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Obama seeks to avoid association with celebrities: Springsteen will not perform at convention.

By Alex Spillius

TELEGRAPH - Bruce Springsteen will not be performing at Barack Obama's closing speech, his campaign said, as the Democratic candidate seeks to avoid association with celebrities.

In a break with recent tradition, the Democratic National Convention will be free of major performing artists after Republicans have successfully turned Mr Obama's surging popularity against him.

The 2004 convention featured cameos from Patti LaBelle, Willie Nelson, the Black Eyed Peas and Carole King, while in 2000 Stevie Wonder and Luther Vandross played in the main convention hall.

Earlier in the week Obama aides said Springsteen was to perform a short acoustic set at the 76,000-seater Invesco Field stadium where the Illinois senator will formally accept the party's presidential nomination on Thursday night. Other reports said Jon Bon Jovi had also been asked to sing.

But sources within the campaign said that the New Jersey-born rocker, who is a strong Obama backer, would not be singing, and denied that there had ever been any plans.

"Bruce Springsteen will not be performing at the convention. There have been some inaccurate reports out there on this; just wanted to set the record straight," a spokesman said.

In a further sign of confusion within the Obama ranks about the presentation of his big night, it emerged that he will deliver his speech from an elaborate columned stage resembling a miniature Greek temple, a setting that could easily lead to charges of an over-inflated ego.

The decision to exclude pop singers indicates how Republican rival Senator John McCain's effort to turn Mr Obama's fame into a weakness has rattled the Democrat's campaign. In the wake of Mr Obama's speech before 200,000 in Berlin, Mr McCain released an advert likening Obama to gossip-page perennials Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.

Hollywood stars including Ben Affleck, Josh Brolin, Annette Bening and Spike Lee have descended on Denver for the convention but have mostly kept a careful distance from the main arena and Michelle Obama, who arrived early in the week ahead of her husband.

They are aware that their presence could be detrimental to Mr Obama's chances. Oscar-winner George Clooney, an avowed Obama supporter, even took the unusual step of issuing a statement to deny he was in regular contact with the presumptive Democratic candidate.

"I have never texted or emailed Senator Obama," Mr Clooney said recently. "And I'll offer a million dollars to anyone who could prove otherwise."

Robert Thompson, a pop-culture expert and professor of television at the University of Syracuse, New York, said: "If I were Barack Obama right now I would be hoping against hope that the celebrities would just keep quiet about me.

"It's true that after McCain's 'celebrity' ad, every single Hollywood person who comes out on the Obama bandwagon is more evidence for McCain's argument that he is a celebrity."

Source:  Telegraph

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