There was a surge in Obama's army of A-list celebs when Scarlett Johansson signed on for duty

When Law & Order star Fred Thompson decided to pull out of the Republican presidential nominee race a few weeks back, the dismay in the media was palpable. The reason? That whole narrative about Thompson being the "next Reagan" -- ie. another actor turned president -- had to be dropped like a Tony Romo pass with Jessica Simpson in the stands.

The problem was that the "actor as president" paradigm is so '80s. What matters now in the American electoral system is the list of celebrities you bring to the table. And movie stars -- knowing from personal experience that most movie stars are high-school dropouts who couldn't feed themselves without the help of a personal assistant -- were at least not dumb enough to put their support behind a fellow actor.

Instead, the big news in the Republican party was the emerging faceoff between two major movie tough guys in the endorsement race. This, after Sylvester Stallone came out in support of John McCain (Perfect no? Sly played Rambo, who freed American POWs in 'Nam, and McCain actually was an American POW in 'Nam). This counters Mike Huckabee, who has the once-and-future Walker, Texas Ranger Chuck Norris behind him. And I mean literally behind him -- he's in virtually every campaign trail picture of Huckabee.

What hasn't changed from the Reagan scenario is the notion that the presidency is a "part" one plays. "There's something about matching the character with the script," Stallone was quoted as saying by way of endorsement. "And right now, the script that's being written and reality is pretty brutal and pretty hard-edged like a rough action film, and you need somebody who's been in that to deal with it."

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