STREISAND HOSTS FIRST SO. CALIF. DINNER HONORING NANCY PELOSI AS SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE, RAISING $1.3 MILLION FOR DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGNS

Barbra Streisand opened her Malibu estate April 12 to host the first Los Angeles event honoring her friend Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. The event, attended by 120 invited guests who paid $25,000 to $50,000 a couple, raised $1,300,000 for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). The fundraiser was in support of the DCCC's efforts to increase the party’s majority in the House of Representatives in the 2008 elections.

At the gala dinner, the artist/activist welcomed such celebrity Democratic supporters as Eva Longoria, Melissa Etheridge and Tammy Michaels, David Foster, Kenny G, Josh Groban, Marilyn and Alan Bergman, Amy Benneman, JJ Abrams, Dick Van Dyke and Nita Whitaker, with Foster, Etheridge, Kenny G, Groban, classical pianist Tara Kamangar and Whitaker featured in musical performance. Among the notable political activists present were Norman and Lyn Lear, Cindy and Alan Horn and Mary and Steven Swig.

Democratic members of the House of Representatives attending were Congresspersons Hilda Solis, Chris Van Hollen, Xavier Becerra, Loretta Sanchez, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Brad Sherman and Henry Waxman.

In 1986, Ms. Streisand hosted a fundraiser at her prior Malibu estate, the famed “One Voice” concert, which earned $1.2 million to support the Democratic Party’s effort to reclaim majority in the United States Senate, a campaign which did that by electing five new Democrats to the body. Subsequent broadcast and record and DVD sales of the artist’s concert that evening have brought in an additional $11 million which her Streisand Foundation directed to major charitable and social causes she supports.

The seated dinner and program, which was tented, followed a cocktail reception in Ms. Streisand’s garden.

Thanks: Dick Guttman.