Rupert Murdoch's daughter to host Obama fundraiser
The guest list is a roll call of London's more glamorous U.S. expats. Television tycoon Elisabeth Murdoch, daughter of News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch, is holding a fundraiser for Barack Obama at her London home. The invitation to the April 28 event at Murdoch's west London house lists Murdoch as one of eight "event chairs." The others include Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow, Warner Bros. U.K. managing director Josh Berger and U.S.-born chef Ruth Rogers. The 20 "event hosts" include art collector Kay Saatchi, fund manager David Blood and Elizabeth Saltzman Walker, fashion director of Vanity Fair magazine. Attendance costs $1,000 each or $2,300 for the event plus a "VIP reception." The higher figure is the maximum individual donation allowed to a primary campaign. The event has sparked speculation about possible political differences within the Murdoch clan. Rupert Murdoch is a well-known conservative, and his New York Post newspaper was a longtime foe of former President Clinton and Hillary Clinton during his two terms in the White House and her first run for the U.S. Senate in New York in 2000. Since then, the couple have worked to reach a detente with the paper and its owner. The Post endorsed Hillary Clinton's re-election bid in 2006, and Rupert Murdoch hosted a fundraiser for her senatorial campaign. In January, however, the Post endorsed Clinton's rival, Obama, for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. News Corp. is one of the world's largest media empires, and owns the Times and Sun newspapers in Britain, British Sky Broadcasting and the Fox News Channel. Elisabeth Murdoch, 39, is a former managing director of Sky Networks who left her father's company in 2000 to start her own television production company, Shine Ltd. She is married to public relations executive Matthew Freud, great-grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. |
