Actors Don Cheadle, Dennis Quaid and Samuel Jackson were there. So was Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am. And, more importantly, musician Seal performed a couple of songs.

Riverside resident Jose Medina got a chance to hobnob with Sen. Barack Obama's Hollywood supporters Tuesday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, where Obama raised nearly $5 million for his presidential campaign. Medina, who is an Obama delegate to the Democratic convention this summer in Denver, said supporters came from as far away as Ottawa, Canada, to hear Obama speak.

Seal set the tone for the evening with a rendition of "A Change is Gonna Come," Medina wrote in a late-night e-mail after the event.

Obama continued his theme of advocating change and invoked the memory of Martin Luther King Jr., quoting King's well-known phrase "the fierce urgency now" in explaining why he's running now.

Medina described Obama as "energetic and relaxed" and said it was a great evening. Now Medina is on his way to Washington, D.C., to see Obama yet again at the National
Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials conference in Washington, D.C.

—Michelle DeArmond
mdearmond&PE.com

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