Bill Maher Bulks Up Security Due to Death Threats

Bill Maher Bulks Up Security Due to Death Threats

In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, appearing in the March 16 issue, Bill Maher reveals his amount of personal drug use, his love life and his fears about the upcoming election.

Maher has never been one to mince words, even in the face of a barrage of death threats. The Real Time with Bill Maher host tells THR that he receives so many negative messages that he's hired a full-time security guard at his home.

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One of his many ongoing controversial debates involves the legalization of marijuana, which Maher says he smokes twice a week, although he claims he's never been high while hosting his HBO show.

As a political activist, Maher donated $1 million to a political super PAC called Priorities USA Action that is working to re-elect President Obama.

Maher made the gift as a "challenge to Hollywood's political donors" that he feels might be too confident in Obama's chances at re-election.

"I threw a snowball hoping to cause an avalanche," says the 56-year-old. "This election is so not in the bag."

Maher practices what he preaches, as the iconoclastic spirit that permeates his show and standup material seeps into his love life. The comic famously denounces the institution of marriage, although he believes in same-sex marriage rights, and has remained a bachelor for most of his adult life. But he has loosened up slightly in this regard ever since he started dating a Harvard graduate student who has been his girlfriend for about eight months. Still, the couple has no plans to wed.

"My answer to marriage was always, 'Why do I want to invite the state and federal government into my love life, so that it becomes a legal matter if something goes wrong and it's about lawyers?' It's the opposite of what love and romance should be," says Maher.


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