry than Bush.
One big difference is that Bill Clinton arrived in and presided over a period of relative peace and prosperity, whereas Obama is taking over a country bogged down in two wars and an economic crisis.
"It was okay for the Clintons to come here and be part of the party," said Lionel Chetwynd, a Republican producer and writer.
"The 90s were a big party. The Obamas have a more sober view of Hollywood and what it represents."
The big question is what impact Obama's presidency will have on our culture.
Veteran writer-producer Larry Gelbart envisions a general raising of the intellectual bar. "I think there'll be a slow reawakening of the fact that it's okay to speak in complete sentences," he said.
