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The Stars Came Out at the Democratic Convention Last Night

CitizenSugar — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:01:28 -0700

Citizen: After the spectacular roll call vote (I'm a sucker for the real party business) and equally spectacular sunset, the celebrities and luminaries descended upon the convention arena. In a bizarre game of "animal, vegetable, or mineral," it was "celebrity, politician, or media type?"

It's harder than it looks! Let's just say last night you would have seen me shamelessly tailing Aisha Tyler, Jurnee Smollett (of The Great Debaters) Alan Cumming, Joe Scarborough, Al Sharpton, and Gayle King. I will say I'm singularly responsible for Aisha getting a seat last night. The usher asked me if it was her (after seeing my not-so-subtle camera) and then promptly let her in. Though Liberty may take the prize for celeb-hounding. . .

Liberty: There wasn't a seat in the house during President Clinton's speech, so I watched with a large group around one of the many flat screens throughout the place. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just happened to watching at the same TV! After the speech I got a chance to break it down with SF Mayor Gavin Newsom and his wife Jennifer. We all agreed that nobody can talk economics like Bill Clinton. And after it ended, Obama surprise and all, I caught the Clintons leaving their seats, and giving hugs to Jesse Jackson! Check out the view from behind the scenes in the video below.

To see the rest of the pics and the video read more.

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Not Superdelegates . . . Look Who's Starring at the Convention!

CitizenSugar — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 06:00:37 -0700

While there will certainly be party luminaries in Denver next week for the Democratic National Convention, there's a whole army of stars slated to be there too, partying it up in their own way. Concerts, parties - it's easy to forget there's a real party agenda amid all the fun. While I'm most looking forward to all of the wonky goodness, every vote, speech, and balloon drop, check out who else will be there besides the usual (Nancy Pelosi, Caroline Kennedy, Al Gore, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and many more!) political suspects. It's a cavalcade of stars.

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Ambassador Sienna Won't Be Reuniting With Jude

PopSugarUK — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0800

Sienna Miller wore her favourite hooded coat as she took her pooch Bess for a walk in New York yesterday. She was without her NY-based buddies and it doesn't sound like she'll be taking romantic walks with her ex Jude Law any time soon, as Sienna's sister Savannah has responded to rumours that Sienna and Jude are getting back together by saying: "I think that would be a completely ridiculous assumption considering the way that man has conducted himself recently. That's all I'm saying." Amidst the rumours about her personal life, Sienna is focusing on her acting and charity work, and has just been appointed Ambassador for the International Medical Corps to help raise awareness of vulnerable populations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which she visited earlier in the year. Sienna said:

"After seeing International Medical Corps' courageous work up-close I was determined to become more involved, devoting my energies and my name to bring more attention to the challenges they face around the world. These people work in the toughest conditions imaginable, saving lives every single day, and helping bring self-reliance and hope. The question for me was, how could I not take action?"

It's great to see celebrities like Sienna getting involved with such worthwhile causes.

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Ben Reunites With Jen and Talks Babies

PopSugar — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:00:25 -0700

Ben Affleck spent his second day at the DNC helping pack boxes of food for the needy, and last night Jennifer Garner arrived to watch the speeches, including Obama's surprise appearance. Ben is probably doing a lot of schmoozing, though it sounds like one convention attendee he isn't jumping to call is his ex Jennifer Lopez. Ben was eager, however, to chat about Matt Damon's new baby girl. Affleck said, "I've kind of been texting him back and forth, and he's doing great and [wife] Lucy is doing great. Anybody who has a child is excited, I think, no matter what the gender is. They are thrilled. The thing that people really want, when you get down to it, is a healthy child." While we wouldn't be surprised if Ben would like a son, sounds like a perfectly diplomatic answer for a political event.

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Source and Source

Jack Nicholson Loves to Be Behind a Woman

LibertySugar — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:00:30 -0800

Following the release of his video Clinton endorsement/character montage, Jack Nicholson did an interview with MTV News.

Here are some of the highlights:

His favorite Hillary Clinton Policy?

"One of the things I heard in Hillary's campaign is she intends to put it all on the Internet and make it a completely transparent government."

Jack's opinion on the talking heads?

" It's disturbing to me how gleeful they [the media] are at her imagined demise."

On the experience question?

"'I'm a person who understands what experience, which is often a euphemism for connections, can mean in the big old world. She's been there. I was raised by women. I know how tough they are when the tough gets going."

What does Jack make of Obama's inspirational qualities and superdelegates? - read more.

"I love the inspiration of Senator Obama, but we have a representative republic for this very reason. In the original democracy in [ancient Greece], everybody voted and that was it. They realized they didn't want the hot song of the week to take over the country. The same is true of these superdelegates. These superdelegates are there to make democracy more thoughtful. You can't just discount super-delegates for one reason or another. These are the rules of the Democratic Party."

Source

Charlize and Eva Show Their DNC Support in Denver

Molly — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:03:00 -0700

The Democratic National Convention rolled on last night with another rousing series of speeches, including from Hilary Clinton, and more stars arriving in Denver. Charlize Theron, a new US citizen and voter, was out with Stuart at a screening of their movie Battle in Seattle. Meanwhile, Eva stopped off to check in with the MySpace computer station. Naturally Anderson Cooper was there to cover the event, but what can I say, I'll take any excuse to post him. The same goes for Kal Penn, my recent fair game foe. Of course, these are just a few of the stars expected to make appearances this week - our Citizen girls have even had celeb sightings themselves.

To see more of the stars at the DNC, just read more.

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Source, Source and Source

PoliWood Asks: Should Celebs Get Political?

TresSugar — Mon, 04 May 2009 14:40:00 -0700

Wag the Dog director Barry Levinson has tongues wagging at the Tribeca Film Festival with a new documentary called Poliwood, which premiered this weekend. As the name suggests, the film explores what happens when Hollywood celebrity gets all smooshed together with DC politics. Featuring celeb cameos from Spike Lee, Josh Lucas, Anne Hathaway, and more, the doc goes behind the scenes of the 2008 campaign, including the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.

The film is backed by the Creative Coalition, a nonprofit group of politically active actors and other artsy types, so don't expect a straight-up skewering. But Levinson isn't afraid to insert his own perspective on the potential confusion that PoliWood promotes. He says,

"Well, I think what happened is, you have this television screen, and everything has to go through that screen - and at a certain point, I don't think that we can tell the difference between the celebrity and the politician. They both have to entertain us in some fashion."

Do you think that celebrity and politics have become inextricably linked? Do you like it when celebs get political, or would you rather actors just stick to acting?

Source

Front Page: Kenya Declares Holiday to Celebrate Obama

LibertySugar — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:00:00 -0800

Kenya has declared Thursday a public holiday to celebrate the election of Barack Obama to the US presidency. Obama's father was from Kenya, and his victory has prompted jubilation across the country. - BBC News
After a heated, divisive campaign, fueled by a record $73 million in spending, California voters appear to be backing Proposition 8, which would change the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage. With more than half the vote counted, the measure was piling up huge margins in the Central Valley but losing in every Bay Area county but one. - San Francisco Chronicle

The senate race in Minnesota seems headed for a recount. Republican Sen. Norm Coleman finished ahead of Democrat Al Franken early Wednesday in the final vote count, but his 571-vote margin falls within the state's mandatory recount law. - Associated Press
With the Democrats celebrating a Barack Obama presidency, as well as an increase in their majority control of Congress, the attention now turns to the hard part: legislating. - ABC News

Source

Sugardaddy: Ben Affleck

LilSugar — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 13:00:23 -0800

He has one Oscar, several Golden Globe nominations and the "Sexiest Man Alive" title, but the name Ben Affleck seems most proud of is Dad. Like his good friend Matt Damon, this Sugardaddy can often be seen out and about with his family, visiting bookstores in NYC, shopping at farmers markets in LA and most recently picking up daughter Violet, age 3, from school following the birth of her lil sister, Seraphina, two weeks ago.

It has been an eventful month for the 36-year-old Boston native. Aside from the new addition, the politically active Affleck was seen in Washington, DC earlier this week, celebrating the inauguration of the candidate he supported early-on, attending the National Hunger Rally hosted by Feeding America on MLK Day and showing his latest flick, Reporter, at the Sundance Film Festival. The writer/actor/director has also recently made a name for himself as a humanitarian, helping the United Nations Commission for Refugees launch the 'Gimme Shelter' campaign to aid those uprooted by continuing conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

While this father of two keeps himself busy with his off-screen activities, we can always count on him to put a smile on our faces with his duet with Jimmy Kimmel last year.

Flynet

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The Morning After: Our Reactions to Obama's Change Promise

LibertySugar — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 10:30:34 -0700

Liberty: Last night I saw Americans who have been hiding in the shadows of apathy or cynicism come out and get excited about the future of their country. Americans who showed that they can wait in a line for hours, just to participate in a celebration of their power to make a difference.

Barack Obama's speech stressed individual and mutual responsibility. He said Democratic leadership, and an Obama presidency, would not do everything for Americans. It would, though, help them accomplish the things they cannot do for themselves, like protect the country from national security threats in Afghanistan, and give those who do not have bootstraps a pair so they can pull themselves up into the promise of middle-class prosperity. And while he was at it, Obama fiercely made the case that John McCain has and will turn his back on America's urgent needs because he just doesn't get it.

Whenever a politician claims that government can make peoples' lives better, critics become skeptical. But last night I saw a candidate that will, and did, make a commitment to ordinary people. Who did the best he could to offer specifics, without falling prey to a typical Democratic weakness of ignoring an emotional argument. Democracy became an action verb, not something that the well-connected took care of for you.

To see Citizen's reaction and more pictures we took at the event, read more.

Citizen: At its heart, there wasn't so much about the speech that was innately objectionable, the broad strokes he painted are a fine landscape - but he doesn't speak to me. Whether a fundamental difference of political philosophy or a complete lack of chemistry with the man, as much as I enjoyed witnessing the spectacle, I was not moved by it. I was not inspired by the parade of done-wrong stories. When he said, "More of you have cars you can't afford to drive, credit card bills you can't afford to pay, and tuition that's beyond your reach. These challenges are not all of government's making." My head screamed, but does that mean they're for the government's fixing?

I'm all for roads and a smart, no-waste globally beneficially governmental structure (and let's get it right), but I sure as hell don't want to rely on that as my complete bedrock of security. With great reliance comes great power, and I don't want my government to have that power over me. My building blocks of support come from the ground up, not the top down. When things go wrong, I want solutions to come from self first, then family, then community, on up - the government would never be my first call. As Liberty and I hashed it out afterward, it's a different philosophy. If you have a safety net you're more likely to fall. It's just human nature. If someone will fix your problems for you, why wouldn't you let them? Though he said this: "Ours is a promise that says government cannot solve all our problems, but what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves," that was not the real message conveyed last night, at least not to me.

Then there was the event itself. I've loved this week - you don't have to support a candidate to support the effort of democracy. But last night's dressed-down, come as you are, jumbo-soda and plate-of-nachos stadium setting was disappointing. With the crowd doing the wave and the half time-style line up, I kept waiting for kickoff. Between the utter distraction and screaming every time a famous person appeared, for much of the event what was happening on stage was an after thought.

And on that stage? A veritable variety show. Sheryl Crow? Stevie Wonder? Where is the sense of decorum and humility and ceremony in the midst of a rock concert? There is a time and place for celebration, but this most serious and sterling of occasions isn't it. I'm here for the speeches, not the snacks; the weight of grave responsibility, not the wave; and the gracious dignity, not the grandstand.

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