When actor Matt Damon recently spoke frankly about his opposition to Sarah Palin as John McCain's choice for vice president, the video clip of that interview got a lot of play online and on television. Damon's a Barack Obama supporter, but you have to wonder: do he or other celebrities really put their money where their mouths are?

Thanks to online tools like the Huffington Post's Fundrace 2008 and the site Open Secrets, you can easily find out about campaign donations made by the famous and nonfamous alike.

According to HuffPo [full disclosure: I contribute to a related site], Damon had donated $4,600 to Barack Obama's campaign by the end of the first quarter of 2008. Actor Samuel L. Jackson was on Team Obama before Damon—he'd donated $2,300 by the end of the first quarter of 2007. Actress/comedienne Wanda Sykes donated to Obama earlier this year. In 2007, actor Zach Braff donated to Obama. ("One Tree Hill" fans may be interested to know that actress Sophia Bush also gave to the Obama campaign earlier this year.)

After reviewing the aforementioned sites, it became clear that the majority of Hollywood celebrities are more likely to open their wallet to Barack Obama than any other candidate. That said, actress America Ferrera gave $2,300 to Hillary Clinton's campaign in the first quarter of this year. At least using these sites, it is virtually impossible to find a big-name actor under the age of 35 who has donated to a Republican presidential candidate, and it's still difficult to find a Republican donor over the age of 35 who sits in the top echelon of Hollywood celebrities. One of the very few big-name actors to have donated money to a Republican candidate is Adam Sandler, who gave to Rudy Giuliani's campaign last year.

Why do you think so many big-name Hollywood stars swing to the left rather than to the right? Is it something in the water out there, or are there other reasons for this reliable voting/donating pattern?