Michael Moore, Bigwigs Are Out $317K on Assange Bail

The bigwigs who put up bail for Julian Assange—including Michael Moore—have already lost $317,000 of that money, and could lose another $222,000 if the WikiLeaks founder does not surrender to UK police. The first $317,000 was lost after Assange fled to Ecuador's London embassy in June in order to avoid being extradited to Sweden. A judge will decide next month whether the VIP backers will lose the rest of their money, the Guardian reports.

The backers are believed to include Jemima Khan, director Ken Loach, and publisher Felix Dennis. They, and other high-profile names, each promised sureties to the court, which is what they still stand to lose if they can't convince Assange to turn himself in by October 3. "At the moment I'm not persuaded that any reasonable surety would not be using every effort, publicly and privately, to persuade Mr. Assange to surrender himself to UK authorities," said the judge at yesterday's hearing. (More Michael Moore stories.)