Fan Fare

Carrie Underwood disses celeb political endorsements

Celebrities have come out in force during the long U.S. presidential race, hosting fundraisers, throwing concerts and performing at campaign rallies around the nation.

But not country star Carrie Underwood.

Unlike Barbra Streisand, who’s been doing a round of last minute radio station Q&As in support of Democrat Barack Obama, Underwood is staying mum.

“I lose all respect for celebrities when they back a candidate,”  the “All-American Girl” singer tells TV Guide in its November 10th issue.

“It’s saying that the American public isn’t smart enough to make their own decisions,” she said.  “I would never want anybody to vote for anything or anybody just because I told them to. 

“Music is where you go to get away from all the BS.  Whether it’s from politics or just the world around you, music should be an escape,” the former “American Idol” winner said.

We’ve had a lot of competing views on celeb endorsements this election season, but this may be your last chance to speak up during this cycle. How much have celebrity endorsements affected your voting decisions in 2008?

Update – Babs backs Obama on radio in battleground states

It’s not new that Barbra Streisand is backing Sen. Barack Obama for president. But it is unusual when Streisand goes so far as to take to radio airwaves in battleground states to answer callers’ questions on live shows, which is what she is doing on Monday and Tuesday.

With Monday’s radio campaigning done, Streisand moved on to Florida and other states on Tuesday. She’ll be working the phones again from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. est in this order: WJNO in West Palm Beach, Florida; WEPM in Martinsburg, West Virginia; AURN in Pittsburgh; WXKC-FM in Erie, Pennsylvania; WZAZ in Jacksonville, Florida; and WCBQ in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.

Streisand took calls on these five channels on Monday. They were KPRS in St. Louis, Missouri; WASN/WRBT/WGFT in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; KEZK in St. Louis Missouri; WIKY in Indiana; KPLV in Las Vegas, Nevada; and WYXB in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Singers for Obama release “Yes We Can” album

 You’ve heard them at the Obama campaign rallies and speeches for months, and now  all those Stevie Wonder, Sheryl Crow, John Mayer and Los Lonely Boys songs that warm up the Democratic Party crowds have been put together on one album.

 Billed as the first-ever presidential campaign compilation, the 18-song disc “Yes We Can: Voices of a Grassroots Movement” also includes excerpts from speeches given by Barack Obama and goes on sale exclusively on the campaign’s official Web site on Friday.

 All proceeds from digital downloads ($24.99) and the old-fashioned CD ($30) will go to the Obama-Biden campaign, said Hidden Beach Recordings, which is behind the project.

 Hidden Beach CEO Steve McKeever said the diverse artists contributing “underscores how deeply inspiring this campaign has been across boundaries.”

 The recording includes Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered”, Mayer’s “Waiting on the World To Change,” and Los Lonely Boys’ “Make It Better”, as well as new material by Lionel Richie and John Legend.

 Absent from the list however is Barbra Streisand, one of Obama’s biggest singing supporters.

  Presumably “The Way We Were” doesn’t have the right vibe for  “Change We  Can Believe In.”

Barbra Streisand to sing for Obama

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.

George Michael has tip for Obama – team up with Clinton

George Michael has a tip for U.S. Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama — team up with former rival Hillary Clinton — as the British pop star joined the growing band of celebrities rallying behind the senator for Illinois.

Michael, 45, touring North America for the first time in 17 years, told fans — including “Sex and the City” star Sarah Jessica Parker — during a concert at New York City’s Madison Square Garden: “I know you guys all need a change.”

While he admitted he doesn’t know what kind of change Obama would bring if elected — saying that after “months of watching CNN” he still does not know what Obama or Clinton stand for, but if Obama “takes on Hillary, I’ll know he’s got some balls.” He said Obama and Clinton were the strongest team.

Michael, has sold more than 85 million records with hits like “Careless Whisper” and “Faith,” rocked the New York arena during the first of two shows in the city, as he nears the end of a seven week, 22 city North American tour.

Michael rose to fame in the early 1980s as one-half of the singing duo Wham!, which scored the huge hit single “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go.”  But it was as a solo artist with 1987′s “Faith” that he broke into the ranks of pop superstars. 

Michael, whose given name is Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, ran into trouble with police in Beverly Hills, California in 1998 when he was arrested for engaging in a lewd act in a public restroom. He pleaded no-contest, was fined a small amount and ordered to perform community service. The incident forced him to openly disclose his homosexuality and his relationship with American Kenny Goss.

During Monday’s show he dedicated his song “Amazing” to Goss, who was in the audience, and commented at one point that gay marriage should be legal in New York.

Barbra Streisand backs Obama

Likening Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama to a political “trailblazer,” singer Barbra Streisand has become the latest Hollywood celebrity to join the Obama campaign bandwagon, switching from her past support of Sen. Hillary Clinton.

“Barack has awakened in many of us the notion that we can again be hopeful, enabling us to believe that we are capable of lifting our brothers and sisters out of poverty, of providing quality education for all our children, of ending this unjust war in Iraq and bringing our troops home safely,” Streisand wrote on Tuesday in a posting on her Web site, http://www.barbrastreisand.com/.

“He’s reminded us ‘yes we can’…we can make the transition from fossil fuels to green energy; we can take care of our elderly and make sure that good healthcare is not just a perk for a few, but a right for every man, woman and child,” she said. ”We are experiencing not just a presidential campaign, but a movement; a movement of inspired young people who have been cynical about politics for too long.”

Since narrowly defeating Clinton at the end of the U.S. primary elections in June, Obama, a Democrat from Illinois, has picked up numerous endorsements. Clinton, a U.S. Senator from New York, has appeared with him in a show of Democratic party unity. Last week, Obama held a fundraiser in Los Angeles that raised some $4 million to $5 million, and several Hollywood stars such as Dennis Quaid and Samuel L. Jackson were there.

Streisand, of course, is a major Hollywood celebrity and fundraiser for Democrats. Yet, celebrity endorsements have a mixed track record in helping candidates, the experts say. Republican candidate Sen. John McCain also has celebrity endorsements including from actors Sylvester Stallone and Robert Duvall.