During the next few weeks you'll read and hear Jon Favreau's name repeated by the Washington press corps. It's because Barack Obama's favorite speechwriter has the same name as Jon Favreau, the Hollywood director, writer, and actor. Today, a Time.com posting of possible personnel in an Obama administration spotlighted Jon Favreau "the Hollywood actor and screenwriter and director". I kid you not. (It was quickly amended.) For the record, the "other" Favreau is a 26-year-old jeans-clad staffer who worked in Obama's senate office and who is no relation to the Iron Man and Swingers guy. But he's writing Obama's most memorable campaign speeches and will likely become the speechwriting director if Obama wins the presidency.

As DHD readers know, I've been closely following the Al Franken vs Norm Coleman hotly contested U.S. Senate race in Minnesota because, while showbiz talents who are also Democrats routinely raise money and campaign for political candidates, they rarely run for public office themselves. For a while, Franken, the Saturday Night Live alum and ex-Air America radio broadcaster, had a solid lead over the incumbent Republican since October 6th. But this week that's tightened to the point that Coleman is back up 1 to 3 points in the polls. (Which is statistically but not psychologically insignificant.) Coleman made the gains with a slew of uber-negative ads against Al. But now that's been matched by some third-party corruption allegations against Coleman. The Republican also has slapped the Franken campaign with a defamation suit; apparently, the Republican resorts to the courts almost every time he's a candidate. Now the latest news is that former President Bill Clinton was campaigning in the Twin Cities arm and arm with Franken. They hit the stage at the Minneapolis Convention Center together last night, with Clinton telling the crowd that a Franken triumph over Coleman is crucial to electing a U.S. Senate with 60 Democrats so that an Obama administration could overcome Republican filibustering.

Endeavor's Ari Emanuel may soon have a sibling in a higher place. Today's political news is filled with speculation that Ari's brother Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. representative who helped engineer the Democratic takeover of Congress, is Barack Obama's first choice for White House chief of staff in the event of a win. Ari isn't talking about it. (Watch video of all the Emanuel Bros on Charlie Rose here.)