Bill Clinton

The wind of generational change is picking up force in politically conscious Hollywood, and who better to spread his sails to catch it than President Clinton, who remains in many ways the entertainment industry's favorite son? (Or dad, depending on your age.) Tonight, the Roosevelt Hotel in the heart of "old" Hollywood will be the venue for a fundraiser on behalf of the former president's international charity, the William J. Clinton Foundation Millennium Network.

Last month, after his wife was nominated as secretary of State, former President Clinton attempted to put an end to speculation about his secretive overseas fundraising by disclosing the names of some 208,000 donors to his foundation, which has collected more than $500 million to pay for a presidential library and to combat AIDS, malaria and other scourges. But nowhere on that list was the name Sakura Capital Management Co. Ltd.

Former President Clinton arrived in North Korea today in a dramatic bid to negotiate the release of two American TV journalists sentenced to 12 years in prison for illegally entering the secretive nation earlier this year. Clinton, the husband of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, is the highest-profile U.S. official to visit North Korea in nearly a decade.

Jerry Brown may be leading Gavin Newsom by 20 points in the latest statewide poll of California Democrats, but in Hollywood the race for the party's gubernatorial nomination is shaping up as an exciting battle, one that may split the creative community and its deep pockets along generational lines. And for once, nobody can say that the industry is out of step with the mainstream, because the same Field Poll that showed Brown so far out in front this week also found that a majority of younger Democrats support Newsom.

He was wonky, folksy and occasionally self-deprecating. And though Bill Clinton never alluded to his wife's defeat in Thursday's Iowa caucuses, he said he was baffled by the way her years of public service had been perceived as a liability. Still, the former president said Sunday he believed that his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, demonstrated in Saturday night's Democratic presidential debate in New Hampshire that she was the best candidate.

With their presidential hopes and political legacy on the line, Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband battled across New Hampshire on Sunday, fighting to become the comeback couple of the 2008 race. Change was the word on their lips as they campaigned across this slushy state -- separately, to cover more ground -- taking thinly veiled shots at rival Barack Obama. "You campaign in poetry.

Bill Clinton, who carried Nevada in two presidential elections, trumpeted his wife's accomplishments Tuesday while painting Sen. Barack Obama as the "establishment" candidate who would bring only the "feeling of change." "One candidate says you should vote for me because I've not been involved at all in the struggles of the past and therefore we need to turn over a new leaf and [try] something absolutely new.

Their debate truce obliterated in a blizzard of recriminations, Democratic candidates for president on Monday questioned one another's honesty and fitness for the White House in a televised confrontation notable for its nasty tone. The harshness of their exchanges was an odd coda to a day in which the Democrats paid tribute to the nonviolent movement propelled by the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Whether you loved them or hated them, Bill and Hillary Clinton were always a twofer. On the campaign trail in 1992, Bill used to joke about it. Vote for me and get "two for the price of one," he chuckled. Plenty of Americans thought this wasn't such a bad idea. A bumper sticker popular at the time proclaimed: "I'm voting for Hillary's husband." The Clintons seem to want that bumper sticker resuscitated.

He's scrapping with reporters. Pushing his wife's candidacy. Lashing out at her top rival in the Democratic presidential race. Former President Clinton's recent aggressive tactics in the 2008 campaign have propelled him squarely to center stage -- to the dismay of some prominent Democrats who fear he may be damaging the party's prospects for November.