Celebrity support, always important in national campaigns, is likely to play an increasing role in the high-cost, heated presidential campaign of 2008.

When it comes to good-looking supporters, Barack Obama leads the pack, with Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Aniston, Halle Berry, Jamie Foxx, and George Clooney. And of course, there’s his powerhouse stumper, Oprah Winfrey.

Hillary Clinton is backed by a slightly older, more established, show business crowd which includes Chevy Chase, Danny DeVito, Rob Reiner and Steven Spielberg.

English football teams are the latest craze for U.S. sports tycoons.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, in the United Kingdom for the NFL game in London last weekend between the New York Giants and the Miami Dolphins, says he is interested in buying a Premier League soccer – oops, football – team. He already owns Major League Soccer’s New England Revolution.

“We looked seriously at Liverpool,” he told Sky Sports News on Thursday, unwilling to disclose which team he wants to buy. “We still do have an interest in playing in the Premier League. We’d like to close our deal and then talk about it.”