Does billing mean schedule here?

And does "to hold each other" mean "to grab each other" (a euphemism though)?

Context:
In a campaign notable for the contempt in which Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama at times seem to hold each other, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/18/nyregion/obama-and-romney-to-joust-and-quip-at-al-smith-dinner.html?_r=0 at the Waldorf-Astoria to benefit Catholic charities — one of the http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/18/obama-and-romney-share-stage-again-tonight-but-this-time-for-laughs/?ref=michaeldshear on the road to the White House — also lived up to its other billing: a respite, however brief, from a campaign that has grown nastier as it has grown closer, illustrated just a few nights ago during a heated, in-your-face http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/10/17/us/politics/20121017-second-presidential-debate-obama-romney.html?ref=politics at Hofstra University.