Big-names Big-money

Celebs give big money to Calif. Senate candidate

By Judy Kurtz

Big-name celebrities — including John Legend, Seth MacFarlane, Sean Penn, and Sheryl Sandberg — are coughing up big cash to back Kamala Harris in her Senate bid.

California’s attorney general, a Democrat, is running to succeed retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).

Federal Election Commission records show plenty of top-tier stars are getting out their checkbooks ahead of the June 2016 primary and the November 2016 general election.

“Family Guy” creator MacFarlane shelled out more than $5,000 dollars to Harris’s campaign. Politically active “All of Me” singer Legend, a supporter of President Obama and frequent visitor to Washington, donated $2,000. Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer and author of Lean In, gave $5,200. “Milk” star Sean Penn also donated more than $5,000.
Famed director Rob Reiner, who was behind the camera on hits such as “When Harry Met Sally …,” “The Princess Bride,” and “This is Spinal Tap,” steered $2,700 Harris’s way with a donation in late March. Laurie David, the producer of 2006’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” offered up $5,400, the maximum amount an individual can give to a single candidate in a two-year election cycle.

Harris was the first contender to formally declare her candidacy after Boxer, a four-term senator, announced in January she wouldn’t be running for reelection.

It’s not the first time Harris, who won a second term as the Golden State’s top cop in November, has tapped Tinseltown’s high-wattage stars: Hollywood reportedly contributed at least $1.4 million to her state attorney general campaign. Brian Brokaw, Harris’ campaign spokesman, told the Los Angeles Times last month of the Senate bid, “in a state as large as California, you have to lay the foundation for a very expensive race. Most of her nights are occupied up and down the state in living rooms, doing fundraisers and lining up endorsements.”

Among some of the other high-profile donors to Harris’s campaign: “All in the Family” producer Norman Lear, “Two and a Half Men” creator Chuck Lorre,  “NYPD Blue” co-creator Steven Bochco, former ESPN personality and now-NFL Network host Rich Eisen, talent agent Ari Emanuel, model Julianne Phillips and mega-producer Brian Grazer.

Harris also appears to have some of the top behind-the-scenes executives in Hollywood on her side. Viacom President Doug Herzog, Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn and NBCUniversal Vice Chairman Ron Meyer have all donated to her campaign.