Their ‘View’: DeVito is welcomed back

A day after an admittedly smashed Danny DeVito staggered onto “The View” -- where he was bleeped for calling President Bush a naughty name -- the show’s diva co-hosts defended the actor and said they would welcome him back (although preferably sober).

“We love him; we’ll have him on again,” Barbara Walters told her fellow co-hosts during their Thursday morning chat session. She added that DeVito had left a message for her almost immediately after his visit, but they had yet to connect.

DeVito, who was promoting his new movie, “Deck the Halls,” acknowledged on the show Wednesday that he had spent the night partying with George Clooney.

“I knew it was the last seven limoncellos that were going to get me,” he told Walters and company.

The 62-year-old actor slurred his words, told rambling stories (including one about how he and his wife, Rhea Perlman, “utilized” the Lincoln Bedroom during the Clinton White House years) and did giddy Bush impersonations.

(DeVito is an active Democrat, although he supported Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s reelection bid). At one point, he sat in Rosie O’Donnell’s lap.

The incident provoked much mocking -- and vitriol -- on the Web and in the press. But the co-hosts took a gentler, well, view. “Danny DeVito is not an alcoholic,” O’Donnell told the audience Thursday. “He’s just a guy who had too many to drink with his friend. He was here, he was enjoying himself, he had a wonderful night out, and he was a little drunk.”

Co-host Joy Behar quipped: “He was drunk as a skunk.”

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Harold Ford says thanks in L.A.

Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.) spent Wednesday in Los Angeles thanking his many entertainment industry supporters, who raised nearly $200,000 for his Senate bid, which ended in defeat to Republican Bob Corker.

The Democratic congressman arrived in the morning and immediately went to speak to fourth- and fifth-graders at a Santa Monica school where the children of one of his most avid supporters, Fox Cable marketing chief Lindsay Gardner, attend class.

Ford told the youngsters that he would probably run again for the Senate in two years.

The congressman -- known for his good looks and charisma -- became an early entertainment industry favorite with a devoted following of producers, directors, media moguls and music executives. Ford took a battering from his opponent because of his Hollywood support but said he didn’t regret having the entertainment industry ties, saying he needed to reach out to different groups because he was at a disadvantage -- his wealthy opponent put $5 million of his own money into his campaign.

“Unfortunately I couldn’t do that,” Ford said after his speech at the school.

Gardner said he “would have given up all the other Democratic wins” for a successful outcome in Ford’s race. “He made me believe in Camelot,” the cable executive said.

Those searching for new candidates to endorse will certainly get their chance in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) returns to Southern California to appear today at uber-pastor Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in Lake Forest for a conference on AIDS. (Obama is also set to appear on Jay Leno’s show to promote his book “The Audacity of Hope.”)

And on Monday, former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina will be discussing his new book, “Home: The Blueprints of Our Lives,” at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena.

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Raising Oxfam’s profile in the U.S.

At a hilltop cocktail party Wednesday evening at one of Beverly Hills’ most exclusive homes, actors Colin Firth, Minnie Driver, Kristin Davis, Mark Ruffalo and Kirsten Dunst mingled with about 250 guests -- among them some of the entertainment industry’s young elite -- to raise awareness for the relief organization Oxfam.

“If you grew up in the U.K., Oxfam is ever present in your life,” said the British actor Firth, who recently traveled to Africa with the group.

“But what was once a famine relief organization has actually become a diplomatic organization,” he said. “They take on everything from arms trade to advocacy in dealing with corrupt governments to fair trade. It’s a very broad organization.”

The actors spent several hours at the Esquire house -- a rambling estate owned by Esquire magazine on a Coldwater Canyon hilltop -- chatting with guests, who included singer Liz Phair, “Blood Diamond” actor Djimon Hounsou, shoe designer Taryn Rose, Kiele Sanchez of “Lost,” clothing designer Catherine Malandrino and “Stranger Than Fiction” writer Zach Helm.

Firth said he realizes that there may be some “celebrity aid work fatigue” on the part of the public.

But he is hopeful that people will still get involved.

“I’m not against the idea of celebrities using what they have to raise awareness, but you have to be very circumspect about how you employ it,” he said. “You just get involved, and there’s no way to go back from the things that you really care about.”

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tina.daunt@latimes.com