Forget the candidates, it's really Paul Newman versus Madonna

[T_i_B]

Hmm....how much do celebrity endorsments really matter I ask myself?

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=481742

The race for votes in Iowa is tightening by the day - and so is the chase by the Democratic candidates for celebrity endorsements. They may not change many minds but the battle for them oddly mirrors the real thing on the campaign trail.

The clear frontrunner in the endorsement stakes - at least until these past few days - has been Howard Dean. Apart from heavyweight politicians such as Al Gore and Iowa's home senator Tom Harkin, a clutch of Hollywood luminaries have rallied to the former Vermont governor's banner. Among them are Martin Sheen (player of the fictional President Josiah Bartlet in NBC's The West Wing), Michael Douglas, Paul Newman, Robin Williams and Susan Sarandon.

But, in recent days, Wesley Clark and John Kerry have been closing the gap, just as they have been narrowing Dean's poll leads in New Hampshire and Iowa respectively.

General Clark has attracted backers as different as Madonna and Sherron Watkins, the whistleblower in the Enron scandal. Other "Clarkies" include Alan Alda and Christopher Guest. John Kerry, too, has both political and Hollywood types lining up behind him - among them his fellow Massachusetts senator Edward Kennedy, former ambassador Joe Wilson (the whistleblower on Iraq's non-existent nuclear programme), as well as the actresses Jamie Lee Curtis and Uma Thurman.

[mouse7]

1. Hootie will destroy them all!

Hootie will reach into their chest cavities and eat their still-beating-hearts for brunch.

[anti-bush]

3. Also Ashton Kutcher.

He's Iowa born and bred.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Jamie Lee Curtis and Uma Thurman???

Whoa! I'm changing my vote!

[mmonk]

4. Go

Madonna