Starry-eyed fans turn out for Piven speech at DPU

Monday, April 7, 2008
Television and movie actor Jeremy Piven addresses a group of students, faculty and members of the general public during a recent speech at DePauw University's East College Hall, on behalf of Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Meharry Hall at historic East College was the site of a brief 20-minute push for Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama last week.

Just as Obama has been characterized by many as slick and "Hollywood," it seemed natural that the featured speaker at the rally was none other than Emmy-award winning actor Jeremy Piven, most recently of HBO's Entourage.

DePauw students were placed at the entrance of Meharry, encouraging and completing voter registration, ensuring that all attendees had an opportunity to officially voice their opinions in May and November.

When the media were quickly whisked away to an area that was far away from a majority of the attendees, the BannerGraphic had the opportunity to be positioned in the midst of the crowd, behind a huddled group of DPU sorority women who cheered more for the star than for Obama.

Pevin seemed to engage the crowd rather quickly, asking initially when he walked on stage "Are we in a church?" He then politely shot down the formal invitation, and answered a question about an "Entourage" character being a possible Obama running mate.

Much of what Pevin had to say was indicative of most of the Obama speeches heard on TV. He pointed out that Obama, "stood up against the war when it wasn't fashionable and somewhat dangerous politically."

He also downplayed what some say is a lack of experience by pointing out that the current administration was chock-full of experience, but was nonetheless in his opinion failing.

And then, nearly as soon as it began, Pevin, "had a plane to catch," and was on his way. Very little was learned about the specifics of Obama's platform, other than a few words about "change" that has become a trademark of the Obama campaign.

Pevin quoted a "Rage Against the Machine" lyric to drive home the fact that this campaign is hip and relevant to young people.

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  • How can this newspaper possibly spell Jeremy Piven's name incorrectly over and over again in this story?

    -- Posted by research director on Mon, Apr 7, 2008, at 11:39 AM
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