The Guardian's Jeremy McCarter has an interesting blog post in the paper about actors and politicians. McCarter writes: "You may have noticed that we Americans get very excited about the nexus of performers and politicians. Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger are the two leading examples, and what about actor-turned-senator-turned-actor-again Fred Thompson's recent entry into the presidential race?"

It's not just Americans who get excited about the close connection between actors and politicians -- the UK has a history of this crossover too, with actress Glenda Jackson turning Labor Member of Parliament in the early 1990s and stars like Ian McKellan being so outspoken on certain issues like gay rights that they get tangled up in party politics too.

The link between the two professions is an oft-commented and ancient one. Actors -- albeit in pursuit of a deeper truth -- make their living through "pretending" to be someone else. Politicians, also frequently get by on fictions of one kind or another in the pursuit of votes. Both require charisma and both thrive on applause.

Journalist and ex-politico Charley Reese has more to say on the link between the two fields in this article.

Now that actor-politician Fred Thompson (of Law & Order fame) has announced that he is running in the U.S. presidential election, Americans indeed have one more reason to get excited. Thompson's bid is somewhat more credible than, say, Gary Coleman's ill-advised entrance into the California Gubernatorial race against Schwarzenegger a few years ago. But at the end of the day, it amounts to the same thing: the political circus needs actors to give it shape and meaning, to stop a great many people in this country from switching off.