Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Clooney Hosts Big-Time Obama Fundraising Party

In case you hadn’t heard, there is going to be a big fundraising bash for President Obama’s reelection campaign tonight over at George Clooney’s place.

No one — well, at least no Democrat — would want to miss that, right? But before you run to put on your party dress, you might want to know what it’s going to cost you to get through Clooney’s front door.

Two lucky winners received invitations raffled off at $3 a ticket. But for the rest of the crowd, the entrance fee is $40,000. That’s $40,000 a head, not per couple. Soliciting that kind of cash has been the job of Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg.

According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, the total tally for the fundraiser is going to be higher than initially expected due in large part to the $3 contributions. “The number of people who wanted to go to Clooney’s house was through the roof,” a person familiar with the dinner said.

But we can’t discount Katzenberg’s persuasive powers. There may have been a whole lot of little donations, but we can bet that those $40,000 solicitations are what brought the total amount raised from the $10 million projected by Clooney to a whopping $15 million—the most ever raised by Obama at a single event since he first entered the race for the Presidency in 2007.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.