Fan Fare

Fran Drescher looks to graduate from “Nanny” to U.S. Senate

(Writing and reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)

Actress Fran Drescher, former star of television sitcom “The Nanny”,  has thrown her hat into the  ring as a contender to replace Hillary Clinton as U.S. senator for New York, joining an illustrious list of stars who have sought to make the switch from show business to the political stage. 

Drescher, 51,  is a New York woman through and through, and she has the accent to prove it. Born in Queens, she is known for broadcasting the accent native to that borough of New York on the 1990s show “The Nanny.”      But Drescher is more than just a pretty face and a nasal voice. The actress has survived uterine cancer and earlier this year she was appointed to a U.S. State Department envoy program and toured Eastern Europe to talk about health issues.  Last year, she created a charity called the Cancer Schmancer Movement after her recent battle with the disease.  Drescher told People magazine  that when she was on the lecture circuit for the State Department she was often asked about a future in politics.  “It was one of the single most-asked questions: When are you going to run?  Only second to: Is that your real voice?,” Drescher told the celebrity magazine. 

American politics has a full cast of former actors, from “Law & Order” star Fred Thompson, who ran for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination this year, to action movie star-turned California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the late President Ronald Reagan, who started out as an actor.

But Drescher has some heavyweight rivals wanting to fill the vacancy left by Clinton’s nomination as Secretary of State in Barack Obama’s new administration.  Caroline Kennedy, daughter of  assassinated former President John F. Kennedy, is said to be interested and other names have included New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and even former President Bill Clinton.

 New York Gov. David Paterson, a Democrat, will appoint someone for the position.

 Do actors and movie stars make good politicians? What do you think?

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.

Obama goes Hollywood

Barack Obama found himself surrounded by Hollywood stars at a Los Angeles fundraiser on Tuesday that raised $4 million to more than $5 million for Democrats and the Illinois senator’s presidential campaign, according to a press pool report and the Los Angeles Times.

Obama told the crowd he knew his long campaign against former Democrat presidential rival Hillary Clinton “caused some heartburn and some frustration.” But he added, “we were allies then and we’re allies now.”

Clinton had enjoyed strong support in Los Angeles and among Hollywood’s stars, who first warmed to her when her husband Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992.  But many in her camp are now joining the Obama bandwagon in a sign of party unity against presumptive Republican nominee John McCain.

Obama spoke to an audience that included actors Samuel L. Jackson, Dennis Quaid and Don Cheadle, as well as Sherry Lansing, the former CEO of Paramount Pictures. British-born singer Seal performed his ballad “Kiss from a Rose” and the Sam Cooke soul classic “A Change is Gonna Come,” an apparent reference to Obama’s campaign theme of change.

Seal was introduced by Quaid, who told the crowd: “He’s here tonight to sing for the superman for everyone — Barack Obama.” Rapper Will.i.am of the group the Black Eyed Peas and retired boxer “Sugar” Ray Leonard also were in attendance.

The event was held amid glass chandeliers at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, a performance venue that in years past hosted the Oscars.

Money raised at the fundraiser will be split between the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Tickets to the reception cost $2,300 per person, and VIP tickets cost $28,500 per couple, which allowed those VIPs to attend a dinner with Obama.

Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones sell Clinton sex tales

Gennifer Flowers and Paula Jones say they are just “two chicks chatting,” but in using the Internet to hawk stories of their relationships with former President Bill Clinton the women are dishing about old scandals with a new platform.

At http://www.genniferandpaula.com/, the ladies promise to talk about “the opinons on politics, sex with Bill and their perspective opinion of the presidential penis and how both feel about Hillary Clinton.” And yes, they do say “…perspective opinion…” But will anyone shell out $1.99 per tell-all segment?

The two women occupied the center of sex scandals that surrounded Clinton in the early 1990s. Flowers’ story was that she had a long relationship with Clinton, and Jones accused him of sexually harassing her in a hotel room.

Their Web offering comes at roughly the same time that U.S. magazine Vanity Fair has drawn fire for publishing an article that portrays the former president as jetting around “with a skirt-chasing, scandal-tinged posse,” Flowers and Jones may just grab some of the spotlight.

Actress Gina Gershon has blasted Vanity Fair over the article, which stated that aides recently worried the former president was getting a little too friendly with the star of “Bound.” The magazine refused to publish a retraction. 

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)         

Gina Gershon calls Clinton tale, “outrageous lie.”

Gina Gershon, speaking publicly for the first time about a Vanity Fair magazine article that implied she had an affair with former U.S. President Bill Clinton, has called the tale a wild fabrication.

“It was my day off and all of a sudden I read this thing. You know, it is such a crazy, outrageous lie,” Gerson said Monday on U.S. TV chat show “Live with Regis and Kelly.”

“I’ve met him three times, at events, at the White House or different places,” said Gershon, who has appeared in movies such as “Bound” and on TV hits such as “Ugly Betty.”

Last week, Vanity Fair published an article that said Clinton’s “aides have winced” at, among other things, ”recent high-end Hollywood dinner-party gossip that Clinton has been seen visiting with the actress Gina Gershon in California.” The statement was largely viewed as implying Clinton and Gershon may have had an affair while his wife, U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton, was campaigning for president.

Vanity Fair has stood by the story written by Todd Purdum, and issued a statement saying the story does not indicate Clinton and Gershon had an improper relationship but only “examines the concerns of some of Clinton’s aides about reports of his behavior.”

Gershon’s attorneys demanded Vanity Fair retract the story, but Monday’s TV interview was the first time the actress spoke about the story herself.

“This disturbed me on so many other levels that I kind of felt like I had to stand up for myself and speak the truth,” Gershon said, adding that in today’s world of tabloid and gossip journalism, people often confuse rumors and facts.

Elton sings for Hillary — “I’m still standing”

American TV superstar Oprah Winfrey might be backing Democratic presidential hopeful Barak Obama, but his rival Hillary Clinton got her own celebrity boost on Monday when Elton John announced he would perform a solo concert on behalf of her campaign on April 9 at Radio City Music Hall in New York.  The event, called “Elton and Hillary: One Night Only,” is the British star’s first public solo concert in New York City without his band in eight years. Ticket prices start at $125.

“I’m not a politician but I believe in the work that Hillary Clinton does,” said John.  “I’m excited to support Hillary by performing at what will be a truly memorable night.”

It’s a tight race between Obama, who would be the United States’ first black president if successful, and Clinton, who also would break new ground by being the first female president.