Fan Fare

Lindsay Lohan = Oprah, Madonna?

Umm. No. — at least according to a poll by celebrity market researcher E-Poll.

Lohan — former Disney child star, turned member of the “Mean Girls,” then media sensation, before plunging into alcohol and drug abuse and going to rehab, from which she emerged to a troubled acting career and then flopped in the world of fashion, all before she turns 24 years old this year  — has sued E*Trade Financial Corp, seeking $100 million for an advertisement that Lohan claims wrongly uses her “likeness, name, characterization, and personality” without permission, violating her right of privacy. The ad involves toddlers. Read that story here.

Importantly, the ad uses only a first name, Lindsay, and of course there are millions of Lindsay’s in the world. Still, a lawyer for Lohan told the New York Post that the Hollywood actress has the same “single-name” recognition as celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Madonna. Really?

E-Poll, which makes a business out of asking questions like these and selling that information to companies looking for details about celebrity and pop culture, has come up with some different results. E-Poll recently asked a similar question of people and here’s what it found. In the name awareness category, Lindsay Lohan had a 77 percent rating to Oprah Winfrey’s 89 percent and Madonna’s 91 percent. Not bad, Lindsay LOHAN, but not quite the same — and not on a single name. E-Poll, by the way, is in no way affiliated with E*Trade. The two companies just share a first letter. (Hey, maybe they should sue each other).

Oprah joining cast of Disney movie

    Oprah Winfrey is going to the Big Easy — at least in the fictional world of animation — by joining the cast of an upcoming Disney movie set in New Orleans during the jazz age. 

   In “The Princess and the Frog,” which is set for release in late 2009, Winfrey will play the mother of the main character Princess Tiana, who in turn will be voiced by “Dreamgirls” star Anika Noni Rose.      The talk show queen has a dozen acting credits in her career, including voice work for  last year’s “Bee Movie.”      “The Princess and the Frog” marks Disney’s first return to traditional animation since its 2004 “Home on the Range,” which earned mixed reviews. The movie made $104 million worldwide, less than its production budget, according to Box Office Mojo.            

Tearful Oprah pledges “whatever it takes” to elect Obama

It’s no surprise talk show host Oprah Winfrey was wowed by Sen. Barack Obama’s speech in Denver. After all, she endorsed him last year and may have swayed early primary voters in Obama’s direction.

But O went beyond just being enthused by Obama’s speech on Thursday, as the presidential candidate accepted the Democratic Party nomination. “Just seeing him on stage, I cried my eyelashes off,” Winfrey told a reporter with the TV show Entertainment Tonight.

Rapper Kanye West, 31, who was with Winfrey, was also effusive about the speech. “It changed my life,” West told ET. In reaction to West, Winfrey went on to say it changed her life, too. “We have to do whatever it takes to get him in office,” she said.

The Democratic National Convention in Denver was a virtual who’s who of celebrity backers with actors Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, who are married, showing up. There were director Steven Spielberg, actor Forest Whitaker and singer Jennifer Lopez, and that’s not even counting the stars — including Stevie Wonder — who performed on-stage at the DNC.

Obama’s rival in the run for the White House, Republican Senator John McCain, has attacked Obama as little more than a celebrity himself in a campaign advertisement.

But McCain also has his own stable of celebrity backers. Actor Dean Cain, 42, who played Superman on the 1990s television show “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” spoke of his support for McCain to Larry King on cable network CNN following Obama’s speech.

McCain also has the support of Latin singer Daddy Yankee and reality star Heidi Montag. Stay tuned — as they say in television — to see what kind of star power turns out for the Republican National Convention, which starts on Monday.