Obama starts rewarding Hollywood with ambassadorships

 As President Obama lines up his foreign ambassadors, he's tapped two of his strongest Hollywood supporters -- music industry scion Nicole Avant and Wild Brain CEO Charles Rivkin -- as United States ambassadors to the Bahamas and France, respectively. 

Tough duty. But not everyone can drive the 405 every day. It just seems that way.

Avant, of course, is the daughter of music-industry legend and longtime Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton friend Clarence Avant and the sister of Democratic activist Alex.

She was the first in her still-so-tight-with-the-Clinton's-family to break away and declare for Obama.

Rivkin, who once headed Jim Henson productions, will be his family's second-generation citizen diplomat. His father was John F. Kennedy's ambassador to Luxembourg and Lyndon B. Johnson's representative to Senegal and Gambia.

Back when Obama and Hillary both were candidates vying for Hollywood's support, ex-DNC chief and current Virginia governor candidate Terry McAuliffe attended a dinner at Haim Saban's Beverly Hills compound and ribbed Nicole Avant by saying that she'd "never get to Paris" as ambassador if she didn't sign on with Clinton.

Turns out he was doubly wrong; seems you can get to both Rue St. Honore and Nassau.

-- Tina Daunt

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