Moving from celebrity to senator isn't exactly an untraveled path. But that doesn't mean comedian Al Franken, who is vying for a Senate seat in Minnesota, will coast to Capitol Hill on a wide, smooth road.

Franken, a Democrat, best-selling author and former "Saturday Night Live" cast member, once penned a racy piece for Playboy that has offended the Midwestern sensibilities of some Minnesotans. It is that history as a satirist and comedian, Franken says, that puts him "in a little uncharted territory" as he tries to woo voters.

At his nomination speech a few weeks ago, Franken acknowledged that some of his past writings and comments were "downright offensive."

"There were some things that I said that gave some people reason to believe I wouldn't fight for all Minnesotans, specifically for women," Franken said in a telephone interview. "I said I was sorry for that, 'cause that's not who I am."

If he can overcome his past, colorful commentary, Franken would join a long list of entertainers who have found a second or third career in elected office, most notably former President Reagan. They include:

_Helen Gahagan Douglas, a 1930s actress and opera singer who was a Democratic congresswoman before losing the 1950 California Senate race to Richard Nixon in a landslide. In that race, the future president called her "pink right down to her underwear" and earned the nickname "Tricky Dick."

_Tough-guy actor and director Clint Eastwood, who became mayor of Carmel, Calif.

_Fred Grandy, Gopher on the TV show "The Love Boat," who became a Republican congressman from Iowa.

_Sonny Bono, of "Sonny and Cher" fame, a Republican who became mayor of Palm Springs, Calif., and then a California congressman.

_Ben Jones, who played the mechanic Cooter on the TV show "The Dukes of Hazzard" before winning a congressional seat from Georgia as a Democrat.

_Jesse Ventura, a professional wrestler and actor who served one term as Reform Party governor of Minnesota.

_Movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger, now Republican governor of California.

_Song-and-dance actor George Murphy, a Republican senator from California in the 1960s.

_Fred Thompson, a congressional staffer who became an actor and then a Republican senator from Tennessee and presidential candidate.

Also, actor Sonny Landham, who appeared in "48 Hours" and "Predator," is mounting a Libertarian challenge to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Not all entertainers have been able to make the switch. In 1967, former child actress Shirley Temple Black, a California Republican, stressed to voters, "Little Shirley Temple is not running," but lost the congressional election anyway. The little curly haired girl went on to serve as U.S. ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia.

Entertainment is good preparation for politics, said Rep. John Hall, a New York Democrat who had been frontman for the band Orleans (big hit "Still the One").

"The advantage to being a performer is that I've always been the product _ I'm used to getting up in front of people and selling myself and my ideas," he said. "They may be musical or lyrical ideas, but they're ideas nonetheless."

But some of Franken's writings are a little stronger than, say, "You're still the one I want to talk to in bed," and Franken's Republican opponent, Sen. Norm Coleman, has highlighted the "Porn-O-Rama!" column Franken wrote for Playboy in 2000.

"Eight years ago I was making the streets of St. Paul safer," said Coleman, the city's former mayor, "and he was writing porn." Continued...