Fred Thompson Takes Candidacy to Leno

Thu., Sep. 6, 2007 9:37 AM PDT by Gina Serpe

It might not have warranted a slot on David Letterman's Top 10 list, but Jay Leno's Tonight Show nevertheless gave Republicans the number one reason to tune in last night: Fred Thompson announced his candidacy for the party's presidential nomination.

After months of will-he-or-won't-he speculation, which revved up considerably this spring in the wake of his departure from Law & Order after serving five years as District Attorney Arthur Branch, the former Tennessee senator made his declaration not at last night's Republican debate in New Hampshire—where his political rivals were all in attendance—but on the late-night chatfest.

"We're where we need to be right now," he told Leno of his campaign. "And that's one of the things I wanted to talk to you about. I'm running for President of the United States."

The 65-year-old conservative's announcement was greeted by cheers from the applause-trained TV audience.

As for his decision to take to the Burbank soundstage rather than the New Hampshire podium for the announcement, Thompson brushed off fellow GOP candidates' criticisms that he wasn't taking the political process seriously...by cracking a joke.

"It's a lot more difficult to get on the Tonight Show than it is to get into a presidential election," he said, adding that he would head to Iowa for the next debate directly after the show.

While Thompson's announcement was no surprise, the venue was: He was expected to make the formal declaration in a video message on his Website Thursday morning. Still, the Tonight Show platform has worked wonders before.

Arnold Schwarzenegger set the late-night precedent back in 2003, when he announced his ultimately successful California gubernatorial bid on the Tonight Show and, earlier this year, Arizona Senator John McCain made his own formal announcement of presidential candidacy during a stop at Late Night with David Letterman.

Thompson spoke of his close relationship with McCain Wednesday, saying his political rival is "a good friend, and will be after this is over with.

"Unless, of course, he beats me," he added. "Then we will have to take another look at it."

Thompson's decision to announce his candidacy on the late-night show is, incidentally, rather indicative of the next few months, when, much to the chagrin of equal-time provisions and fellow Republican candidates, his visage will be a fixture on the airwaves.

Despite the equal-time rules, set in place to ensure a single candidate from either party is not given more TV airtime and therefore a political advantage over their rivals, TNT has announced that it has no plans to pull Thompson-powered Law & Order episodes from its schedule.

While the cable net overflows with the series and its spinoffs—airing an average of 23 episodes of the original Law & Order per week—the equal-time rules are ambiguous in terms of cable programming and were set in place when most homes carried just the broadcast networks. While TNT has not discussed its decision, it will not voluntarily pull the episodes from the air.

Thompson could potentially receive additional exposure via other acting gigs, including reruns of Cape Fear, In the Line of Fire, The Hunt for Red October, Die Hard 2, No Way Out, the recent HBO TV movie Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, where he acted all presidential as Ulysses S. Grant, and, of course, Curly Sue.

Meanwhile, one of Thompson's prime-time predecessors is also ramping up her TV face time, albeit in the face of much less controversy.

Dianne Wiest, who bided her time on both Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit as District Attorney Nora Lewin from 2000-2002, has been cast in a recurring role on Fox's new midseason comedy The Return of Jezebel James.

The series is the creation of Gilmore Girls mastermind Amy Sherman-Palladino and stars indie queens Parker Posey and Lauren Ambrose. Wiest will play the girls' mother.