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MARY MCCORMACK (‘K STREET’) MOVES UP TO PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE WHEN SHE GUEST-STARS ON NBC’S ‘THE WEST WING’ AS PRESIDENT’S NEW DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER

NBC Press Release

BURBANK, Calif. -- March 29, 2004 -- Mary McCormack (“K Street,” “Private Parts”) will guest-star on a four episode arc on NBC’s Emmy Award-winning “The West Wing” (Wednesdays, 9-10 p.m. ET) as the President’s (Martin Sheen) new deputy National Security Adviser whose first encounter with the Chief Executive proves to be more brusque than she expected.

McCormack’s first episode, “The Promise,” will be broadcast later this spring. In the storyline, she plays Kate Harper, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate and military prodigy who is not afraid to stay true to her advice and convictions.

Recently, McCormack starred on “K Street” (a fellow Washington, D.C.-based drama series) and in the TV miniseries version of “Traffic.” Likewise, she guest-starred on two episodes of NBC’s “ER” last October. Among McCormack’s feature-film credits are “Private Parts,” “Deep Impact,” “Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star,” “K-PAX,” “Madison,” “Mystery, Alaska,” “True Crime,” “The Big Tease,” “Getting to Know You” and “Backfire!” In addition, McCormack’s TV resume includes a regular role on the drama “Murder One.”

Now in its fifth season, “The West Wing” stars Emmy winner Sheen (“Apocalypse Now”), Emmy winner John Spencer (“L.A. Law”), Emmy winner Bradley Whitford (“My Fellow Americans”), Emmy winner Richard Schiff (“Deep Impact”), Emmy winner Allison Janney (“American Beauty”), Emmy nominee Dule Hill (“Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk!”), Emmy nominee Janel Moloney (“Sports Night”), and Emmy winner Stockard Channing (“Six Degrees of Separation”) and Joshua Malina (“Sports Night”).

“The West Wing” is from John Wells Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television Production Inc. Aaron Sorkin is the creator. John Wells serves as the executive producer.

Speaking for the President

Is The West Wing accurate? Ed Potton hears the inside info from two real-life C.J.s and gets a guarded tour of Washington
Times (UK) Online

An embattled American President kicks off what is set to be a bloody re-election campaign. Violent anti-government insurgence erupts in Haiti. Islamic terrorists launch horrifying attacks on Western targets. Watch the third series of The West Wing, released on DVD on March 29, and the temptation to draw parallels with the real world is stronger than ever.
The comparisons, of course, start to go awry when you contrast the fervent conservatism of George Bush’s Administration with the liberal outlook of Josiah “Jed” Bartlet’s. But nine out of ten West Wing fans will tell you that the real star of the show is not folksy President Bartlet anyway, but his formidable, effervescent press secretary C. J. Cregg, as played by Allison Janney. In the age of Alastair Campbell and Comical Ali, the best lines are often reserved for those who stand between the politicians and a bloodthirsty media.

Two Washington faces who know all about handling the fourth estate are Jody Powell, who served as President Carter’s press secretary from 1976 to 1980, and Sheila Tate, who filled a similar role for First Lady Nancy Reagan (1981-85) and President-elect George Bush Sr (1988-89). After leaving politics, the pair overcame their differences to found Powell-Tate, one of America’s top commercial PR agencies. We meet at Les Halles brasserie, a few blocks along Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. The menu has a West Wing theme: highlights are Josiah Bartlet’s Beef Tenderloin Rossini and Leo McGarry’s Chocolate Soufflé.

They inevitably lack some of C. J.’s statuesque glamour, but both Powell and Tate, with their power suits, flawless haircuts and deft deflection of awkward questions, exude the manner of archetypal political professionals. So what do the real C. J.s make of their more famous fictional counterpart? “She’s a very interesting character and clearly compelling,” says Tate, in between mouthfuls of Toby Ziegler’s Steamed Halibut. The tact of a true pro. “ But she has more power than any press secretary I’ve ever known. If you have worked in the White House, it’s hard to watch a show and not say: ‘It would never have happened that way.’”

For one thing, the genuine West Wingers don’t have scriptwriters as skilled as Aaron Sorkin. “Nobody is that glib,” says Powell in his genial Southern twang. “I certainly wasn’t. The negotiations to get the hostages out of Iran in 1980 were as emotional and dramatic moments as I’d spent in the White House. But you can watch the tape and be bored to tears.”

Nor do C. J. and her fast-talking colleagues treat their superiors with the deference displayed in the real White House. “You can argue,” explains Powell, “but you have an obligation to do it in a way that’s less smartass.” When Powell did get too big for his boots, Carter would ask him dryly: “Why don’t you run for President?”

And yet Powell had been so close to Carter that the two used to share beds on cash-strapped campaign trails. “Walking into my first meeting in the Oval Office,” he remembers, “the first thing that struck me was: ‘I will never refer to him as Jimmy again.’ He comes up and hunts with us every year, and I still call him ‘Mr President’.”

Despite their reservations, Tate and Powell are quick to give The West Wing credit for presenting a political process that is nuanced and riddled with hard choices. “Most films and shows succumb to the whole Hollywood thing,” says Powell. “This is closer to what it was like than anything else I’ve seen about the White House in 40 years. It helps people understand that’s it’s not always good versus evil. Compromise is an important part of the political process. Any decision that gets to the President, if it were easy, would be made by someone else.”

But big decisons can breed big mistakes. C. J.’s appeal is that she is both brilliant and reassuringly fallible: a key plotline of the third series revolves around a crucial gaffe she makes at a press conference. Powell and Tate are predictably reticent when asked about their own howlers, although Tate admits that a jokey remark about the trim on one of Nancy Reagan’s outfits being made from “a dead animal” backfired spectacularly: “Nancy and I heard from every animal rights activist in the world.” A sense of humour, often cited as the press secretary’s most important weapon, can also be their biggest handicap.

Gaffes aside, C. J. has also been romantically involved with a member of the White House press corps, a scenario that strikes Powell as “very unlikely. It’s a bad career move for one thing.” Nevertheless, both he and Tate acknowledge the difficulty of maintaining good relations with the press while refraining from getting too cosy. “It’s a fine line, you sort of define it every day,” says Tate. “I did socialise with the press,” admits Powell, “but I didn’t have small groups to my house for dinner for fear of being seen as having favourites.”

But romance and socialising always take a back seat in The West Wing, a world where 18-hour days seem to be the rule. “It’s not a normal way to live,” agrees Tate. She resigned from her post after spending four summers organising the White House’s Christmas coverage. “We’d decorate the tree, interviews were done, pictures were taken, in order to make the November issues of the magazines. Eventually, I said I don’t want to spent another August doing Christmas.”

However, Tate insists that she always feels lucky to have worked in the West Wing. “You’re really a witness to history, you’re right there, involved in it,” says the woman who had to give a press conference while still in shock after the 1981 assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan. And while Powell professes not to miss a political scene whose quality of discourse has “soured”, he lights up when asked at which moment in the past 50 years he would like to have been back in the White House. “I’d like to have been there on 9/11,” he answers. “In terms of a point where American history changed, that would have been a time to be there.” His eyes are alive with imagined challenges. Fiction, as ever, has a long way to go before it can match the drama of real life.

TOUR OF DUTIES

In the third season of The West Wing, C. J. falls for her secret service agent. Could this happen? “Sure,” says Kurt Wurzberger, a “threat assessment professional” who has protected everyone from Ronald Reagan to Oprah Winfrey.

“Secret service guys are still people and chemistry will occur,” he says as we tour Washington’s political hotspots. “Chuck Vance, who protected President Ford’s daughter, ended up marrying her.”

But with pistol-packing agents on every street, Washington 2004 is more paranoid than loved up. It’s boom time for Wurzberger, who served as a counter-terrorist agent during the 1970s. He then worked privately for various clients before returning to serve his country after September 11. With his lantern jaw and professional jargon (things are not easier, they’re “more logistically feasible”), he is a movie buff’s dream of a secret service agent. He consulted on Clint Eastwood’s In the Line of Fire.

While he’s a fan of The West Wing (“It’s very accurate in terms of portraying the dialogues between the players”), Wurzberger insists that non-fiction is far more fraught with peril. Outside the Hilton Hotel, he talks admiringly of the agents protecting President Reagan when he was shot here in 1981. “It was a textbook response.”

Wurzberger has played the hero himself, foiling three attacks on V.I.P.s, in one of which he was stabbed in the elbow. “When I locked my elbow, he couldn’t get the blade out. Consequently I was able to break his handhold,” he recalls cheerfully. But that’s rare in a job which he sums up as “hours of boredom highlighted by seconds of fear”. Less glamorous missions have seen him disguised as a hot dog vendor and a middle-aged woman. America, it seems, will go to any length to protect itself. “Stay safe and watch your back,” he advises, and melts into the crowd.

She took 'Wing,' and she's still flying

By ED BARK
The Dallas Morning News

Stockard Channing had no inkling she'd be playing America's most famous fictional first lady. In fact, she was pretty much the last to know.

The West Wing had already premiered on NBC when creator Aaron Sorkin finally decided that viewers should meet the wife of Martin Sheen's President Josiah Bartlet.

Ms. Channing, on the East Coast preparing to begin work on another project, had to "make an instant decision" after an incomplete script suddenly landed in her lap. She winged her way back to Hollywood, got outfitted for an evening gown and then spotted a tuxedoed Mr. Sheen "sneaking a cigarette" during a break from shooting Episode 7 ("The State Dinner") of West Wing's inaugural 1999-2000 season. She had never met the famed activist actor.

"I went over and introduced myself," Ms. Channing recalled. She then asked him, "We have three children, right?"

"Three daughters," Mr. Sheen replied just before the director barked, "Action!"

Thus began the life of first lady Abigail Bartlet, who arguably has supplanted tart Betty Rizzo of Grease as the signature role of the 60-year-old actress's long career.

"So much for preparation," she told a group of high school and college students this week at a Southern Methodist University forum. "Sometimes you're just thrown into the water and it's a very big pool."

West Wing, winner of the Emmy Award for best drama each of its first four seasons, is under a new administration this year. Mr. Sorkin, notorious for turning in scripts at the literal last minute, left the show last spring at NBC's urging. John Wells (ER, Third Watch ) is the new overseer, and Ms. Channing approves.

"It's been a pretty seamless transition, and I think a healthy one," she said. "We were getting to a point where there was a sort of pattern and a style that was choking us a little bit. So it had to be pruned and shaped to improve the health of the tree. We were getting a little tangled up with ourselves. And so far, so good."

West Wing's ratings have slid, however. The show ranks 31st in the season-to-date Nielsens after peaking at No. 8 in the 2001-02 season. Worse, it's "skewing old" on a network that says the only audience that matters is advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds.

"We're absolutely satisfied creatively," NBC entertainment president Jeff Zucker said in a recent interview with TV critics. "In terms of its ratings performance, obviously we would like it to do better."

NBC's multiyear deal with West Wing expires after next season. Mr. Zucker won't commit beyond that, saying only that the show "will continue to serve in office for at least another year."

Ms. Channing, in a separate interview, said network TV's obsession with younger viewers is "the way of the world. Some great shows close out of town. We've been lucky to get into town and have a good run. I just hope we go out strong. The rest of the stuff, you can't do anything about."

West Wing will last long enough for Mr. Sheen to be playing a president on TV while also playing an active role in Democratic presidential politics. Four years ago, he campaigned for Al Gore. Good for him, in Ms. Channing's view.

"It's a very curious thing being an actor now, much less an actor in a show like this," she said. "There's gotten to be so much backlash about actors standing up and speaking their minds. Some of us are pretty intelligent, pretty well-informed.

"I don't always agree with Martin on everything that he stands up for. But I respect him for his activism and his energy. And his heart is in the right place. Actors are also citizens of this country, and we have the right to speak our minds."

West Wing returns with a new episode Wednesday after a two-week layoff. Glenn Close guest-stars as a controversial liberal candidate for a U.S. Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of a conservative Republican.

Tate brings 'Pink Lady' back to school

'Grease' actress speaks at lecture
By De'Borah Bankston
SMU Daily Campus

March 17, 2004

Having a career that has spanned over 30 years, actress Stockard Channing believes that we often picture ourselves on the stairway to heaven and find ourselves on the road to hell instead.

“Life isn’t always what you planned,” Channing said. “We may plan one path and end up on another. What’s important to remember is that during the times when your down … keep your eyes open for other opportunities.

Don’t lock in on a particular mindset or vision of what your life is supposed to be or you won’t survive in any career.”

Channing shared her experiences during a spirited discussion with her old friend, dramatist John Guare as part of the Tate Distinguished Lecture Series in McFarlin Auditorium on Tuesday night. Channing, who currently plays First Lady Abigail Bartlett in the hit television series “West Wing,” is also known for her role as Betty Rizzo in the movie Grease alongside John Travolta.

“Grease was a great money-maker,” Channing said, “But it wasn’t too great for the careers of the people who acted in it. Everyone thought of it as a kid movie. They might think of it in a different way today. Today, box-office take is an indicator in an actor’s career. After Grease, things were pretty crappy for a while.”

Channing said that there were times when she lost track of where her life was heading. During those times, she kept her eyes open to other options and kept in touch with old friends.

“There were so many times when I would be offered a great job, then the rug would be pulled out from under me,” Channing said. “I have crashed and burned so many times over the years. It’s been hard sometimes to keep up-beat and level-headed about the whole thing. I just had to keep an open mind and something else would come along.

When things became the most confusing for her, she returned to her roots in the theater. From there, she was invited back for other movie and television parts.

It was during one of those times that she received the call to play Abigail on “West Wing.”

“I really like being in ‘West Wing,’” Channing said. “I believe that it allows people to see things about how things work in government that they never knew before. … Mostly though, I think people like the characters. I am welcomed as Abby wherever I go.”

Channing said the funniest thing that had happened was when five elderly women met her backstage at a play.

They commented on her performances in “West Wing” and said that they were happy because Rizzo had turned out all right.

Channing began her acting career in the theater with a group of young students at Harvard who were performing in their own stage troupe. Among the students that she worked with were Tommy Lee Jones and John Lithglow.

“We were just a bunch of smart-assed kids, highly educated and hungry,” Channing said. “That time in the ‘60s was so unique. … You just felt that you could make life whatever you wanted it to be.”

Channing said that as an understudy, she feared that she would never get her “big break.” But after the lead actress gave her a chance to perform one night, she began her career on stage.

Guare, who worked with Channing when she performed in “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” in 1971, first saw her when she began work as an understudy.

“She had made such an impression on me during her reading at the audition and the one night that she played the lead in [a] play, that I just had to have her,” Guare said.

Channing’s performances have garnered her two Tony Awards, an Obie and several Golden Globes.

“The important thing to remember in the future is to keep an open mind,” Channing said. “Life may not be what you planned. It may, however, turn out to be more interesting.”

Season Two of the Multiple Emmy Award-Winning Drama ``The West Wing''

Watched by over 15 Million Viewers Weekly, the Record-Breaking
Series Begins Its Second Term on DVD May 18th

Press Release
Business Wire

It's unanimous! Warner Home Video (WHV) has voted to re-elect the
multiple Emmy Award-winning hit series "The West Wing" for another
successful term on DVD.

The four-disc collector's set will feature 22 episodes of the high-
profile political drama's second television season (2000-2001) which
earned a record-breaking 18 Emmy Award nominations and eight wins.
The set will be available for $59.98 (SRP) and will include a wide
array of exclusive special features for consumers.

Special features included in the DVD set include:

-- "Access Granted" featurette, a walk and talk through the White
House set with director Thomas Schlamme and production designer Jon
Hutman.

-- "Constructing Two Cathedrals" featurette, a behind-the-scenes look
at how the episode came together.

-- "Gag Order" gag reel.

-- Deleted Scenes.

-- Episode commentaries by "The West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin,
director Thomas Schlamme, Martin Sheen, and others including Brad
Whitford, Janel Moloney, Robert Burlinger and Kathryn Joosten.

Regarding the announcement, Christine Martinez, Vice President, Non-
Theatrical Franchise Marketing, Warner Home Video, stated, "`The West
Wing' is a groundbreaking series featuring perfectly written and
magnificently acted story lines that endure consistently from season
to season. Fans of the series and anyone who appreciates remarkable
television would find season two of the series to be a natural
addition to their DVD library."

"The West Wing" was created by award-winning writer, producer Aaron
Sorkin ("Sports Night," "The American President"), is directed by
Thomas Schlamme ("Sports Night"), as well as executive produced by
John Wells ("ER," "Third Watch") and features one of the most
talented ensemble casts ever to star in a drama series.

"The West Wing" documents the inner workings and daily activities of
The White House as seen through the eyes of a diverse group of
staffers led by a fictitious U.S. President (Martin Sheen as U.S.
President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet). The highly talented administration
is portrayed by Dule Hill as President Bartlet's aide Charlie Young;
Allison Janney as Press Secretary C.J. Cregg; Rob Lowe as White House
Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn; Richard Schiff as White
House Director of Communications Toby Ziegler; John Spencer as White
House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry and Bradley Whitford as Deputy Chief
of Staff Josh Lyman.

Season two of "The West Wing" also features the return of Stockard
Channing as First Lady Abigail Bartlet and Janel Moloney as Assistant
to Deputy Chief of Staff Donna Moss. Recurring guest stars from
season one include Timothy Busfield as Danny Concannon and Tim
Matheson, who portrays the role of Vice President John Hoynes.

"The West Wing" has won an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series every
season it has been on the air, which totals four awards in that
category. Besides Outstanding Drama Series, during its second season,
the program was nominated for a record breaking total of 18 Emmy
nominations, winning in eight categories including Outstanding
Casting for a Drama Series, Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series,
as well as the Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for
Bradley Whitford and Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for
Allison Janney.

For more information on this and other titles distributed by Warner
Home Video, visit www.whvdirect.com.

Artwork is downloadable at www.WHVDirect.com or by request.

Tony Winner Glenn Close Set to Guest Star on NBC's "The West Wing" in March

By Ernio Hernandez
Playbill

Three-time Tony Award winner Glenn Close will appear in as a guest star on NBC's political drama "The West Wing" later this month, according to TV Guide Online.

Close will play a candidate for a position on the Supreme Court on the drama created by Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men). "A conservative judge just died, so it's the business of trying to get her nominated and the confirmation drama around it," actor John Spencer told the online magazine.

"The West Wing," which centers on the titular area of the White House, stars Martin Sheen as President Josiah Bartlet. The show features many performers with stage experience including regulars Spencer (Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine), Allison Janney (A View From the Bridge), Dulé Hill (Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk), Bradley Whitford (A Few Good Men), Richard Schiff (The Exonerated), Joshua Malina (A Few Good Men) and Tony winner Stockard Channing (Joe Egg).

Cherry Jones (The Heiress Tony winner) and Michael Gaston (A Day in the Death of Joe Egg) will appear on the March 3 episode. Other recent (some recurring) guest stars have included Mary-Louise Parker (Proof), Lily Tomlin (The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe), Anna Deavere Smith (Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992), John Goodmn (Big River), Joanna Gleason (Into The Woods), Harry Groener (Crazy For You), Kate Burton (Hedda Gabler), Dylan Baker (Eastern Standard) and Taye Diggs (Rent).

Close won her three Tony nods for her performances in Sunset Boulevard, Death and the Maiden and The Real Thing. The actress, known for such movies as "Fatal Attraction," "Dangerous Liaisons," and the Mel Gibson "Hamlet," also appeared on stage in The Play What I Wrote, Benefactors, The Crucifer of Blood, Rex and Barnum — for which she earned her first Tony nomination.

The hour-long drama "The West Wing" airs on NBC Wednesday nights at 9 PM (ET). Check your local listings. For more information, visit www.nbc.com/thewestwing.