Morgan Freeman dishes on Obama’s presidential library
President Obama has at least one star helper assisting him in creating his presidential library: Morgan Freeman.
The five-time Academy Award winner says he dined with the commander in chief at a downtown Washington restaurant this week to discuss plans for the space that’s slated to be built in Chicago.
{mosads}“There was a bunch of us there to start helping him design the Obama center,” Freeman tells host Larry King on an episode of Ora.tv’s “Larry King Now,” airing Feb. 29. Actor Tom Hanks was also reportedly eyed among the guests at the exclusive dinner with the president.
“We’re not going to call it the library,” Freeman, 78, says to King with a smile. “It’s going to be called the Obama Center.
“[The president’s] anxious to make it so that when people visit, they come away with maybe a little incentive to take part in the process,” Freeman added. Construction on the presidential center is reportedly poised to be complete in 2020 or 2021.
Calling himself “a big fan,” the “Million Dollar Baby” star, who donated $1 million to a pro-Obama super-PAC in 2012 and narrated a campaign ad that year for Obama’s re-election bid, heaped praise on the president.
“Ever since I read [Obama’s 2006 book ‘The Audacity of Hope’], he’s had me in his hip pocket. You know, whatever he needs, if I can provide it, he’s got it. He knows it.”
Freeman also made headlines on Friday for narrating an ad for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
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