Sean Penn to endorse Kucinich
Posted: Friday, December 07, 2007 1:32 PM by Domenico Montanaro
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From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Sean Penn will endorse Kucinich this afternoon at a press conference in San Francisco, a source close to the Hollywood actor said. He will also be speaking on "the Constitution, the media and Dennis Kucinich," the source said. Expect a political speech.
Penn has donated $4,600 to John Edwards' campaign and $2,300 to Kucinich during this cycle, per FEC campaign finance data.
In March of this year, Penn wrote in a WorldNetDaily column that, "As things stand today, I will be voting for Dennis Kucinich, who has fought this war from the beginning. You might say Kucinich can't win. Well, we have an opportunity to re-establish the credibility of democracy as viewed by the world at large."
Penn is set to deliver "a blistering indictment of political leaders and an impassioned endorsement of Presidential proportions," according to a Kucinich press release.
More: "Penn and Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich have been close friends for years, but the Kucinich campaign was not involved with Penn in preparing the remarks he plans to deliver today. 'Sean Penn is a good friend, but he's also a very intense, independent-minded person,' said a spokesman for the Kucinich campaign. 'He's going to say whatever he's going to say.'"
Sean Penn at Cannes Film Festival, 2000.

Academy Award winning actor and political activist Sean Penn has just thrown his support in the 2008 US Presidential election behind 
Dennis Kucinich.

In a San Francisco speech described by his PR people as "a blistering indictment of political leaders and an impassioned endorsement of Presidential proportions," Penn threw his support behind the lesser known Democratic candidate.

The Kucinich campaign did not vet the speech.



Other recent celebrity endorsements in the race include Oprah Winfrey for Barack Obama, Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling for John McCain, Harry Belafonte endorsed John Edwards, and both 50 Cent and Barbra Streisand behind Hillary Clinton. Chuck Norris has backed Mike Huckabee in a high profile, comedic endorsement ad.

Penn first became politically active in October 2002, when he spent $56,000 on a full-page ad in the ''Washington Post'', asking President George W. Bush to end "a cycle of violence". He visited Iraq briefly in December of that year, Iran in 2005 as a journalist, and met with Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez for two hours in 2007.

Penn went to New Orleans to "aid rescue workers" after Hurricane Katrina; many questioned how much of a liability an untrained worker, especially when his boat sprang a leak, would be. One website commented "just showed up with his entourage and a personal photographer with the apparent intent of just wandering around looking for a good photo op."