US News

Clooney event taps big, small donors for Obama campaign

A dinner at the home of actor George Clooney was expected to raise as much as $15 million Thursday night for President Barack Obama’s re-election, surpassing anything he has raised in a single campaign event since he became a candidate for the office in 2007, according to people familiar with the event.

The Obama campaign heavily promoted the Clooney dinner, with Hollywood executive Jeffrey Katzenberg soliciting contributions at $40,000 a head. In a twist, the Obama campaign also marshaled Clooney’s celebrity to pump up contributions from small donors, raffling a pair of invitations to the party in return for $3 contributions.

Clooney told The Wall Street Journal last month that the event would pull in $10 million. It has exceeded that milestone, and the final tally could be as high as $15 million, according to one person familiar with the dinner.

Meanwhile, Obama said today that those who don’t support gay marriage aren’t “mean-spirited.”

His comments came during an ABC interview with Robin Roberts that aired this morning on “Good Morning America.”

To read more, go to The Wall Street Journal.