As yet another make-or-break day on the campaign trail approached for Hillary Clinton, the New York senator could take comfort in the fact that she was going to a place where everybody would know her name.
She had Ted Danson right beside her, after all.
The former Cheers star and wife Mary Steenburgen hitched a ride with Clinton as the presidential candidate took off from Cleveland, Ohio, on Sunday after a day spent in the Buckeye State rallying supporters in advance of Tuesday's Democratic primary.
But while Clinton, has an Emmy and an Oscar winner firmly in her corner—and on her chartered plane!—she has seemingly lost all of her momentum in the face of Barack Obama's surge in popularity since Super Tuesday, when the former First Lady logged big wins in California and New York.
On Tuesday, there are what pundits are calling do-or-die primaries in Texas and Ohio, meaning Clinton practically has to win both to retain any hope of capturing the Democratic nomination.
And although she already took California, it wasn't due to La-La Land's lack of support for Obama.
When asked how he felt about longtime pal and Curb Your Enthusiasm costar Larry David backing Obama, Danson told a reporter for the Tribune Co.'s Washington bureau: "I’m out of that show. I’m never going to do it."
The reliably acerbic David joins a growing legion of celebs male and female, black and white, young (one of Obama's biggest bastions of support) and old.
In addition to big-time Obamians such as George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey and Matt Damon, celebs who have gotten behind the charismatic senator from Illinois include Sharon Stone, Halle Berry, Ben Affleck, Jessica Alba, Scarlett Johansson, Stevie Wonder, Dave Matthews, Alfre Woodard, Mariah Carey, Harold Perrineau, Hill Harper, Jonathan Schaech, Enrique Murciano, Eric Balfour, John Legend and Kareem Abdul Jabar, (many of whom showed up in Will.i.am's "Yes We Can" videos).
Meanwhile, Jack Nicholson, with help from director pal Rob Reiner, put together a video endorsing Clinton via snippets of dialogue culled from a number of his iconic roles, including his delusional dad in The Shining, the Joker from Batman and his adrift ex-piano prodigy in Five Easy Pieces.
Other Clinton stalwarts have included Steven Spielberg (who, in the spirit of Democracy, also cohosted an Obama fundraiser with DreamWorks partners Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen last year), Barbra Streisand, Glenn Close, Danny DeVito, Magic Johnson, Roseanne Barr and Quincy Jones.
Forest Whitaker, Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington, former O.C. star Ben McKenzie and Kate Walsh have all campaigned for Obama around Texas in recent days, while America Ferrera and Sean Astin stumped for Clinton in Austin.
Eva Longoria Parker and Melanie Griffith were scheduled to appear at a town hall meeting with Clinton on Monday.
(On the other side of the coin, Tom Selleck, Rip Torn and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, among others, have come out in favor of Republican frontrunner John McCain, who barring a freak occurrence will almost certainly be the one squaring off against Clinton or Obama come November.)
But while the boldfaced names keep Obama and Clinton in rotation in the entertainment section of the paper, each knows the increasing importance of face time in this age of YouTube debates, round-the-clock Britney coverage and Comedy Central clout.
Clinton, for one, weighed in on her all-time worst fashion choices for Us Weekly (which is currently running the headline, "Barack Obama Refuses Boxers or Briefs Question”) last month and showed up on The Tyra Banks Show, Late Night with David Letterman and Saturday Night Live for the requisite "she knows how to laugh at herself and lighten up" appearances.
On Monday she hit up via satellite The Daily Show, where host Jon Stewart helpfully maintains that all politicians are goofy until proven intelligent.
"This election is about judgment," Stewart said to her at one point. "Yet tomorrow is perhaps one of the most important days of your life and you've chosen to spend the night before talking to me. Senator, as a host I'm delighted. As a citizen, I'm frightened."
"It is pretty pathetic," Clinton deadpanned.
And although the Colbert bump only did so much for GOP candidate Mike Huckabee, Obama thinks there might be something to the Ellen boogie.
The senator turned up for the second time on The Ellen DeGeneres Show last week, telling the perennial Daytime Emmy winner his poll numbers "skyrocketed" after his last appearance.
"I just want to say that we were kind of in a slump until I was dancing on the show," Obama said.
Then again, stumping with the stars will only get you so far, of course. (Especially considering there are probably plenty of people who wouldn't be caught dead making the same choice as a bunch of, oh-the-horror, celebrities.)
"Nobody is going to vote for you because of a celebrity endorsement, but what a celebrity endorsement probably does is make you more comfortable with a candidate," Lamar University political science professor Dave Castle told the Beaumont (where Whitaker was supposed to appear Monday) Enterprise.
"I'm sure that in 19th-century American politics, we were still interested in celebrity endorsement, it was just a question of who those celebrities were."