According to political consultant Andy Spahn, a co-host of the fund-raiser, the evening will begin with a dinner for the Illinois senator and about 250 guests at the landmark Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills. Dinner will be followed by a reception in Obama's honor at the main ballroom of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, featuring a performance by Streisand and others. The ballroom holds a crowd of up to 800 people. 

Seats for the dinner and reception together go for a whopping $28,500 per person, but supporters who just want to hear Babs sing for Obama can get in for as little as $2,500 per ticket, Spahn said. At those prices, the two-part event could bring in nearly $9 million, making it the biggest single Democratic fund-raiser for the current election cycle. The money would be divided between Obama's campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

Other members of the hosting committee include DreamWorks studio co-founders Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. Spahn said the rest of the evening's entertainment lineup has yet to be confirmed.

Streisand, 66, one of Hollywood's leading Democratic activists and donors, was a longtime supporter of former President Bill Clinton and backed the presidential primary campaign of his wife until Obama finally clinched the nomination in June. At that point Streisand, an Oscar winner for her 1968 film debut in the musical "Funny Girl," immediately switched her allegiance to Obama.

Rarely performing in public, Streisand sang at fund-raisers for the last two Democratic presidential nominees -- Sen. John Kerry in 2004 and then-Vice President Al Gore in 2000. They both lost to Republican George W. Bush.

That’s because as of Tuesday, the Fox network had sold out all its available advertising time for the National Football League championship — the biggest U.S. television event of the year — and not a single spot was purchased by a political campaign.    

The News Corp-owned broadcaster insists, contrary to some previous reports, that it never banned such ads for the Super Bowl. Instead, network officials said no campaign or media buyer ever seriously approached Fox to discuss the possibility of making a national ad buy for the Feb. 3 matchup between the undefeated New England Patriots and the New York Giants, or for the pre-game or post-game telecasts.

The sky-high price of Super Bowl spots may have had something to do with that. The average cost for a 30-second spot this year was running around $2.7 million, with prices earlier this month climbing as high as $3 million, industry sources have told Reuters.    

Speculation about Super Bowl political ads was fueled this year by the rare coincidence of a national telecast expected to draw well over 90 million viewers just two days before voters in two dozen states cast ballots for Democratic and Republican nominees for president. Moreover, the two teams playing in the big game hail from states with primary contests on Feb. 5.   

The Washington Post reported last week that the media teams of at least two Republican candidates had contemplated a possible Super Bowl ad purchase as a way of reaching a mass audience in one fell swoop.

But with some campaign coffers running low on resources, the smart money seems to be on sticking with a strategy that targets TV ad dollars in local markets where candidates have the greatest chance of picking up votes, and delegates.   

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

- Photo credit: Reuters/Rick Wilking