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Correction: This post has been updated to correct an error in the story and headline which misstated the amount of money donors paid to attend the San Francisco fundraiser. It’s $33,400 per person, not per couple.
That Hollywood star-power thing really does work.
Some 70 attendees contributed $33,400 per person for the chance to breathe the same air as George Clooney at a fundraiser Friday in San Francisco — and hear Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton talk, apparently without an ounce of irony, about standing up for the middle class.
Others donated even more, $100,000 to $353,400, to schmooze and snap selfies with the bronzed Oscar-winner at the home of venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar or sit at the head table with Clinton and George and Amal Clooney at the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill.
A Clinton spokesperson would not say how much money the event raised. But if every donor in the room paid the minimum price of admission to attend, that’s at least a $2.3 million night for the Hillary Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee for Hillary for America, the Democratic National Committee and 33 state committees. (The fund neatly skirts the individual donor limits of $2,700 per election for the primary and general.)
Clinton backers, among them Twitter’s former media chief Katie Jacobs Stanton, turned to social media to do a little celebbragging.
https://twitter.com/KatieS/status/721181841420460032
https://twitter.com/KatieS/status/721161426061033472
Pishevar, who’s kept largely mum about his political fundraising efforts, posted images of Pramana Collective co-founder Brandee Barker and the Human Rights Watch’s director of global affairs Eileen Donahoe, from the event. He even picked up a signed copy of Clinton’s book, “Hard Choices,” for his daughter.
https://twitter.com/shervin/status/721222056176562176
https://twitter.com/shervin/status/721227482288947200
Meanwhile, protesters were out in full force, some wielding signs denouncing the big-money fundraiser, including one that asked “How many mouths can $353K feed?”
https://twitter.com/chitrakar05/status/721250359830642689
Supporters of Clinton’s primary opponent, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, posted video of protestors on Twitter and YouTube — including one with a bullhorn leading the chant “Hillary Clinton has got to go, hey, hey, ho, ho.”
https://twitter.com/NCForBernie/status/721202493133299714
The Clooneys headline another fundraiser tonight at their mansion in Los Angeles, which Napster founder and former Facebook president Sean Parker co-hosts with DreamWorks Animation Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Clinton makes a campaign appearance today in southern California, speaking at Los Angeles Southwest College.
Correction: This post has been updated to correct an error in the story and headline, which misstated the amount of money donors paid to attend the San Francisco fundraiser. It’s $33,400 per person, not per couple.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
