Justin Timberlake and wife/actress Jessica Biel attended a Democratic National Committee (DNC) fundraiser, headlined by President Obama, at Harvey Weinstein and wife Georgina Chapman‘s Manhattan home on May 13, reports Deadline.
The fundraiser for the DNC and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) was to raise funds for the 2014 midterm elections.
Approximately 65 guests attended the fundraiser, paying between $16,200-$20,000 a ticket. Among the guests at Weinstein’s house, were Steve Martin, Melanie Griffith, Steve Buscemi, Uma Thurman, as well as fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger and White House staffers Dan Pfeiffer and Jay Carney.
The New York Post reported that Saturday Night Live comedian Jay Pharaoh impersonated Obama in a skit and was assisted by Timberlake, Biel and Martin who played White House staffers.
Lady Gaga was allegedly offered $1 million to perform at the Republican National Convention last summer, according to a lawsuit filed by the Republican fundraising and advocacy group, American Action Network.
The Washington Examiner reports the AAN is suing the entertainment vendor of the convention.
Gaga wasn’t the only superstar to turn down the seven figure offer. Country star Dolly Parton and rapper Pitbull also declined to perform.
Gaga fundraised for President Obama and later performed with Tony Bennett at a White House staff inauguration ball in January.
The convention eventually hired Kid Rock and Journey to play during the festivities.
The RNC issued the following statement:
“A story in yesterday’s Washington Examiner unfortunately left many people with the impression that the RNC had asked Lady Gaga and other artists to play at the Republican National Convention. To be clear, the RNC neither asked, offered, thought of or ever considered the idea of Lady Gaga performing at our convention. And clearly, we didn’t offer a million dollars.”
AAN also issued a statement that is posted on the RNC’s website:
“In planning for our fundraiser in Tampa, e-mails we’re exchanged between AAN fundraising staff and outside vendors exploring various performance options. AAN is an independent group and is no way affiliated with or connected to the RNC nor was the RNC ever privy to these internal discussions. We considered some acts and didn’t seriously consider others, but we were ultimately happy with a great Kid Rock concert. Our events were independent from the official convention and the RNC.”
Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour may have been one of President Barack Obama’s top fundraisers and a possible British ambassador pick, however a recent discovery of her boyfriend’s tax debt may hamper her nomination chances, reports The Daily Telegraph.
J. Shelby Bryan, a former Clinton advisor and Obama fundraiser, has owed a reported $1.2 million in taxes to the United States government since 2006.
Bryan, a telecommunications executive in Texas, once had an estimated net worth of $30 million, but was hit by the financial crisis. The Telegraph reports that Bryan originally owed more than $1.6 million in taxes, but paid off $400,000.
Bryan states that he is “on schedule” with the IRS and is on a payment plan.
Wintour was a key player in Obama’s fundraising strategy, co-hosting dinners with celebrity donors at $35,000 a plate in New York, London and Paris.
If Wintour were to be nominated for British ambassadorship, Bryan’s tax woes may pose a challenge in her confirmation in the U.S. Senate.
Washington D.C. may not have been as star-studded during this weekend’s inaugural festivities compared to 2009, but many celebrities braved the cold to celebrate and perform for President Obama’s second term celebrations.
Kelly Clarkson, James Taylor and Beyonce serenaded the First family and attendees at the Inauguration on Monday. However, it has been reported Beyonce lip-synced the national anthem with vocals she prerecorded Sunday night.
Here are videos of the performances:
Also spotted at the ceremony was rapper Jay-Z, Katy Perry, John Mayer, Eva Longoria, Stevie Wonder, Cyndi Lauper, former Boston Celtic Bill Russell, Ashley Judd and John Legend.
John Mayer and Katy Perry Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images
Jay-Z and Beyonce Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
Singer Alicia Keys, Jennifer Hudson, Brad Paisley, Stevie Wonder, John Legend and Fun were among the performers at the various inaugural balls.
As President Barack Obama’s inaugural weekend quickly approaches, more entertainers are signing up to join the celebrations and events around Washington D.C.
Beyonce, Kelly Clarkson and James Taylor are set to perform during the Inauguration ceremony on the West Front of the Capitol on January 21.
The AP reports that Katy Perry, Smokey Robinson, Usher, Alicia Keys, Brad Paisley and Fun are set to sing at Obama’s inaugural galas Jan. 21 and a children’s concert on Jan. 19. Performers including Marc Anthony, Stevie Wonder, John Legend and the cast of “Glee” have also signed on to perform at various galas that weekend.
City officials estimate a drop in attendance and predict an the crowd at the inaugural ceremony to be somewhere between 600,000 and 800,000 – down from 1.8 million in 2009.
During Obama’s first inauguration in 2009, celebrities flocked to the celebrations. Speakers and performers included Jack Black, Steve Carell, Rosario Dawson, Jamie Foxx, Tom Hanks, Ashley Judd, Martin Luther King III, Queen Latifah, Laura Linney, George Lopez, Kal Penn, Marisa Tomei, Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker, Tiger Woods, Master Sgt. Caleb Green, Bruce Springsteen, Mary J. Blige, Jon Bon Jovi with Bettye Lavette, James Taylor, John Legend, Jennifer Nettle, John Mellencamp, Josh Groban and Heather Headley, Will.i.am with Herbie Hancock and Sheryl Crow, Renee Fleming, Garth Brooks, Shakira, Adam Levine, Stevie Wonder with Usher and Shakira, U2, Pete Seeger, Beyonce and Aretha Franklin.
Beyonce and Jay-Z at the 2009 Inauguration Photo: Reuters
Other celebrities simply attended the ceremony and/or performed at the dozens of galas held around Washington D.C., including Faith Hill, Oprah Winfrey, Jay-Z, Steven Spielberg, Kate Capshaw, Dustin Hoffman, Magic Johnson, Mohammad Ali, Samuel L. Jackson, Arnold Schwarznegger,Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, Sharon Stone, Sting, Elvis Costello, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Spike Lee, Anne Hathaway, Halle Berry, John Cusack, Leonardo DiCaprio, Demi Moore, Jackson Browne, Cyndi Lauper, Melissa Etheridge, Mariah Carey and Robert DeNiro.
Steven Spielberg and wife Kate Capshaw at the 2009 Inauguration. Photo: Getty Images
Beyonce famously belted out Etta James’s ‘At Last’ at the Neighborhood Ball. Watch the performances below.
It’s no secret President Barack Obama is a fan of “Homeland.” The star of the show, Claire Danes, recounts her first time meeting the president with actor Hugh Dancy, in the latest issue of Elle.
“Hugh was like, ‘We have to meet Obama,’ and we walked over before we could think and found ourselves shaking hands with him,” Danes says. “Hugh realized that he’d forgotten to actually properly introduce himself, and he [President Obama] was like, ‘And you are?’ And Hugh was like, ‘I’m sorry, Mr. President.’ I said, ‘I’m Claire Danes,’ and he said, ‘Oh, you’re a fine actress.’ And I said, ‘You’re a fine president!’ And he said, ‘Oh, you’re a finer actress than I am president.’ I didn’t have any retort. Hugh and I went immediately to the bar and had a big shot of vodka.”
Although Kid Rock endorsed and campaigned for Mitt Romney, the rocker said he has no hard feelings towards President Obama.
“It always stinks to lose at anything in life,” Rock told CNN. “But the beautiful thing about it, you know, is that I love this country and I think both men do, so you cross your fingers and try to move forward and hope for the best. You respect the office of the president of the United States, and the great thing is that in four years, we’ll see what happens. It’s tough to stand up for something you believe in, especially in my business. It’s very easy to alienate a lot of fans and people, but if you don’t stand for something you stand for nothing.”
Rock said Obama greeted him at the Kennedy Center Honors and joked that he was “still here.” “I said, ‘No hard feelings’ and he remembered meeting my son when I played his inauguration, which was very special.”
Singer James Taylor discussed politics and election reform during a speech at the National Press Club on Friday.
“We have a day off for 4th of July. For Independence Day, Patriot’s Day. Washington and Lincoln’s birthday, Veteran’s Day, we have MLK day. Why can’t we get a day off to go to the polls?” Taylor asked.
Taylor said the polls should be open longer and criticized voter ID laws.
“There are a lot of people in the country … who want fewer people to vote,” Taylor said. “These voter ID laws that are in the name of preventing voter fraud, I think, it’s a solution without a problem. …It’s just a bad idea in my opinion.”
Taylor, an Obama supporter, said much of his ambition during the last election was due to the eight years of the Bush presidency.
“It was a tough time for me,” Taylor said. “I really suffered. It made me deeply ambivalent about my country. That we would choose that – even if we may not have actually chosen it – that that was what represented us in the world.”
Taylor said he’s optimistic that Democrats and Republicans can come together to solve the nation’s problems.
“I think that by ourselves liberals would probably steer us to a sort of paralyzed nanny state, European style,” the singer said. “And Republicans left to their own would head toward oligarchy of inherited wealth and power. So I think that we really do need a strong Republican Party and a good dialogue between left and right.”
Actor Matt Damon has an optimistic view on President Obama’s second term, reports The Wrap.
“I’m a perennial optimist,” Damon said. “So I’m very hopeful that this second term is going be a great one and that we’re going to see who he is and he’s going to make a lot of people’s lives a lot better. That’s my true hope.”
Although the actor was a critic throughout Obama’s first term, he is satisfied with the election results.
“I voted for him,” Damon said. “Absolutely, I voted for him.”
Previously, Damon criticized the president for not accomplishing enough in his first term.
“You know, a one-term president with some balls who actually got stuff done would have been, in the long run of the country, much better,” Damon said in December 2011.
Actor and environmentalist Robert Redford said he’s optimistic that President Obama will act on climate change, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“He’s lightly touched on this as an issue, that it’s unfortunate that it took a storm of such consequence to draw the attention that could’ve been drawn by the candidates on the campaign trail,” Redford said. ”Now I’m hopeful that [Obama] is going to take what his words were and put some teeth behind them.”
The academy award-winning actor said average citizens are the ones that can make changes, not the government.
“It’s been tied up for so long, it’s been bottled up for so long, it takes awhile to undo things,” Redford said. “Particularly when you have elements still in play there that are living in the 1950s. And their points of view are so narrow and so ideologically driven that it’s not likely you’re going to see much change there. As a matter of fact, it might provoke them to be even more contentious. So I guess I put my hope more in the people, not so much in current government.”
“The Beltway is a very complicated and troubled place,” Redford added.
THR reports that the newly announced Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability will begin academic offerings in the fall of 2014 and will be located on 11 acres of the Claremont campus. The school’s news release said the curriculum will “prepare students to create solutions for the most challenging and urgent sustainability problems.”
Redford spoke at a press conference unveiling the conservancy.
“I’m really excited about the idea that — before it’s too late for Los Angeles — that something could be set aside or set up that would not only honor what was and what could still be but also honor the young people coming into the world,” Redford said.
Redford, an Obama supporter, said Americans will have to keep pushing congressional members and Obama on climate change and sustainability.
“This last election was pretty scary for awhile,” Redford said at the press conference. “I’m obviously biased in terms of being happy that we got through it to where we did — but that doesn’t mean it’s the end. That doesn’t mean ‘OK, quit and go home.’ It’s really kind of a beginning.”
RT @RobSchneider: Obama admits wrongdoing in IRS! Now if he could do the same thing with the Drone program and the Justice Dept. and shut d… 5 days ago
