Virginia Madsen's Vote

Throughout the primary season, Virginia Madsen was caught between supporting Clinton or backing Obama  --- that is, until she turned on the TV to the news "Clinton exit."

"I was really upset," she says. "I was like, 'Oh, no. I didn't want her to leave. Maybe I really was for her.'"

Madsen is now backing Obama, but she is spending the rest of the election season traveling the country as part of a nonpartisan voter registration effort sponsored by the League of Women Voters and Allergan, the makers of Botox.

As such, she is part of an extensive effort among a handful of stars who are taking part in voter registration efforts through such orgs as Declare Yourself and Choose or Lose.

Madsen calls McCain "an honorable man" and an "exciting candidate," but "I have real differences" on issues like the war in Iraq and the environment.

While she is encouraged about the level of interest in this year's race, she worries a bit about negative campaigning adding a level of cynicism to the process.

"The way that McCain campaigned in his primary, that kind of honest straight talk, I really hope that will continue in the main election, because I think people have a lot of things they need to hear from these candidates," she says. "They don't need to hear them sniping at each other. Neither side needs a swift boat experience. What we need to hear from them are specific plans. Don't just tell me about your initiative or your plan for a tax break. Tell me how you are going to get it voted for."

Feeding into the negativity, she says, is the way that the media has covered aspects of the race.

"They have got to draw the line," she says. "Cindy McCain did a wonderful interview (on "Good Morning America") the other day and she said, 'There has got to be some decorum left in this process, especially with the news media, and she was so right.  And the reporter just kept pressing her and pressing her about her and Michelle Obama, and I thought it was outrageous and so sexist. I was really insulted that they tried to pit these two women against each other. Those two women are way too smart to engage in that kind of ridiculousness."

Madsen taped a PSA for the League's vote411.org site. So how did Botox get involved? It's one of a host of corporations, from Pizza Hut to IFC, jumping on the historic election bandwagon. And last year, Madsen served as a spokeswoman and met with groups of women to promote the safe use of the drug.

"You would get 200 women in a room and it would turn into this huge discussion," she says. "Many times the conversation would turn political."

She doubts, however, that Clinton's exit from the race slow their registration efforts.

"There are a lot of bruises that need to be healed, and I am really sorry about that," she says. "I think it is going to help once the two of them campaign together, once people see that they are the colleagues that they really are. They will see the reality of the relationship, and not the negativity that was created."