THE political pundits analyzing this week's primaries still are wondering whether negative advertising carried Ohio and Texas for Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Hollywood has its own explanation: March 4 was Clinton's personal super Tuesday, because it was the night the stars came out for her as never before.
Over the last week, in fact, both Democratic presidential campaigns have glittered with more wattage than the Las Vegas Strip. Those same pundits all admit that Hollywood is a great place to raise money, but many of them are inclined to question the value of celebrity endorsements. Clearly, the candidates have no such reservations, because when they were playing for big stakes this week they called out to every actor they thought would answer the phone.
Eva Longoria was out campaigning for Clinton in Texas, as were two reliable, longtime Bill and Hillary loyalists, Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen. Two pop culture touchstones, America Ferrera from "Ugly Betty" and Sean Astin from "Lord of the Rings," were working the hipper Texas crowds for the New York senator.
Meanwhile, Forest Whitaker, Samuel L. Jackson, Kal Penn, Sophia Bush (star of "One Tree Hill") and Adam Rodriguez ("CSI: Miami") all hit the trail for Sen. Barack Obama. (How Jackson, who really may be the hardest-working man in show business, ever negotiated a break from his film schedule is anybody's guess.)
Of all the celebrity campaigners, however, the most visible was Jack Nicholson -- and, in typically unconventional fashion, he never left home.
The actor joined up with pal director-activist Rob Reiner (who worked with Jack on his latest movie, "The Bucket List") and several other Hollywood friends to release a YouTube campaign ad for Clinton on Saturday.
The commercial, which set off campaign issues with clips from some of Nicholson's iconic film roles (the Joker from "Batman," the delusional dad in "The Shining," the maniacal Marine Corps colonel in "A Few Good Men"), was an instant YouTube hit. By Wednesday, the ad (in all its bootlegged forms) had rolled up more than 2 million views on the video site.
Nicholson even picked up extra mileage for his candidate by going on MTV News, where he scoffed at the people who criticize celebs for expressing their opinions.
"I wish they'd stop calling us 'Hollywood nitwits,' " he said. "They can't get along without us. We've got our share of nitwits. I've been called a 'woolly headed intellectual,' neither of which is accurate. I only wish I was woolly headed."
