<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"LinkedIn on Wednesday announced a promotional celebration pegged to The Weinstein Company's upcoming film Lee Daniels' The Butler \u2014 marking the first time the career-based social network has shaken hands with Hollywood.\nDirected by Lee Daniels, the film tells the fictional story of White House butler Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker), who serves for seven presidential administrations, between the 1950s and 1980s. The movie was inspired by Wil Haygood's 2008 Washington Post article \"A Butler Well Served by This Election,\" which tracked former executive mansion butler Eugene Allen.\nSee also: Confuse Your Connections With These 14 Strange LinkedIn Endorsements\nLee Daniels' The Butler features an all-star cast, including Whitaker, Robin Williams, John Cusack, Oprah Winfrey, Jane Fonda, Alan Rickman, Cuba Gooding, Jr., James Marsden and Liev Schreiber.\nAs part of the promotion, LinkedIn will hold a contest, called Path to Success, which will offer three professionals a chance to scope out New York City and receive access to a recruiter, executive and career coach. Users can enter using a LinkedIn API, which will display their career timeline, as well as that of Gaines. Participants will be able to increase their chances at victory by sending thanks to others who have helped their careers.\n\nMashable's Brian Anthony Hernandez's timeline \u2014 after he answered three questions \u2014 shows his experience in a clickable interface and predicts what his salary will be in 2028.\nThe collaboration between the two companies is the first marketing partnership between LinkedIn (promoting a film) and a major movie studio through a custom API solution. The creative use of LinkedIn data for promotional purposes is a first within the entertainment vertical. LinkedIn boasts 225 million members worldwide.\n\"The Weinstein Company is committed to executing innovative and efficient tactics to market our films, and teaming with LinkedIn to highlight the inspiring story in Lee Daniels' The Butler was a perfect fit,\" said Bladimiar Norman, Weinstein's senior vice president of marketing. \"We're thrilled to be LinkedIn's partner on their first major film promotion.\"\nLee Daniels' The Butler hits theaters Aug. 16. A trailer (below) was released earlier this year:\n\nImage: The Weinstein Company"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/07/31/linkedin-butler-first-movie-promotion/>