The move came just days after the Hollywood Reporter said the star and his eponymous foundation could be linked to a scandal involving a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, at the same time Hillary and Bill Clinton's own charitable fund is under scrutiny.
Guests attending the Clinton event in LA were notified via e-mail over the weekend that "the production schedule for [DiCaprio's] climate change film 'Before the Flood' has altered . . . which will prevent him from returning to Los Angeles . . . As a result, Leo personally asked his friends Justin Timberlake and wife Jessica Biel to host Tuesday's lunch with Hillary at their home in the Hollywood Hills."
But some attendees wondered if the move had more to do with the THR report, which said the US Department of Justice filed an asset-seizure complaint in federal court pertaining to a Malaysian fund that backed Red Granite Pictures -- a production company behind the DiCaprio film "The Wolf of Wall Street.