This New Year’s Times Square celebration will feature a different kind of star.

Although Dick Clark will in fact be returning to do the countdown to 2009, the night’s big name will be Hillary Clinton … and husband Bill.

The Clintons will be helping Mayor Michael Bloomberg (and boy band, The Jonas Brothers) lower the glittery 12,000-pound Waterford crystal New Year’s Eve ball.

The Clintons will lead hundreds of thousands of revelers in the final 60-second countdown and push the ceremonial button that lowers the ball, AP says.

Five minutes before midnight, 1,000 balloons with the words "Joy," "Hope" and "2009" will drift down from Times Square rooftops. More than a ton of confetti will be released as the clock strikes 12.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton’s historical race for the White House and her nomination as Barack Obama’s secretary of state helped catapult her to become 2008’s New Yorker of the Year.

From The Daily News:

Short of Barack Obama, no American today has a greater opportunity to shape international history than does New York’s departing junior U.S. senator. And, short of Barack Obama, no American played a greater role last year in influencing the choice of the 44th president of the United States. Clinton galvanized 18 million voters and made her ultimately successful rival much the better by testing him vigorously. For carrying the banner of a history-making candidacy with a resolve and class worthy of this city — in victory and defeat — we today salute Hillary Clinton as the Daily News New Yorker of the Year for 2008.

Congratulations, Hillary. You deserve it.