June 03, 2004
West Wing's Love Dilemma
by Daniel R. Coleridge
TV Guide
White House staffers Josh Lyman and Donna Moss have been through so much on The West Wing. When he was shot, she was there for him. Now, she's been injured in a terrorist car-bombing, and he's there for her. They've had it rough, but darn it, they're still single, available and breathing! So why don't these two political vets just hook up already?
According to Donna's portrayer, Janel Moloney, Josh and Donna will grow closer as she recovers from her injuries in that German hospital. "You get to see the relationship become very intimate," she tells TV Guide Online. "There's an intimacy and an emotionality that you haven't seen between them."
Now, hold on. This teasing thespian doesn't mean that kind of intimacy. "I'm not sure it's totally necessary to put them together," Moloney says. "Like a lot of us, [WW producer John Wells] has a fear it's gonna get silly if we start running around together romantically. Three-quarters of the fun is you desperately wanting them to get together! I think it's very good for the show."
"There's a wonderful thing — it certainly was not intentional — that happened in the dynamic between these two characters," adds Bradley Whitford, who plays Josh. "The writers think it's pretty precious. It's very hard to write a romantic comedy in this day and age — if you like somebody, you just jump in bed with them! But here, you have a situation where it makes sense that these characters [don't]. There's a hierarchy [at work, so] acting upon romantic feelings would be inappropriate. There's also this very realistic situation of working in the White House, where people are usually way too busy to have a relationship."
Whitford also thinks sex would spoil the duo's intellectual chemistry. "Part of what's fun to play — that you would put at risk by completely embracing a romantic relationship — is that Josh's arrogance is constantly punctured by Donna. [She] very often sees things more clearly on sophisticated issues that Josh doesn't see."
Excuses, excuses. Well, if they won't resolve this will-they-or-won't-they stuff, at least these West Wingers can solve one mystery for viewers: What's up with Josh calling Miss Moss "Donnatella"? Is that really her first name? "Yes, in fact. In the first scene of us together in the pilot, he called me Donnatella," Moloney reminds us. "Whenever I get in trouble or he's making a point, he calls me Donnatella. And when I testified [in court], I said my real name."
