It's Freddie. Of Hollywood.

-- by Dave

So now we find out that Fred Thompson's real name is Freddie.

It's been a family secret for many, many years, uncovered only by the most diligent reporting. Few people know this. But Fred Thompson's actual first name isn't Fred.

It's really Freddie. No, seriously.

Official marriage, birth and divorce records in Alabama and Tennessee show that the newest Republican presidential contender was born Freddie Dalton Thompson. (His mother, who lives outside Nashville, refuses to explain how this came to be.)

But Thompson was known as Freddie growing up in Lawrence County, Tenn. And he used the Freddie name all the way through college and all the way through law school.

Given that we've already taken to the "Frederick of Hollywood" moniker, I wonder if Thompson's image isn't going to be morphing into another shape ...



Nightmare on Elm Street, indeed.