America Ferrera, who once hit the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton, is now a very public supporter of Barack Obama, and for almost a year she’s been urging young people to vote through Declare Yourself.

However, that doesn’t mean the Ugly Betty star is hoping to declare her own candidacy for public office someday.

“I don’t think running for office is anything I’m prepared for or could even prepare myself for,” Ferrera, 24, told me earlier today, when we chatted about her work with Declare Yourself during a lunch break from filming her hit ABC series in New York City.

Why not? Read on to find out…

Issues like the economy and the war aside, Ferrera doesn’t think she has what it takes to keep up with a candidate’s 24/7 schedule. She learned firsthand what it was like when she campaigned for Clinton in January with her daughter, Chelsea.

“It’s totally unreal,” Ferrera said. “There is nothing I can even compare it to in my own life. I work really long hours and work a lot and have done press tours and junkets, but there is nothing like a presidential campaign that I have experienced before…I think at one point we visited three different cities in one state in 12 hours. It’s exhausting.”

But she’s never too tired to talk about Declare Yourself. Ferrera joined the nonpartisan young people’s voter registration organization after its founder, television legend Norman Lear, personally reached out to her.

While her celebrity may help get people’s attention, Ferrera doesn’t assume that her fame alone can convince someone to support one candidate over another—or to even simply vote, for that matter.

“Most of the college students showed up to get a picture and an autograph,” she said about her Clinton campaigning. “But if, in the process, they did hear my argument or did hear something that resonated with them, I don’t think it’s because I am on Ugly Betty.”

In May, HarperCollins published the book Declare Yourself, a collection of essays about voting and with a forward by Ferrera. Contributors included Maya Angelou and Alice Walker, as well as celebs like Hayden Panettiere, Tyra Banks and Adrian Grenier.

Ferrera knows she has to be careful about choosing when and where to talk politics. In other words, she will not use platforms like awards shows to sell her message.

“I’m happy to do it when it’s the right time and the right place,” she said. “I was young not too long ago, and I know the last thing you want is someone preaching to you.”

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America Ferrera was inspired to become an actress as a child after watching comedy movie hit My Cousin Vinny.

The actress was sent away to law camp by her parents, who hoped their daughter would pursue a career as an attorney.
But, while she was there, she was shown the 1992 film, which earned Marisa Tomei an Academy Award, and decided to aim for fame instead.

She says, “(At law camp) you do mock trials and they take you for a day at the court. One of my favourite parts of law camp was when they showed us My Cousin Vinny. (They said), ‘Here’s what it’s like to (be a lawyer).’ When my favorite part of law camp was watching My Cousin Vinny I realized, maybe I don’t really want to be a lawyer, maybe I just want to act like a lawyer.”

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At 28, I know I’m a bit older than the SOTTP crowd, but that won’t stop me from seeing this movie.  Okay, so maybe I’m 31.  I’m still going to see it!

Pictured: Blake Lively, Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera and Amber Tamblyn

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A Broadway musical version of “Ugly Betty”?

OMG, it makes total sense!

Michael Urie — who plays camp assistant Marc St. James and appears at left with castmate Becki Newton — told a British radio station (Heart) that this fantastic idea is turning into a reality.

“They do want to do an “Ugly Betty” musical, a full-on Broadway musical, but it’s all hush-hush. I think it would be great, and they should use the cast from the show. I think we would all do it, although we maybe don’t dance and sing as well as professional singers and dancers. I think it would be fun for us to do it for a while, and then they could get real people in. They definitely want to do an episode that is a musical one, but then they want to do a full stage show. I think it’s a great idea. It would definitely work.”

Memo to Michael: Dude, Vanessa Williams — your boss on the show? — is a trained singer-dancer. IMDb her sometime.

The “Ugly Betty” star also told Dean Piper about having Victoria Beckham on the show and David Beckham and their kids on the set.

“I think everyone who worked on the show popped in at some point or another to just look at them because they are so gorgeous. They brought their gorgeous Beckham spawn also. …They are so adorable, the little boys. It was fun. She’s just great. She’s teeny tiny, she’s so hot, and she’s sweet, sweet, sweet! They gave me some Beckham cologne. It was a nice parting gift. She’s the only guest star who’s ever been on the show and given gifts!”

Yeah, but her own cologne? Can you say ‘cheesy?’

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America Ferrera is worried about moving her hit show from Los Angeles to the east coast – because she fears filming will upset New Yorkers.

The city’s mayor Michael Bloomberg welcomed the series’ relocation after producers announced the show would be moving east last week to make the most of new tax incentives on offer in New York.

According to city officials, the move will create more than 200 jobs in the Big Apple.

But Ferrera isn’t convinced New Yorkers are so eager so see the show leave its L.A. roots.

She says, “I’m excited. I’m a little nervous too. New Yorkers are really cool. I’m just a little nervous about how they’re going to accept the show. We’ll be on the street blocking the way.”

Crewmembers on the L.A. set protested the decision last week, when its 300-strong staff banded together to take out an ad in trade paper Variety to highlight the resulting job losses prompted by the move.

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