Hollywood stars open wallets for Obama

[Geee]

Politico:


President Barack Obama’s latest fundraising report resembles an A-list of Hollywood stars, with donations from some of the top celebrities in the entertainment industry.

Among the more than 550,000 donors to the president’s 2012 reelection bid were big-name movie stars including actors George Clooney, Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, Michael Keaton, Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson. Filmmaker Steven Spielberg and his wife, actress Kate Capshaw, also gave to the 2012 campaign, according to the latest Federal Election Commission report. Jennifer Garner and Gwyneth Paltrow both contributed under their married names —Affleck and Martin, respectively.


“30 Rock” actor Alec Baldwin, who has often toyed with a potential political run, also shelled out cash for Obama’s second-quarter fundraising haul. And several other TV actors — such as “Monk”’s Tony Shalhoub, “Glee”’s Jane Lynch, “24”’s president Dennis Haysbert and sci-fi stars Scott Bakula and Richard Dean Anderson — joined Baldwin in contributing to the president’s reelection bid.

Comedians Will Ferrell, Carl Reiner and “The Simpsons”’s Yeardley Smith also doled out money for Obama, whose campaign attracted a record-breaking $86 million in donations.

According to the July quarterly report, the president’s reelection campaign raised $47 million, while the Democratic National Committee raised $38 million through Obama’s joint committee.

About 40 percent of the president’s record-breaking take came from big-money bundlers, according to a POLITICO analysis of donors listed on Obama’s campaign web site. Among those bundlers were top Hollywood insiders Andy Spahn, Ari Emanuel and Jeffrey Katzenberg.