A bevy of Hollywood stars will join President Obama at the White House on Tuesday night for a screening of “The Monuments Men,” a film based on the true story of a World War II unit charged with saving art from the Nazis.
George Clooney, who directed and stars in the film, will be joined by co-stars Bill Murray, Matt Damon and Grant Heslov for the screening, the White House said Tuesday.
{mosads}Robert Edsel, who wrote the book on which the film is based, and Harry Ettlinger, a member of the unit, will also be in attendance.
Other attendees will include Sara Bloomfield, the director of the U.S. Holocaust Museum, Secretary of the Army Bill McHugh, Archivist of the United States David Ferriero and officials from the State Department’s Cultural Heritage Center that press secretary Jay Carney described as “our country’s modern-day ‘Monuments Men’ and women.”
Clooney was a top donor to the president’s reelection campaign, hosting a fundraiser at his home that netted some $15 million for the president thanks to a raffle that allowed supporters to donate in the hope of securing a ticket.
Damon, for his part, was a big backer of the president’s 2008 campaign, but has since lobbed criticism at the president.
“He broke up with me,” Damon told BET last year. “There are a lot of things that I really question, you know: the legality of the drone strikes, and these NSA revelations, are like, you know … Jimmy Carter came out and said we don’t live in a democracy. That’s, that’s a little, that’s a little intense when an ex-president says that. So, you know, he’s got some, some explaining to do, particularly for a constitutional law professor.”