9/14/2008

Katharine Westfall

The actor and Democratic Party supporter speaks out about "disaster."

For the first time in a long time, Britney Spears isn't the most talked about person in Hollywood. Instead, in light of the upcoming presidential election, it seems that Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin is on the tip of every liberal celebrity's tongue.  
  
According to *Variety*, Matt Damon last week described Palin's candidacy to the Associated Press as a "Disney movie. . . . The hockey mom . . . from Alaska and she's the president and it's like she's facing down Vladimir Putin and using the folksy stuff she learned at the hockey rink and it's absurd."  
  
In the last year, Damon has donated $4,600 to the Obama campaign and $28,500 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the *Boston Herald* reported. For the McCain-Palin campaign, Damon's comments only added fuel to their consistent argument that Obama himself is too much of a celebrity. According to the *New York Daily News*, Palin's spokeswoman responded to the Academy Award winner's criticism by saying, "It's not surprising that Barack Obama and his celebrity supporters continue to tear down Gov. Palin with little more than blatant name calling."  
  
Equally critical was Whoopi Goldberg's online post, in which she attacked the public's reaction to Palin's teenage daughter's pregnancy, *Variety* reported. "I find it interesting that if this girl was Chelsea Clinton or black she probably wouldn't have been treated the same way. When a black teenager gets pregnant she's a welfare mother. When this teenager, when this nice white-lady-girl-teenager gets pregnant, it's an Evangelical Christian choice," the comedian wrote.