Singer-actress Barbra Streisand, who originally endorsed Hillary Clinton in the U.S. presidential primary race, has jumped on Barack Obama’s bandwagon with both feet to sing for the newly anointed Democratic nominee at a Beverly Hills fund-raiser next week. Organizers say the hurriedly planned Sept. 16 event will probably mark Obama’s final stop on the Hollywood political money trail before the November election.
According to political consultant Andy Spahn, a co-host of the fund-raiser, the evening will begin with a dinner for the Illinois senator and about 250 guests at the landmark Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills. Dinner will be followed by a reception in Obama’s honor at the main ballroom of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, featuring a performance by Streisand and others. The ballroom holds a crowd of up to 800 people.
Seats for the dinner and reception together go for a whopping $28,500 per person, but supporters who just want to hear Babs sing for Obama can get in for as little as $2,500 per ticket, Spahn said. At those prices, the two-part event could bring in nearly $9 million, making it the biggest single Democratic fund-raiser for the current election cycle. The money would be divided between Obama’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
Other members of the hosting committee include DreamWorks studio co-founders Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. Spahn said the rest of the evening’s entertainment lineup has yet to be confirmed.
Streisand, 66, one of Hollywood’s leading Democratic activists and donors, was a longtime supporter of former President Bill Clinton and backed the presidential primary campaign of his wife until Obama finally clinched the nomination in June. At that point Streisand, an Oscar winner for her 1968 film debut in the musical “Funny Girl,” immediately switched her allegiance to Obama.
Rarely performing in public, Streisand sang at fund-raisers for the last two Democratic presidential nominees — Sen. John Kerry in 2004 and then-Vice President Al Gore in 2000. They both lost to Republican George W. Bush.
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thank you kristopher irizarry-hoeksema for your thoughts. I think getting rid of Fox news would be an act of patriotism.
I read through all the comments and am sickened by the hate and ignorance that has been expressed by so many.
At this point I even more feel so saddened by my fellow countrymen. Watch DemocracyNow!…………
as a country we’re arresting journalists for covering the news? Think.
no wonder we’re going down. seems we never learn.
- Posted by teri mccombdemocrats should really have picked hilary who would be better at winning .its well know thats babs was clinton supporter any way , she prob been told to follow clintons in endorsement , you dont want palin bigoted right winger in power again in the usa , anti every thing like abortion gay rights , in another time she would have been anti black and jewish , how times havnt changed !!!
- Posted by simon jeffreyget a life and get the democrats in again
Most of the people on this blog who are against Barbara’s support for Obama make me sick. First of all, she has always been an expensive show; this is nothing new. Secondly, if most of the people on this blog had her superstardom, you bet they’d be using it to support their candidate. I wonder if these people know that most of McCain’s funds have come from corrupt lobbyists who actually run his campaign. Furthermore, since he took on Palin, he is now getting millions from the “religous right”. Have you seen the “youtube” video of her speaking in her church? SCAAAAARY!!! Barack Obama is a class act and doesn’t need to turn to the corrupt for funds. I’ve never funded a campaign in my life and am proud to say that I’ve donated $50.00 to Obama. Let’s get real people! You would support your candidate to the best of your ability. Can we just cut the bullshit and tell it like it really is. I know it’s hard for you Republicans, but please try.
- Posted by CANDY STULTSAs someone who actually grew up poor in America - in the South Side Chicago neighborhood below Roseland, in a church Barack Obama organized and poor as in I was helping with groceries at 11 (in the 1980’s) - the negativity around this race is making me verklempt. Doesn’t anyone continue to see anything positive about this country? Where do we live, Columbia, in fear of the FARC? Hardly. Both upper middle class Republicans and Democrats are being disgusting.
I went to college on a full Pell Grant and while I am disappointed by the direction of this country and in both parties at this point, I can still dig down and muster up a candle to light my heart with hope.
Our country is in a time of opportunity where we can reinvent ourselves. We have a black man as the Democratic nominee for president and a woman as the Republican nominee for vice-president. There are still many countries in the world where ethnic minorities and women could never dream of such a thing.
Why are Americans such negative, angry and aggressive people? I am actually ashamed at this point that I served in our Armed Forces. You people don’t deserve people who sacrifice themselves for others like that. (http://www.krisirizarry.com/army_pic.ht m)
Before any politician brings change to this country, ya’ll have to change yourselves from within and all of us, as Americans, need to come together as one country and find common ground on solutions. We are interdependent. Per David Frum’s article in the New York Times on Sept. 5th, (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/magaz ine/07Inequality-t.html?em) the biggest problem facing our country is the disappearance of the American dream as the wealth gap grows. The rich need the poor as consumers and those from the bottom who strive need the investment and philanthropic capital of the rich. Instead of bickering and being petty, why can’t we come together to find solutions? Across the aisle, across income, across states, across race and across isolated self-interest.
First of all, all this whining about the position Bush has put this country in is totally overblown. As difficult as it is for people right now and as scarce as jobs are, we still enjoy a higher standard of living than most of the world. Furthermore, he did do some good things. For instance, Bush allocated put more money than any previous president into in the Housing and Urban Development budget specifically for direct housing for the homeless.
I am sorry, Phil Graham was right. Instead of leadership helping the polity come together to find common solutions, it is encouraging everyone on both sides of the fence to whine and whine and whine. It is if our nation as a whole has never left middle school.
You may not agree with Barbra Streisand’s convictions and certainly, this event doesn’t do much to render a picture of Barack Obama as a common American in the way that he needs to at this point but she is still a fellow countrywoman who, like many others right now, is trying her best to get involved and promote the ideas she believes in. I’m no fan of her music or her superficial politics but she’s not exactly Imelda Marcos.
Change happens incrementally and both Obama and McCain as candidates, represent progress as far as representation of the average American in Washington. 88 years ago, just four voting generations ago, women could not even vote. Now we are looking at either a black woman as our first lady or a working mother with a Down’s Syndrome child as our vice-president. I have never been more proud of my country and I think either candidate will move us forward.
All I can do is be optimistic about it. That is the great spirit of America.
Most of you posting here don’t represent that spirit at all.
I can get on my high horse because I do things to forge change in this country. I have organized successful alumni from my high school to start a scholarship fund. On September 17, I am taking the day off work to go to Washington DC and lobby for a law that will better protect our country’s children from sexual predators. It really isn’t that hard to get out of your
I think ya’ll need to be subjected to a pogrom or slavery to really understand how shrill and annoying you all sound.
At least people like Babs and on the other side, John Voight are trying to do something with their clout to participate in molding America in a time when transformation - a transformation of both left and right ideas - is desperately needed.
The shrillness of the current debate is what keeps things from happening. The best thing that could happen to this country right now is for Al Queda to blow up Fox news and for someone to put a bullet in the head of Markos Moulitsas. All of you responding to this article as if Streisand is Stalin sound like those two collectives of knee-jerk jerks.
Get a friggin’ grip.
- Posted by Kristopher Irizarry-HoeksemaSO MANY OF THESE COMMENTS ARE NEGATIVE IT SCARES ME, BUT I WILL KEEP THE FAITH. BARACK OBAMA WILL WIN, AND I THANK MS.STREISAND FOR HER SUPPORT. SHE IS CLASS, AND HE IS CLASS. I WISH I COULD BE THERE,BUT I SPENT A GREAT SENDING MY 16YR OLD TO COLLEGE. SHE WILL PROBABLY BE CALLED ELITE SOME DAY, AND I WILL SAY THANK GOD!!!!!!
- Posted by HILDA ROBINSONI am consistently amazed and disheartened at how the English language is shredded, abused and trod upon by all of you - and Ms Fordham, I don’t know what exactly it is that you teach, but God help us if it’s English.
At the very least, would you people re-read your comments before posting them, and apply spell-check?
- Posted by TODDIsabella Chen: I agree. Raising money for a cause you believe in is altruism, and last time I checked that as a good thing. But to McBush supporters, altruism=bad=socialism. How conveniently they forget that McBush is paying for his campaign with donations from people doing the same thing.
In some ways I hope the McSame supporters get their candidate elected. Then, when their job is offshored/they have a heart attact/car accident, lose their income, health insurance, and their home, I won’t have to feel bad when I pass their box on the street, because I’ll know that that wouldn’t want any socialist, altruistic help.
- Posted by LeeBARBRA STREISAND will be another Hilary Clinton.
- Posted by JianHilary Clinton has been sold by Obama,
But the sadest thing is Hilary is still counting the money for him.
What’s wrong with the American woman ?
Show me the dignity as an American woman please.
Honestly, I agree that unless you are wealthy like Mr. and Mrs. McCain, there is NO advantage to voting for the Republican ticket. The rich will get richer and the poorer will be left on their own. I guess the poor hold on to the possibility of being rich someday and so they vote against their interests today, and the Republican party exploits this. Wake up, people! You go and sing, Babs and raise all the money you can for the candidate who has even the possibility of bringing change to the system. PUMAs be damned, And honestly i think the people pretending to be PUMAs on here are actually republicans trying to enrage people…people who need people. Go Babs!
- Posted by KevinTo all you haters out there: “It’s not your fault that you’re sick, but it’s your responsibility to get well!!”
- Posted by ZaidiThe Hollywierd folks are free to say all they wish. No one is taking their rights away. The problem is that many people don’t realize that they are completely seperated from the rest of the world. Living life on their fame and riches, they could not conceive taking their kids to the sitter every day, driving in traffic to a job that makes enough to cover the costs of doing just that. $28,500 for dinner and a show! For most Americans that is a huge part of their entire yearly income!
Obama has been lucky so far but talk is cheap, let’s look at what he has done. Oh, nevermind he hasn’t done ANYTHING of consequence.
McCain has at least been out there in the thick of it. As far as agreeing with Bush, why not they are in the same party? However, he has done things that Bush would never even attempt.
Me: Male, Catholic, Veteran, Blue-Collar and a hell of a fisherman!
- Posted by OhioSure Obama/Biden call for change. Yet, if regretably elected (ugh), the only change we will get is losing the change in our pockets. Wake up America!!!! John McCain and Sarah Palin are the only hope we have for a stable, strong country. Let’s all hope that Ms Streisand sings the “blues” when she sings for Obama!!!!
- Posted by PatStreisand is able to sing wherever and for whomever she
- Posted by Bobpleases. You are able to like it or not. Ain’t America great?
I wish I could sing for Obama and collect money for him like Barbara Streisand. All I can do is type internet commentaries about my candidate all day long. Some of these articles I reply to have 800 commentaries! (More)Who sees them? Does anybody care? Sure they do and we influence each other. This is the height of democracy for individuals to express their opinions for the world to see, and this practice is being done all over the internet. Vive the democracy! Vive the freedom of the press!
- Posted by Evelyn HMike, how is Barbra a Marxist? Do you even know what a Marxist is?
- Posted by Berliner2another progressive, hollywood, out-of-touch, marxist, nanny-state, welfare for all out-of-work, former singer
- Posted by mikeWhen Bush began his push to invade Iraq, many Hollywood liberals stood up and said it was a mistake: they said it would lead to the major loss of innocent lives, it would cost too much, that it was the wrong war at the wrong time, that it was an ill-conceived idea…and they were right. The republicans condemned them as being un-American, un-patriotic. But it turns out that the conservatives were wrong; yet when I read the comments here by the neo-cons I’m amazed at their arrogance. You would think that the plan worked beautifully and that we are loved all over the world for what we unleashed. If you believe them, then you have to believe that liberals are horrible people for suggesting that Bush/Cheney made a mistake. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize the real horrible people are the ones who pushed us into this catatrophe and the ones who have yet to accept responsibility for what they have done…somehow they only want to blame everyone else for their mistakes. That’s what we used to call immaturity.
- Posted by garyOne person please respond: Do you or do you not believe in the “Freedom of Speech” of our Bill of Rights? Instead of calling people stupid or worse, why don’t you just be thankful that anyone, artist, actor, whatever, has the right to voice his/her opinion? If you tell people to ’shut up and sing’ you are not American. Go live in China, Iraq, Cuba or any other country that arrests its citizens for voicing their opinion. Would you tell McCain or Palin to ’shut up and be a politician’ if they had an opinion of an actor? It’s no different when you tell Streisand to shut up.
- Posted by Jeff BazellBarbra just happens to be a gifted artist and more important a caring American. The fact that she puts her voice out there (in more ways than one) is an example of a human being caring for other human beings. It’s ludicrous to consider McCain/Palin as voices for change when they each reflect the same ‘ole same ‘ole of the Bush/Cheney disaster. Sing, Barbra, and may Americans vote for real change a la Obama.
- Posted by Rick EdelsteinGosh…. Wake up people, why would you vote for John McCain? (Unless your rich like him) Thats like another 4 years of George Bush.After all, he’s on the same side as Bush. Nothing but a golddigger.”America Needs Change”- that is in the right direction. With Mc Cain we will be heading in the same direction as the last 8 years! If Mc Cain wins this presidency (God forbid), things will either be the same or get worse. We can’t afford 4 more years of the same.Food prices up, gas prices high, utility prices too high,too many jobs being lost and etc….& the cost of living is so high!!! OBAMA FOR CHANGE, THATS WHAT WE REALLY NEED, A PRESIDENT WHO WILL HELP ALL AMERICANS & NOT JUST THE WEALTHY(LIKE HIMSELF).Obama knows what this country needs(CHANGE) and he is going to make that happen!!!!!!!!”Obama For President in 2009″
- Posted by Lori