Bill Maher Makes $1 Million Obama Donation

According to his longtime publicist Sarah Fuller, this happened tonight at the end of Bill Maher’s comedy special CrazyStupidPolitics: Live from Silicon Valley which streamed live on Yahoo. Maher brought out a check and pledged a personal donation of $1 million dollars to Obama’s SuperPAC, Priorities USA Action. According to Fuller, he explained that having a country governed by Barack Obama rather than any of the Republican candidates is “worth a million dollars” and said “this is the wisest investment I think I could make.” He also encouraged other wealthy liberals like himself to do the same. Maher’s pledge comes at a time when Hollywood financial support for President Obama’s re-election has been ebbing rather than flowing.

Maher’s longrunning HBO show, Real Time With Bill Maher, is currently in its 10th season. Though his liberal views are well known, Maher tried to present panel guests of many political persuasions to voice a spectrum of views. In his nearly 20 years hosting political talk shows, Maher has earned 27 Emmy nominations but has never won in what is the longest such losing streak on record. Maher also has written 5 political bestsellers. He also performs at least 50 dates a year in Las Vegas and in sold-out theaters all across the country. So I guess this all means that Maher intends to make good on his political donation pledge. What this does to his ratings will be another story. But then HBO doesn’t depend on advertising.