George Lucas’ wife, Mellody Hobson, picked a white dress on purpose Saturday night, the way a bride would. She stood in the lobby of a five-story building shaped like a spaceship, surrounded by Oprah Winfrey, Spike Lee, Samuel L. Jackson and just about every other name Hollywood could spare on short notice.  She then told the room something her husband had been carrying privately for weeks. It had nothing to do with the art on the walls or the billion dollars it took to hang it. LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 19: Mellody Hobson and George Lucas attend the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art Opening Night at Lucas Museum of Narrative Art on September 19, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art) It had to do with whether anybody would bother to come.  The 57-year-old Ariel Investments co-CEO has been the steady half of this for 17 years. On opening night, she let the whole room see how shaky the other half had gotten. ‘Needs to Be Fumigated’: Black Twitter Mercilessly Roasts MAGA Supporters After Dozens Duck Into African American Museum to Escape Storm The occasion was the Sept. 19 opening-night gala for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, the Exposition Park institution Hobson and George Lucas co-founded and personally financed to the tune of roughly $1 billion.  San Francisco had passed on it, while Chicago sued over it. Los Angeles ended up taking it, with doors opening to the public Tuesday, Sept. 22. Queen Latifah hosted the program. A gospel choir, Voices of Fire, opened it with Jon Batiste on piano and 75-plus singers filling the ground floor. Waiting to go on, Hobson explained the dress to WWD. “I’m marrying a building,” she said. “I’m going to have this building in my life for the rest of my life, so I decided I was gonna wear white.” Then she took the microphone and got personal with the A-list crowd. “This room is filled with our friends,” she said. “Looking out at your faces, you have no idea how much you mean to us.” Then came the part that landed. “George kept saying, ‘Will this person come? Do you think that person will come?’ I said, ‘They will all come, George.'” She was right. Spielberg came. Michael B. Jordan, SZA, Pharrell Williams, Babyface, Lee Daniels, Keke Palmer, Doja Cat, Mark Hamill, Francis Ford Coppola, Christopher Nolan, Robert De Niro, Nancy Pelosi and Mayor Karen Bass came. Security ran checkpoints and timed entries to manage the rest. Hobson also had a warning for anyone watching at home. “If your husband or spouse comes home and says they want to build a museum, I suggest your response is a hard no,” she joked.  On the carpet earlier, she’d been even plainer: “Who thinks they’re ever going to say, ‘Come to my museum?’ And you especially don’t do that if you’re me and you’re the youngest of six kids of a single mom in Chicago.” At 9 p.m., guests moved to the fifth-floor rooftop, where Winfrey and Jackson introduced and narrated a drone show from Nova Sky Stories. Captain America and R2-D2 took the sky first, followed by the Millennium Falcon and the dragon from “Shrek.” Elsewhere, The Black Eyed Peas closed the night. Not everyone in the neighborhood has been swept up in it, though. When the museum announced which ZIP codes would get free admission, residents of South Los Angeles turned up in the comments unhappy. “We have to deal with the noise, parking and traffic of Expo Park!” one wrote, according to The Art Newspaper. Another asked, “How is 90007 that borders the museum excluded?” That tension has followed the project for years. Critics have called it a vanity project, and the $25 adult ticket and steep membership fees sit awkwardly beside Lucas’ description of the place as a temple to the people’s art.  Hobson took that on directly Saturday: “If critics say a museum of narrative art is too much like a popcorn movie and not enough like an art film, well, we like popcorn movies in our family.” Winfrey, who knows something about pouring a fortune into a building and taking criticism for how it’s run, kept her red-carpet answer simple. “That’s why we’re all here. Because they’re held in the highest regard.” George Lucas spent 17 years afraid nobody would come. For one night, at least, the room answered him. The party is still ongoing at the new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, but I have never, ever seen a gathering of more power players, A-list celebs, politicos and industry VIPs in a single building. That was just NUTS. Well done Mellody Hobson and George Lucas! pic.twitter.com/fsn5CGuRDb— Sharon Waxman (follow me on Threads @sharonwaxman (@sharonwaxman) September 20, 2026 George Lucas’ Wife Dresses Like a Bride for His $1 Billion Museum Unveiling — Then Spills the Secret That Had Him Worried for Weeks ...read more read less