White House won’t confirm details of Obama’s Hollywood week

“The president did have dinner with some friends; many of them are people who are assisting the outside work of the foundation as it gets up and running,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest deflected, referring to the philanthropic endeavors Obama plans to pursue when he leaves office.

“They had been meeting over the course of the day to sort of talk about some of the planning for the foundation,” Earnest said. “And when the president heard they were in town, he wanted to go over and see them.”

The dinner coincided with Obama’s return from a weeklong trip to California, the bulk of which he spent in Southern California. While in Los Angeles, Obama continued his tradition of supping with DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg. Although the White House also didn’t confirm the president’s dining companions that evening, megastar Will Smith was reportedly in attendance.

Members of the White House press corps tweeted that the event was at least the third of its kind.

Obama also stopped by the Ellen Show while he was in Los Angeles.

The Freeman-Hanks dinner came one day after Obama dispatched Secretary of State John Kerry to Hollywood to learn Tinsel Town’s persuasion secrets to better combat the self-proclaimed Islamic State’s propaganda success.

And it was the same day that news broke that Obama would skip Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s funeral on Saturday, and become the first sitting president to visit Cuba in 90 years in March.

Both prompted a firestorm of criticism and social media snark.

“Obama skipping Scalia’s funeral but going to Havana,” Real Clear Politics’ Tom Bevan tweeted on Thursday. “And he still can’t figure out why he wasn’t able to tame partisanship during his tenure.”