So engrossed was the 500-strong audience in Hillary Clinton that hardly anyone noticed a second celebrity blonde sitting in the back row of Belfast's Grand Opera House.
Wrapped in a pink scarf and disguised by dark sunglasses, 1970s sex symbol Britt Ekland had come to pay homage to one of her idols. The glamorous Swede is starring in the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs pantomime at the theatre in the role of the Wicked Queen.
Oh Yes She Is.
"I got up at 8 a.m. this morning, despite having done two shows yesterday, just so that I could see her," said the panto queen breathlessly.
"I just really admire her, she is a great role model." Ekland said she was so excited by the prospect of seeing the First Lady that "I e-mailed my son and all my ex-husbands to tell them".
Shortly after 11 a.m. she watched as the First Lady burst on to the stage of the magnificent Victorian theatre to the popping of flashbulbs and the kind of rapturous applause even veteran performer Ekland could only dream of.
But if the crowd's adoring reaction made the actress envious, she would have been appeased by the opening words of the First Lady who declared herself "thrilled and delighted" to be at the Opera House.
"The current production is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," said the First Lady as theatre management took turns grinning for Northern Ireland. "And if any of you are here to see that, it's on at two o clock."
Going all Oprah Winfrey on us, Mrs Clinton said the Grand Opera House was an appropriate place to "make a song to sing together and create a chorus of change of opportunity and greater space for dreams and aspirations and hopes. . ." and, well, you get the picture.
One of the warm-up acts at this conference was Token Man Mr Chris Gibson of the Civic Forum. Risking the wrath of the mainly female audience, he said he felt like the back-up for "Hillary and the new Spice Girls".
A Secret Service man in regulation mackintosh hovered ominously in the wings. "He's behind you," we felt like warning Mr Gibson. But we didn't.
The peace process nay-sayers reminded the First Lady of the story of Moses and the way his followers wanted to return to Eqypt because life was too hard in the promised land.
She took the part of a disgruntled Moses follower. "We knew where we were in Egypt," she said. "We knew they wore funny skirts and we got up for work every day building their tombs," she continued, drawing an analogy with those who wanted to return to the bad old days.
Afterwards, community worker Kathleen Feenan, who shared the stage with the First Lady, said that as a working class woman it was a wonderful experience meeting her up close. "She knows how to relate to people . . . and I loved her hair, it's definitely one to copy".
As the crowd left the theatre, Britt Ekland was spotted hurrying backstage to get ready for her matinee. Or maybe she just wanted to swap hair-tinting tips with the immaculately groomed First Lady.