Galaxy full of stars favors Obama over McCain

It's no wonder John McCain gets so crotchety about celebrities because stars are aligning with Barack Obama on a massive scale. No matter what you choose to be entertained by -- movies, music, TV, fashion or sports -- you could be getting entertained by a famous Obama donor.

Contributors such as George Clooney and Scarlett Johansson have become sex symbols stumping for Obama. But hundreds of Obama star donors include the most respected actors (Tom Hanks, Glenn Close, Morgan Freeman), authors (Judy Blume, John Grisham), supermarket cover stars (Jennifer Aniston, Ellen Pompeo), sports stars (Michael Jordan, Joe Paterno), and Las Vegas headliners (Barry Manilow, Bette Midler).

Even if you watch a movie trailer narrated by the guy who says, "In a world ..." -- even that narrator guy, Don LaFontaine, has donated $3,300 to Obama and the Democratic Party.

And if you get dressed up -- in clothes made by Vera Wang, Tom Ford, Calvin Klein or a range of other designers -- you are putting on threads crafted by an Obama donor, and maybe modeled by an Obama contributor (Cindy Crawford, Christie Brinkley).

The company keeping an eye on all these contributions is the source of this column: Newsmeat.com. A thorough reading of Newsmeat suggests McCain has energized perhaps the weakest list of star contributors in decades.

For McCain, there's just one famous actress donor: Susan Saint James. Actors and musicians are almost entirely composed of Clint Eastwood, Gary Sinise, Pat Boone, Ben Stein and Rip Torn. Some checks have come from athletes, like Roger Staubach, Richard Petty and Mario Andretti.

McCain does best among famous Vegas moguls, taking checks so far from Donald Trump, Sheldon Adelson, Kirk Kerkorian and Steve Wynn. (Elaine Wynn has donated to both campaigns and to Obama's VP pick, Joe Biden.)

So here's something funny: Most of those McCain men's casinos are constantly writing checks (for tens of thousands of dollars) to pay celebrities to appear in their hotels, where they have been known to advocate Obama's candidacy.

All year, I've interviewed stars playing Vegas, and I've often fished for their political picks. Only one celebrity spoke up for McCain: the self-described "raunchy moralist" Jackie Collins, and even she said Obama is "OK" and cautioned that she really doesn't care who wins.

Stars tell me there are basically three things going for Obama. 1) Obama is an exciting candidate. 2) Clumsy President Bush's actions persuaded America to turn more Democratic. And 3) McCain is just like Bush, threatening more war and fewer jobs.

"McCain scares me," says Obama fan Wanda Sykes -- the comedic co-star of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "The New Adventures of Old Christine."

She says if McCain were somehow to win the presidency, you could expect stand-ups to recycle anti-Bush material.

McCain would "be like more Bush," Sykes says. "You could keep your whole act and just switch 'Bush' for 'McCain.'"

"Definitely, John McCain would be better to make fun of ... because he's 100" years old, says comedian and actor Jamie Kennedy.

And comedian and actor Katt Williams agrees McCain equals Bush for comedy material, while he cites a different age for McCain: 111.

"We are really blessed with the Bush era, as a comic," Williams says. "He provided about as much material as a president could ever provide."

Or as a different Williams, Robin Williams, tells me: "How stupid do you have to be if you're from a family where the smart brother's named Jeb?"

Hip-hop star Nelly says Bush's bungling of Hurricane Katrina and other national affairs helped activate youth and music movements to work on behalf of Obama and Democrats.

"If Bush hadn't done all the ... stuff that he's been doing the past couple of years, we wouldn't have woke up," Nelly says. "As much as we hate him, we gotta thank him."

Quite a few stars haven't yet donated to Obama, even though they wrote checks earlier to Hillary Clinton. This is a notable list that, as of the end of last week, starred Tony Bennett, Nancy Sinatra, Alec Baldwin, Renee Zellweger, Elizabeth Taylor, Jon Bon Jovi, Chevy Chase, Hank Aaron, Sally Field, Vivica A. Fox, Lou Holtz, Felicity Huffman, Donna Karan, Annie Leibovitz, Debra Messing, Anne Rice, Rachael Ray, Moby, Martha Stewart and Barry Switzer.

But just because a Clinton fan hasn't yet donated to Obama doesn't mean they aren't supporters and won't give in coming months.

George Takei of "Star Trek" and "Heroes" gave to Clinton, yet hasn't endowed Obama. But when I interviewed him a few weeks ago, he was pro-Obama and anti-McCain.

Some stars are very outspoken for Obama. Although, Nelly understands why Republican voters around the country don't want stars to be too aggressive because "I wouldn't want (expletive) Chuck Norris to tell me to vote for anybody."

So, Nelly says, "I tell fans ... 'I don't think you should vote for somebody because an entertainer tells you to. But if you're gonna listen to me, then I ask you to listen to him.'"

Personally, Nelly sees Obama as history in the making:

"When JFK was running, and you looked at all the (famous) supporters he had, it looked like such a long time ago. But now here you are, and this is history for kids. Kids are gonna have to write essays and answer questions" in school on Obama, he says.

Thus, just one enticement for supporters, famous or not, is to someday say, "You were there and involved in it."

Doug Elfman's column appears on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Contact him at 383-0391 or e-mail him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He also blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.