Actors Join Tech Tycoons Backing Obama Amid Piracy Feud

Three months after a tuxedo-clad George Clooney shared a White House dinner table with Barack and Michelle Obama, the president traveled to the actor’s mansion in Studio City for another meal. That second party, a star-studded affair in May, came with a better dessert: $15 million in campaign cash. Less than two weeks later, President Obama returned to California, this time to the San Francisco Bay area, to collect contributions from the state’s technology crowd at a Hawaiian- themed dinner thrown by venture capitalist Douglas Goldman. “Arguably, California has become the ATM for Democrats in this race,” said Chris Lehane, a San Francisco-based party strategist who worked on Al Gore’s 2000 campaign. “Hollywood is doing more than ever; Silicon Valley is stepping up with its new money.”