If there is one thing positive that has come out of the 2008 US Presidential elections, it's the amazing parodies of the main characters in the contest. Here Hillary Clinton reinforces why Barack can't win in November. Take a look!

Just this week one of our guest-writers submitted the piece - Some Beloved Fallen Stars...2008 May Just Be The Year. Here Glenda K. Fralin, another of our guest-writers gives her perspective (with a few overlaps) on celebrities hot on the comeback trail.

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1. Meg Ryan’s return in 2008 with mature rolls, shedding the All American girl comic typecast that followed her prior to the breakup with ex-husband Dennis Quaid. It’s time the public forgives and forgets the overly sensationalized past. Her return with other Hollywood heavyweights will speak well for boosting Meg’s career. The 2008 credits will include The Deal, a comedy with William H. Macy, My Mom’s New Boyfriend with co-star Antonio Banderas, and The Women, with a host of female stars including Eva Mendes, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Carrie Fisher, just to name a few from this all female cast.

2. Owen Wilson will be returning in 2008 after his problems with depression and a suicide attempt placed him on a secluded and much needed break in 2007. In 2008, we will see him in Drillbit Taylor, about a budget bodyguard hired by two high school boys to protect them from the school bully. Next, Outsourced, still under discussion, is a movie about two men heading to Mexico to regain their jobs after their company relocates there. Finally, Marley & Me is a comedy based on the premise of a family learning life’s lessons from their dog.

3. Mel Gibson has not starred in a movie since 2006, but he isn’t done yet. He stayed behind the camera producing and directing the controversial hits The Passion of the Christ (2004), and Apocalypto (2006). Gibson will be starring in Under and Alone, an action and crime drama, and later in Sam and George, about two friends reuniting after one is released from prison.

4. Noah Wyle, who has been on hiatus since 2006, will reappear this year with three movie credits. He is returning as Carson Flynn in the action comedy The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice. Next, he will take on a dramatic role as Mike Stafford in Boy of Pigs, about a 13-year old Catholic school boy coming into his teens in 1963. Finally, Noah will be appearing in Nothing but the Truth, set to open in September. This movie promises to be an interesting political drama about a reporter who exposes a CIA agent but refuses to give up her source. Kate Beckinsale has the starring role in the movie.

5. David Duchovny has not been out of the industry, but has struggled with roles against type cast. His Showtime series, Californication, is no longer filming, at least for now. He had some good movie roles in 2007 when he was cast opposite Halley Berry and Benicio Del Toro in Things We Lost in the Fire. This year Duchovny will return for reappearance as Fox Mulder in a sequel to the X-files. This is where the public seems most comfortable with Duchovny. It worked for the original cast of Star Trek in the run of Star Trek movies. Who knows what may happen here? He will again be opposite Gillian Anderson and it will be interesting to see where this takes these two actors.

6. Gillian Anderson seems to be coming back big in the United Kingdom since the success of The Last King of Scotland. She also starred in a 2007 thriller, Straightheads. With four movies in 2008, I look for Gillian to make a major return to the limelight.

Anderson’s year will begin with Boogie Woogie, with Amanda Seyfried, Heather Graham, Christopher Lee, and Stellan Skarsgard. Then she will follow in a comedy How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, with Megan Fox, Kirsten Dunst, Simon Pegg, and Jeff Bridges. Returning to the X-Files in X-Files 2, she will reclaim her role as Scully with David Duchovny. She is to finish up 2008 with a leading role in No One Gets Off in This Town, a comedy with co-star William Hurt. She has plans to set off 2009 with The Smell of Apples. I hope all of these will make their way to the United States.

7. Shannen Doherty is finally making it back into movies after a troubled career and several failed television series. After leaving her successful role on Charmed, she made a short stint on Scare Tactics and then produced her own show Breaking Up With Shannen Doherty. Other roles tended to elude her or failed. She returned in 2007 with a TV movie Christmas Caper. Now for 2008, she has two movie roles in Kiss Me Deadly and Defunct. I hope, for Shannen’s sake, she makes a good showing this year. With a long and successful career beginning with her debut role in Father Murphy at the age of 10, she is one of few child actors to have successfully transformed into an adult career.

8. Sheryl Crow, after defeating cancer and becoming a mother, has taken stock of what is important in her life. She is coming back with a renewed power in her music and herself. She is focused and ready to work. Sheryl has never been completely out of the picture, and her name alone can get the presses running and fans talking. With a new zest for life, Crow is ready to take on a revitalized career. This is one strong lady who won’t let anyone, or anything, keep her down very long.

9. Mary-Kate Olsen will continue to build her career this year. She can be seen in one movie, The Wackness. In 2007, she appeared in several episodes of Weeds. The speculation about her eating disorder has not kept her from continuing her career separate from Ashley. It is unfortunate that negative publicity seems to stimulate more interest in celebrities. Now, with the rumored connection to the late Heath Ledger, the press is on her heals. I predict Mary-Kate will be appearing in the public eye this year, which is not likely to hurt her acting career.

10. Goran Visnjic, who all but disappeared from ER in 2007, will be seen this year starring with Ashley Judd in Helen, about a professor coming to terms with her own depression.

My biggest comeback wish for sports is for a return to morality and ethical values for many of the “big sports” on television. In recent years, it seems like every one of the major sports has had an issue with its identity in the American public’s view. We can start with baseball’s steroid issue; football’s issues with some of their star players; basketball’s issue with the thug situation; and the possible gambling issue with referees. All of these issues need to be corrected.

Recently in the news, there have been reports that Congress has asked the FBI to investigate Miguel Tejada for perjuring himself in front of a Congressional Committee. He is not the first player suspected of lying to Congress about using performance enhancing drugs; Rafael Palmeiro was the first on that list.

Many of the players suspected of using steroids will have trouble getting into the Hall of Fame, just ask Mark McGwire. Yet the issue isn’t about the Hall of Fame, it’s about athletes standing up and doing what is right. At this point, there are very few athletes that do what’s right; and it seems that the number that do the opposite exceed them.

The sport of football is seeing incredible levels of success thanks to how it has marketed itself and has a team that is flirting with a season of perfection. Even so, in the eye of the American public, it does not mean the sport is without its flaws in the leadership of its players. A glaring example is the Michael Vick situation with dog fighting, which was a major black eye for the league. Yet, that was not the first issue involving Vick. Just over a year ago he was also caught in an Atlanta airport with a water bottle that had a suspicious “secret compartment” with marijuana residue in it.

Speaking of marijuana, the NFL did take positive steps in conveying the correct message to young fans when it suspended Ricky Williams of the Miami Dolphins indefinitely after numerous marijuana issues. This sent a clear message that the NFL felt marijuana was a dangerous drug and not just a recreational one as some athletes try to proclaim to their fans. Unfortunately, the league did go back on their decision and reinstate him in the second half of this season. That decision, however, sent a mixed message to young fans of the sport.

There is also the situation of Pacman Jones, who somehow thought his ill-conceived notion of taking thousands of dollars into a club and throwing it into the air for people to fight over was reasonable.

Oh, and don’t go thinking that performance enhancing drugs are not used by NFL players either. Hopefully they will not have to learn a hard lesson like Lyle Alzado. Many blame his steroid use in the 1980s for contributing to his death many years later.

Basketball, of course, has had a thug issue for the past several years. This ranges from players getting in fights off the court to actually climbing into the stands and fighting with fans. If this wasn’t enough, there is the issue of the latest controversy to hit the sport last year: the suspected gambling on the sport by a referee in the league.

These are just a few examples of some of the moral issues that major sports leagues throughout the country are dealing with. Are athletes expected to truly be role models for our children? No, that is the role of the parents, yet the sports themselves do have to take responsibility for the influence they have on children. Professional athletes are much more visible to many school age kids, due to their popularity with the media, than their parents are. This means that the major sports leagues have to step forward and start enforcing some sense of morality and fair play among their athletes.

This “ethical cleanup” has already begun in the NFL as their league administration has been very strict with recent penalties handed down to players. But, the question remains: Will the NFL continue with their recent string of strict penalties and will the other major sports leagues follow suit? Hopefully, in 2008, they will; and by doing so, all the leagues will help convey to young fans that they support the lessons that their parents are teaching them on a daily basis.

I like to refer to the Rolling Stones as "ageless wonders". Here, Connie Wilson, gives great insight into a band that just keeps going, and going, and going...

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The Rolling Stones have had so many second comings…and goings…that it is somehow apropos that Hillary Clinton, this year’s “Comeback Kid” who just keeps coming back from the political grave is onstage with them at one point. The latest Stone uprising is a documentary filmed in 2006 called “Shine A Light” and directed by Acadeny-Award winning Director Martin Scorsese, who used Rolling Stones music in his films as long ago as “Taxi Driver,” with Jodie Foster, who was then thirteen or fourteen years of age starring as a teen-aged prostitute alongside Robert DeNiro’s psychotic Travis Bickell (“You lookin’ at me?”).

One of my favorite parts of Martin Scorsese’s just-opened documentary film focusing on the Rolling Stones occurs before the music even starts. Mick Jagger calls up Scorsese to express his concern over the large tracking cameras that will be used (nearly 24 cameras were employed in the filming) and whether they will intrude on the audience’s appreciation of their benefit concert for Bill Clinton’s foundation at the Beacon Theater in New York.

Filmed in 2006, the small ornate venue offered a great deal more intimacy than the Stones’ stadium shows, which generally seat thousands. (The only small show I attended, the “No Security” tour, took place at the United Center in Chicago; my friend was hit in the head by a drumstick that Charlie Watts pitched into the crowd and still managed not to catch it! Charlie’s drumsticks, I can report, have his name burned into the side, so they would have made a great souvenir, but it was not to be, despite my friend’s goose-egg on her forehead. I remember saying, “Didn’t you ever play softball?”).

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“You can make miraculous recoveries from seemingly hopeless situations if you put your mind to it and you have enough support. I think it’s about the process of maturing.” That is how Robert Downey, Jr., described his past and his life, in regards to the character he was portraying in his friend Mel Gibson’s film “The Singing Detective,” on February 20th, 2003.

The film was to have been Downey’s comeback vehicle after the setbacks he had experienced in his own personal battle with the demon of addiction, but the release of the film was set back after disappointing audience reactions at Sundance Film Festival. So, once again, “one of the most versatile, attractive and gifted actors in America today,” according to a current review by Philip French (guardian.co.uk of Downey’s latest movie “Iron Man”) had struck out.

Downey’s film,”Iron Man” just shattered most 3-day opening takes, grossing $101 million over the Friday to Sunday weekend the first weekend in May. It was the Number Two debut for a non-sequel, behind “Spiderman’s” $114.8 million take and “X-Men: The Last Stand’s” $102.8 million. When you factor in the $96 million the film made overseas, EW.com reports that its worldwide total is $201 million in 5 days, an astounding figure.

Considering that Jon Favreau, who directed the film, had never had a film that made more than $173.4, total, the film’s widespread critical approval and appeal, crossing over from the normal teen demographic to attract 71% of men and 64% of the audience over 25 , the feat is amazing…especially in a movie year that has seen the box office drop 13% for the same period a year ago. [Director Jon Favreau is best known as VinceVaughan’s pal in movies such as “The Break-Up” and “Swingers,” but he has recently begun to work behind the camera, and this movie, playing in 4,105 theaters, is by far his biggest directing project, to date, with “Elf” and “Made” paling by comparison.]

It is safe to say that Favreau did not see Robert Downey, Jr., making the short list of actors who could bring Tony Stark of “Iron Man” to life successfully onscreen. Favreau himself was quoted this way: “Downey wasn’t the most obvious choice, but he understood what makes the character tick. He found a lot of his own life experiences in Tony Stark.” From Robert Downey, Jr,’s perspective, he had seen what “Spiderman” did for Toby McGuire and what “Pirates of the Caribbean” meant to Johnny Depp, and he wanted in on the action. Downey told Favreau, “With your permission, I’m going to make it to that short list. If there’s a screen test, I’ll blow those other clowns out of the water.” And he did…only the second time he has ever tested for a role (the first was “Chaplin”).

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