Celebs open their wallets in White House race, mostly for Obama
(CNN) - Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman made headlines recently for his sizable $1 million contribution to a pro-Obama super PAC, but he's hardly the only celebrity who cut a check in support of a presidential hopeful.
Members of the entertainment industry have a long history of sending money to their preferred presidential candidates, usually but not exclusively to Democrats. Below is a non-comprehensive list of some of the celebrities past and present who made a donation in May or June to the major political committees involved in the 2012 race for the White House.
OBAMA CAMPAIGN:
Actors & Actresses
Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights): $3250 in June, $5000 to date
Sam Waterston (Law and Order): $2250 in June, $5000to date
Ian Somerhalder (Lost, Vampire Diaries) : $2500
Olivia Wilde (House MD, Cowboys & Aliens) : $2500
Johnny Galecki (Roseanne, Big Bang Theory): $2500
Maria Bello (Prime Suspect): $2500
Ronald Guttman (Mad Men): $2075 in June, $4825 to date
Tyne Daly (Cagney & Lacey): $2000
Susan Saint James (Kate & Allie, McMillan & Wife): $2000
Holland Taylor (Two and a Half Men): $1000 in June, $2000 to date
Taraji P. Henson (Benjamin Button): $1850
Chris Pratt (Parks and Recreation): $1000
Aisha Tyler (The Talk co-host): $1000
Directors
Rob Minkoff (The Lion King): $2500
Musicians
Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz: $2500
Peter Frampton: $2500 to Obama campaign
Toni Tennille of The Captain and Tennille: $1000 in June, $2000 to date
Yvonne Staples of The Staples Singers: $1000 in June, $2000 to date
OBAMA VICTORY FUND:
Bette Midler: $50,000 in June, $60,000 to date
Martin Von Haselberg (actor, Midler's husband): $50,000
Billy Crystal: $40,000
Kirk Douglas: $40,000
Robert Downey, Jr.: $40,000
Eddie Murphy: $40,000
Tom Hanks: $35,800 (in May)
Rita Wilson: $35,800 (in May)
Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights): $27,500
Anne Hathaway (Dark Knight Rises): $25,000
Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween, Trading Places): $2000 in June, $14,000 to date
Wendie Malick (Hot in Cleveland): $2500
Marsha Mason (The Goodbye Girl): $1500 in June, $2500 to date
Bridget Fonda (Jackie Brown): $600 in June, $2000 to date
Tate Donovan (Damages, The O.C.): $125 in June, $1622 to date
Jason Sudeikis (Saturday Night Live): $500
Kristin Chenoweth (Wicked, GCB): $500
Topher Grace (That 70s Show): $500
Bernadette Peters (The Jerk): $250
PRIORITIES USA (pro-Obama super PAC):
Morgan Freeman (Dark Knight Rises, Million Dollar Baby): $1 million
ROMNEY CAMPAIGN:
John Rich (Country singer, Celebrity Apprentice winner): $2500
ROMNEY VICTORY FUND:
Film producer Jerry Bruckheimer and wife: $25,000
Scott Baio (Arrested Development, Happy Days) and wife: $12,500
Vince McMahon (Pro. wresting exec.) & Linda McMahon (CT Senate hopeful): $9910
RESTORE OUR FUTURE (pro-Romney super PAC):
Vince McMahon (Pro. wresting exec.) & Linda McMahon (CT Senate hopeful): $150,000K
- Follow Robert Yoon on Twitter: @robyoon
Sounds like the dreaded, feared. evil 1% to me....
Will Romney's contributors be listed as well?
At least the Hollywood circle is giving their money because of their beliefs. Adleson, Koch Bros and all are mostly looking to Robmey for favors, in the way of corporate goodies.
Ooops. They are.
Talk about cheap, maybe that's a sign they no longer believe much in Obama.
Surprisingly paltry contributions on the part of most for Obama. I guess lefties find it much easier to play and waste OUR money versus their own. Or maybe they just don't to waste big money backiing backing a sure loser like Obama?
@ Southern Hottie – Don't feel bad about not seeing the short list of Mr. Plastic's contributors. They are just listing the Celebs and not the lying, racist, opportunistic, control freaks who really support Mr. Plastic. You know, the 1% of the 1%.
OBAMA 2012!!!
So what? Hollywood is for President Obama while Wall Street and the rest of the 1% are SECRETLY behind Robmey.
Show us your taxes Willard you RAT!
OBAMA 2012!
They call Obama the Like-able...but how much does America really know about Obama even after four year in the White House.....Lets go for Capable_Romney who knows how finances work to create the environment for Jobs, growth and prosperity...Just Like-able does not cut any longer....
SOUTHERN HOTTIE wrote:
Will Romney's contributors be listed as well?
Ooops. They are.
---------------
No, they're not. That is the short list of contributors. The ones who are not known for making extremist statements.
The actual list contains numerous people that Romney would rather not have is name associated with. For example, Ted Nugent, Donald Trump, etc. Those people are his campaign surrogates, but for some reason have been excluded from the list.
Seems the 1%ers that Obama and the libs rail about so much are ponying up the majority of the $$$...and the beneficiary is the POTHUS...triggin hypocrites!!!
I think Bill Maher gave $1,000,000 to Obama a few months back as well.
Glad they're listed, that way they can be boycotted.
I am going to print this list and make sure I support these people and their movies from now on.....They appear to be looking ou for me....As for the koch bros., I have a list of their products NOT to buy......
"@sniffit I want to be the first to welcome obama in his second term. Polls dont show the electorial college number and I'm guess u don't want to know who is ahead."
Polls actually provide a fairly decent picture of the electoral map so far. Nate Silver (crazy statistician) over at the NYT got the electoral college map almost (if not exactlyk) correct alst election several weeks in advance. He has Obama at 296 and Mittens at 241 (270 needed to win). Other websites provide their projections as well and they almost universally give Obama a large lead in the electoral college. I'll go out on the limb and say that Obama's almost got it wrapped up in the electoral college unless Mittens can pull off winning almost every single "batt leground" state. But hey, for the advertising revenue, the MSM will pretend it's all a horserace....and to sap you of your sanity, so will the GOP/Teatrolls. At least it will help you sleep at night for a little while, eh?
who would have thought...
Like-able..vs..Capable....
They call Obama the Like-able...but how much does America really know about Obama even after four year in the White House.....Lets go for Capable_Romney who knows how finances work to create the environment for Jobs, growth and prosperity...Just Like-able does not cut any longer....
You sound like a FOOL.....
"Surprisingly paltry contributions on the part of most for Obama. I guess lefties find it much easier to play and waste OUR money versus their own. Or maybe they just don't to waste big money backiing backing a sure loser like Obama?"
OR, actually, some might suggest that the people you are calling "lefties" actually have the moral foundation to believe that campaign contributions, even their own, shoudl be within some bounds of reasonableness because they are uncomfortable with the idea of anyone, even themselves, trying to buy our elections.
Grow up.
Romney your turn now........you are a big kid now take your turn....... Holllywood knows that Obama is the right person for modern histroy not Romney.....
Two BIG words: thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Obama 2012
"Seems the 1%ers that Obama and the libs rail about so much are ponying up the majority of the $$$...and the beneficiary is the POTHUS...triggin hypocrites!!!"
There's nothing hypocritical about it. Polls have pretty conclusively shown that even a majority of the 1% believe their own taxes should go up. The only ones people are really "railing" against are the ones who believe that their money is better spent buying a POTUS to give them tax cuts than paying more in taxes to help our nation and society fix make progress on some of our most difficult fiscal and domestic problems.
It looks as though Flippy's fans are not ponying up. No matter. The Koch Brothers, Adelson, and the rest of the corporate fat cats looking for favors will do more than their share and reap the rewards if their man wins
Bill, did you miss the articles every month toting which candidate received the most funds?
It is Robmey, for his own campaign and ALL of his Super Pacs. All that money is coming from Adelson, Koch Bros, Trump, Freiss, Nascar Owners, NFL team owners. And yet still don't have the transparency to see all of the contributors to Super Pacs unless the donor makes it known themselves.
Morgan is a 1% and oviously an idiot to give this jerk money. what is wrong with you people the anti-crist is among us he is now living in the white house if you gave satan money you know what happens
At least I know which actors movies to avoid.