Any of the 2008 candidates could run a 'Law & Order' campaign

Practically everyone knows presidential hopeful Fred Thompson has played District Attorney Arthur Branch on "Law & Order" since 2002. But did you know that Rudy Giuliani's second wife, Donna Hanover, appeared on the show as Judge Deborah Burke seven times?

With four series and hundreds of episodes in the "Law & Order" franchise, we wondered if there might be other connections between the 2008 presidential candidates and TV's most ubiquitous show. So we played our own version of "Six Degrees of Separation" and we weren't disappointed.

Digging through campaign contribution reports, news coverage of the candidates and our own TV and movie databases, we found a path leading from each of the candidates to an actor appearing on one of the four Dick Wolf shows: "Law & Order," "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" and "Law & Order: Trial by Jury."

First we found a connection between the candidate and a celebrity -- a friendship, endorsement, political contribution or high-profile meeting. Then we connected that celebrity either directly to one of the "L&O" series -- or indirectly, by way of the hundreds of actors who have appeared on the shows.

It wasn't difficult to find the links. But what makes it interesting are the types of connections we found – involving all manner of celebrities from Julia Roberts to Chuck Yeager to Curt Schilling.

Check out "Law & Order": Presidential Intent.