Sean Penn and his $2000 Check

28 Aug 2008
The Washington Post

Sean Penn to ‘Reluctantly’ Vote for Obama

The hottest actor at the Democratic National Convention, Sean Penn, tells The Sleuth he’ll vote for Barack Obama and that his event this week with Ralph Nader is not an endorsement of the consummate party spoiler. “I’m not supporting Nader for president,” Penn tells us. We hung out with Penn very late Tuesday night (and into the wee hours of Wednesday morning) by the pool at beer magnate Scott Coors’s swanky modern mansion in suburban Denver, where Penn and other celebrities flocked to a party hosted by Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter and others.

Penn, who supported Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) for president during the Democratic primaries, expressed some reservations about Obama. But he’s certainly not about to vote for a Republican.

“I will reluctantly vote for Obama,” an exhausted-looking, wild-haired Penn told us in the wee hours of the morning.

Penn, who lives in San Francisco now, was being ushered around by Hollywood emissary Lawrence O’Donnell, a longtime former aide to the late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.). And even though O’Donnell has lived and breathed politics for much of his life, he lost a crucial bet to Penn.

A while back, Penn predicted that Obama’s vice presidential pick would be Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.). O’Donnell, a consultant to “The West Wing” and other Washington-centric TV shows, bet $2,000 that Penn was wrong.

Last night, Penn was carrying in his pocket the slightly crumpled $2,000 check from O’Donnell, which he pulled out and showed us. Asked whether he planned to cash it or frame it, Penn said: “Frame it for now. But if SAG [the Screen Actors Guild] goes on strike, I might need to cash it.”

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How many of us can afford to frame a $2000 check. I would think most Americans would need to cash the check to live / pay bills.