President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign today got yet more Hollywood fundraising help. Young stars like Jared Leto, Big Bang Theory’s Johnny Galecki and Oliva Wilde have joined with a few more established figures like David Fincher, Darren Aronofsky and Peter Frampton for what is being called a “Gen44″ fundraiser on June 29 here in LA. This will be the fifth time the Obama campaign has reached into Hollywood’s starpower pockets since raising a record-breaking $15 million at George Clooney’s house on May 10.
Leto chairs the Gen44 host committee with Galecki, Wilde, Fincher, Aronofsky, Frampton, Maria Bello, Zach Braff, former Friday Night Lights star Connie Britton, Sophia Bush, The Game author Neil Strauss, and Jim Toth among those on board. Several of the committee members, like Leto and Braff, met quietly with the President the last time he was in LA fundraising on June 7.
The campaign announcement today made no mention if President Obama, the First Lady or anyone else from the administration would be there or even where there actually was. All that is known is that the event is at 9 PM on June 29 in LA and that tickets are $500 each for attendees and $2,500 each for Host Committee members like Leto and Galecki. That’s considerably cheaper than the $40,000 a ticket intimate dinner at Clooney’s house last month. It is also cheaper than the $40,000 per couple tickets for the June 6 event at Glee creator Ryan Murphy’s Beverly Hills home or the June 14 dinner at Sarah Jessica Parker’s New York brownstone. Ticket prices for the June 29 Gen44 fundraiser are also less than the $1,250 it cost to attend the LGBT Leadership Council Gala at the Beverly Wilshire on June 7 and far less than the $10,000 a ticket it cost to go to the Mariah Carey hosted gala at the Plaza Hotel in New York on June 14. There is no word if there will be a small donor lotto at the June 29 event like there was at the Clooney and Parker dinners.
With donations from Wall Street to Obama substantially down from what they were in 2008 and the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling, expect a lot more Hollywood fundraising from the incumbent this election. Speaking on background to a gathering of Washington, D.C.-based reporters, Obama officials predicted a $1 billion combined anti-Obama effort from Republican super PACs, nonprofit entities and the Romney campaign itself. The presumptive Republican nominee alone, they predicted, would raise more than $100 million in June — a sum that would be both historic and demoralizing to Democrats, who went into the 2012 election expecting the president to retain his 2008 fundraising advantages.
The full Gen44 host committee is Jared Leto, Johnny Galecki, Olivia Wilde, David Fincher, Darren Aronofsky, Peter Frampton, Steve Aoki, Donovan Leitch, Allan Loeb, Samantha Millman, Maggie Q, Maria Bello, Zach Braff, Pete Wentz, Connie Britton, David Morin, Jason Weinberg, Beau Flynn, Jodi Gomes, Chris Hanley, Eric Ortner, Catherine Park Jason Putorti, Jordan Brown, Sophia Bush, Maegan Carberry, Pankit Doshi, Chris Kantrowitz Todd Hawkins, Zachary Quinto, Ian, Somerhalder, Neil Strauss, Jim Toth, Kenna, Marc Webb and Pat Magnarella.
via Deadline.com http://www.deadline.com/2012/06/obama-enlists-young-not-so-young-hollywood-for-latest-la-fundraiser/
