(From top) Obama, Streisand and Spielberg

Washington, June 15: Barack Obama has launched a Hollywood charm offensive to win over Hillary Clinton’s celebrity backers and persuade them to raise money for his own presidential bid.

He is attempting to heal the wounds of his long battle with Hillary and reunite the Democratic Party’s most high-profile supporters, now that the former First Lady’s withdrawal from the race has left him the presumptive Democratic nominee for the White House.

His strategy bore fruit last week when Obama’s aides persuaded Barbra Streisand, who had been one of Hillary’s most outspoken tinseltown cheerleaders, to come out for him. She has agreed to sing at a future fundraising event, a role she regularly performed during Bill Clinton’s presidency.

It is thought that Streisand, who is both a female icon and Jewish, will help Obama among women and Jewish voters, many of whom have been suspicious of his candidacy.

Obama will return to Los Angeles for the first time since February on Tuesday, for a star-studded fundraiser at the 3,200 seat Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. A who’s-who of Hollywood stars is expected to hear him speak.

Obama has also had success in wooing film director and Hollywood power broker Steven Spielberg, who endorsed Hillary a year ago — but who has now agreed to hold a fundraising event for Obama later this summer.

Meanwhile Laurie David, who funded Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth, is planning to hold a fundraiser at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August, expected to attract A-List stars.

Obama is said to be pursuing actress and singer Jennifer Lopez, who visited him in his Senate office last week. Campaign sources say he is hoping to persuade her to record a song for him.

And he wants the support of Haim Saban, the billionaire owner of Saban Entertainment, which is behind numerous animated television shows, another Hillary donor.

Lara Bergthold, a political adviser to the Hollywood activist Norman Lear, John Kerry’s representative in Hollywood, told a California website: “I’ve already seen a lot of people who are raisers for Hillary who are now raising for Obama.”

The Illinois senator is also showing that he is adept at wooing the younger generations of stars.

Last week actress Scarlett Johansson, the star of the film Lost in Translation and the YouTube video hit Yes We Can, which promotes Obama, revealed that she has had a long-running and extensive email correspondence with him.

“I feel like I’m supporting someone, and having a personal dialogue with them, and it’s amazing,” she said.

The revelation did nothing to hurt Obama’s street cred against his 71-year-old Republican rival. Comedian Jay Leno joked: “Not to be outdone, John McCain admitted he had been exchanging flirty emails with Angela Lansbury. And there’s talk of Rue McClanahan...” (the 74-year-old actress from the Golden Girls).

The contest for celebrity backers has been more intense this year than in recent elections given the star power of the candidates themselves.