Posted: Sun., Feb. 12, 2006, 5:00am PT

Conan kicks it up at the Finnish line

'Late' host plugs look-a-like prexy candidate Halonen

By Josef Adalian

Forget Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert. Conan O'Brien is latenight's real political power player.

In Finland.

The NBC "Late Night" host bears a striking resemblance to Finnish president Tarja Halonen. Because of that, O'Brien spent the last few weeks endorsing Halonen on his show, going so far as to produce mock campaign commercials blasting Halonen's opponent.

O'Brien was simply aiming for laughs, but the Finns took it seriously. Every joke made the country's tabloids, and Halonen started airing her own (real) campaign ads on Finnish cabler SUBTV's broadcasts of "Late Night."

Halonen won re-election, and, in something of a victory lap, O'Brien will be in Finland this week. He'll spend three days taping bits for an upcoming show and collect a sort of Finnish Emmy for being the country's "most suprising and most entertaining TV personality."

For a scheduled O'Brien airport press conference, no less than 50 journos from the country of 5.2 million applied for credentials.

"Once I conquer Finland, I'll head south through the Baltics and on to Belarus," O'Brien said. "Soon all the world will find me mildly amusing."