The return of Arthur Branch?

Tuesday, March 25, 2008 | 2:19 PM

After a failed bid at being the Republican presidential candidate, Fred Thompson is returning to the loving arms of Hollywood. E! reports that Thompson has signed with the William Morris Agency and is planning on getting back into acting, saving television and film from a brief but serious shortage on curmudgeonly politicians/senior attorneys/military higher-ups.

Over at The Hot Blog, David Poland reaches for his own Washington/Tinseltown crossover with this observation:

Hillary Clinton, this season, is the Harvey Weinstein of politics. People are scared to death of giving up on her because she has returned from the dead so many times that getting bit in the neck is an eternal threat. The same was true for years with Harvey and the Oscars...

[Photo: Fred Thompson playing Sen. Fred Dalton Thompson in Albert Brooks' "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World," Warner Independent, 2006]