Joe Biden Lines Up Extensive List of Obama Backers for First Major Hollywood Event (EXCLUSIVE)
Joe Biden has lined up a long list of co-hosts for his first Hollywood-centric fundraising event, including a number of industry figures who were active in President Barack Obama’s presidential runs.
The list of co-hosts for the May 8 event, at the home of James Costos and Michael Smith, includes Colleen and Bradley Bell, Peter and Megan Chernin, Chris Silbermann and Julia Franz, Jon Vein and Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeffrey and Marilyn Katzenberg, Tom Rothman and Jessica Harper, Michael Lombardo and Sonny Ward, Eric Ortner, Terry Press Marx, Eric Paquette and Jessica Postigo, Rob and Michele Reiner, Eric Schmidt and Ken Solomon, according to the invite.
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Also on the list of co-hosts are Cookie Parker, Richard Blum, Jane and Craig Gering, Doug Hickey, Martha Karsh, Janet Keller, Lena Kennedy, and Sarah and Joe Kiani. Another co-host is Rufus Gifford, who was finance director for Obama’s 2012 election campaign and went on to serve as U.S. ambassador to Denmark.
The event is priced at $2,800 per person, with those who raise $10,000 listed as co-hosts.
A number of the co-hosts of the event have longtime ties to Obama that include not just bundling for his campaigns but hosting events for him at their homes. Among them are the Bells, who held a fundraiser for Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign at their Holmby Hills property. Colleen Bell went on to become the U.S. Ambassador the Hungary.
Costos, the former U.S. Ambassador to Spain, and Smith, the designer who did a makeover of the Oval Office, are longtime friends of the Obama who have reportedly hosted them at their home in Palm Springs.
Lombardo and Ward, meanwhile, hosted Biden at a 2012 event at their home in which the then-Vice President announced his support for same-sex marriage. A few weeks later, on “Meet the Press,” Biden first publicly announced that he favored same-sex nuptials, something that helped compel Obama to publicly declare his backing later that week.
Biden also has scheduled another fundraiser earlier in the day on May 8. Comcast senior strategic adviser Joe Was and his wife, Cynthia Telles, director of the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. They are hosting a lunch at their home, with tickets starting at $250 per person. Sean Burton, CEO of Cityview, is among the cohosts, according to the invite.
Biden announced his long-anticipated presidential campaign on Thursday in a video that took aim at President Donald Trump and his response to the Charlottesville, Va., riots of August 2017. He’s reportedly attending a fundraiser on Thursday evening, with co-hosts including Comcast’s David L. Cohen.
Biden will be a guest on ABC’s “The View” on Friday, in what is being billed as his first sit-down interview since announcing his candidacy.
His campaign also announced a list of staff hires. They include two veterans of the Motion Picture Association of America. Kate Bedingfield, who will be deputy campaign manager and communications director, and T.J. Ducklo, who will be national press secretary.
Bedingfield went on to work in the White House as communications director for Biden, .and then was vice president of communications for Monumental Sports and Entertainment. Ducklo later did P.R. for Showtime’s “The Circus” and most recently was senior communications director for NBC News.
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