« March 2004 | Main | May 2004 »
April 30, 2004
'West Wing' star will speak here
The Capital Times
Emmy-award winning actor Bradley Whitford, who plays Josh Lyman on "The West Wing," will be back in his hometown next month to help raise money for Madison's schools.
Whitford, who graduated from Madison East High School, is scheduled to speak at the Foundation for Madison's Public Schools annual luncheon, set for noon May 17 at the Exhibition Hall of the Alliant Energy Center.
Tickets are $40 per person, or $300 for a table of eight, and are available by calling the foundation at 232-7820.
The foundation is not paying Whitford a speaking fee. Whitford, who was actively involved in theater during his time at East High, will be here to speak at University of Wisconsin graduation ceremonies on May 15-16 and agreed to stay for the foundation's luncheon.
The Foundation for Madison's Public Schools is in its fourth year and has so far raised about $2 million to support activities outside the district's regular operating budget.
Published: 9:47 AM 4/30/04
Posted by Jo at 02:31 PM
April 28, 2004
West Wing: Complete Second Season
by John Sinnott
www.dvdtalk.com
The Show:
At the 2000 Emmy Award the first season of The West Wing won an unprecedented 9 awards. That first season truly deserved such high recognition. The show was new and inovative, had excellent actors and very strong scripts. The day after the awards were handed out, creator Aaron Sorkin and director Thomas Schlamme started filming the second season’s first episode. In one of the commentaries included with this set they admitted that they were a little worried after receiving so much critical acclaim. Could they continue to produce a quality show? The answer is “yes.” The second season of The West Wing is just as good as the first.
For those of you who may have missed it, The West Wing concerns the day-to-day life of the people who work in the west wing of the White House for the President of the United States. It doesn’t focus on policy decisions and how laws get passed, though there is that aspect. It concentrates on the lives of those people who work closely with the President: his speechwriters, the Chief of Staff and his Press Secretary. It shows what life must be like in a high-pressure job, where every mistake has the potential to turn into a scandal, and where hardball politics are a way of life.
The second season starts off moments after the first season’s cliffhanger ending. I have to admit; I thought the weakest part of the first season was the way that it ended. I’m not a fan of suspenseful endings when you have to wait six months to find out the resolution in the first place, and the one that Aaron Sorkin came up with was a little too obvious. Having said that, the resolution that was presented originally as a two-part episode was splendid. They managed to take the story in a different direction than I was expecting and create a strong starting episode. The series doesn’t let up from there either. This season has many funny, touching, and dramatic moments, some of the best that TV has to offer.
As with the first season, the acting is superb. All of the people on the show are very talented actors. In this season some of the secondary characters have a larger role, and they all succeed in not only playing the part, but in creating three-dimensional people from the scripts. As Thomas Schlamme said in a commentary “even our 4th string second baseman is an All-Star.”
The writing continues to be very strong. Writer Aaron Sorkin has an ear for language that is rarely matched in television today. He can take a small incident, and turn it into either a brief touching moment or a huge laugh. He peppers his scripts with both humor and drama, and several times in the series has speeches that are very patriotic and moving.
Aside form the fine acting and writing, I think there is another reason that West Wing is so popular and well received. It is because President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) is the type of President we would all like to have in the White House. We want someone with integrity and honesty, a person who is exceedingly intelligent and yet humble. We don’t want a president that chases interns, falls asleep during briefings, or is inarticulate in front of the press. We want a Jed Bartlet! But as someone once said, we may not get the government we want, but we often get the government we deserve.
On thing that did disappoint me was that the character of Mandy Hampton (Moira Kelly) was not in the second season. She wasn’t referred to at all in this set, as if she never existed. This is strange since it would have been very easy to write her out in the first episode without her even appearing.
Sorkin and Schlamme needn’t have worried about the quality of their show decreasing in the second year. They produced a fine series of episodes that lived up to expectations. They also won an additional 8 Emmy Awards for this season.
The DVD:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This four DVD set contains all 22 episodes from the first season. It comes in a cardboard fold out book with a slipcase. I am really starting to dislike this type of packaging. It is difficult to remove and replace a single disc if you don’t have four feet of counter space to unfold the book. The episodes are on the first three double-sided discs, with the fourth DVD being reserved for the extras.
Audio:
This DVD is presented in Dolby surround sound, as it was originally broadcast. There are no alternate language tracks, but there are subtitles in English, Spanish, and French.
The audio on this set should please everyone. The orchestra music is full and rich and the dialog is clear and sharp, even when there is a lot going on in the background. Since this is a drama that was made for television, there are not a lot of major sound effects, but the music during the opening credits is powerful and fills the room. It is a very good sounding set.
Video:
This show is presented with an anamorphically enhanced widescreen picture, thought the opening credits were window boxed to 1.33:1. The video quality is very good. The blacks are appropriately dark and rich, and details can be seen in the shadows. The colors are accurate, though not overly bright. Being a recent show, there are no print flaws. Since they crammed four shows onto each disc, and there are some digital artifacts associated with the image. The lines in the fence in front of the White House will fluctuate as the camera moves across it. Still pictures, such as those shown during the ending credits seem to fare the worst, with curving lines having a stair step effect instead of being smooth. These defects are very slight though, and are only evident if you are looking for them.
The Extras:
The fourth disc in this box set is solely devoted to extras. This disc includes:
Constructing Two Cathedrals: a very interesting 18-minute featurette where Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme discuss the plotting and development of the season finale. They talk about how and why the story was constructed the way that it was. Very informative.
Access Granted: a blueprint of the White House where you can use your remote to travel to different rooms. Some rooms have still pictures, and the lobby has a 15-minute video piece on the sets that they use for the show, their construction and how they differ from the real White House. I liked the video tour, but thought it was a little hokey to have to cursor through the building to get to it.
Gag Order: A short (1:18) reel of goofs and missed takes. Pretty funny, but too short.
Deleted scenes: 10 minutes of deleted scenes.
In addition to these extras, 4 episodes have audio commentaries by writer/creator Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme. The episodes with commentary are: In the Shadow of Two Gunmen part 1 (joined by Bradley Whitford and Janel Moloney), In the Shadow of Two Gunmen part 2 (joined by Martin Sheen,) Noel (joined by Bradley Whitford,) and 18th and Potomac (joined by Robert Berlinger and Kathryn Joosten, but without Thomas Schlamme.)
Like the first season’s commentaries, the ones for this season are a fairly sparse. There are many large (one minute or more) gaps in the commentary. This was disappointing since I was hoping to get more information. When they did talk it was generally interesting. They talked about how certain scenes and shows evolved, and related anecdotes concerning the episode. The commentaries where Sorkin and Schlamme are joined by a director are more chatty, but the still a pretty bare. My main disappointment was with the commentary track with Martin Sheen. After requesting such a track in my review of the first season, I was hoping for a more verbose commentary. As it was, Sheen offered few comments.
Final Thoughts:
The second season of this show was just as good as the first. The writing was still top notch, and the acting superb. This season saw the characters backgrounds fleshed out a little more, and produced many fine episodes. The audio and video were both excellent. If you enjoyed the first season, get ready for more of the same level of quality. DVD Talk Collector Series.
Posted by Jo at 07:28 AM
April 27, 2004
Saunders: Fiction deals with the facts
by Dusty Saunders
Rocky Mountain News
It took C.J. Cregg, a fictional character, to tackle a real broadcasting issue on television.
There has been little, if any, national reporting or commentary on television about the controversial issue of the Federal Communications Commission's desire to loosen media ownership restrictions, which would allow a few major broadcasting organizations to increase domination of the airwaves.
News shows have been rightly accused of ignoring coverage mainly because most of the networks would benefit from such consolidation.
To my knowledge, NBC's Dateline, CBS' 60 Minutes or ABC's Prime Time have not wrestled with the issue in an in-depth style.
But The West Wing joined the battle last Wednesday.
In a secondary plotline, Cregg, President Josiah Bartlet's press secretary (brilliantly played by Allison Janney), was in a major snit over media consolidation and the unwillingness of reporters employed by conglomerates to tackle the issue.
She voiced unhappiness in several legitimate scenes, complaining that the FCC is "posting bail for huge companies that were illegally gobbling up TV stations like greasy hors d'oeuvres."
While the definitive delivery was Janney's, the words and idea came from executive producer John Wells and his able stable of producers and writers, who have kept The West Wing on a high dramatic level after the departure last spring of creator Aaron Sorkin.
Such commentary about the FCC did not go unnoticed within the industry.
Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, told Variety: "It's ironic that an issue that was completely unreported on NBC News is getting more treatment in entertainment."
The organization, based in Washington, D.C., has been extremely critical of media consolidation.
While The West Wing has been less cerebral this season without Sorkin on the premises, the story lines have mostly retained the series' political wit and satire.
Yes, The West Wing also has retained its liberal stance since plots mostly deal with the philosophy (and the wheeling and dealing) of a Democratic president.
And while most conservatives regularly dismiss The West Wing as liberal hogwash, many story lines have outlined the conservative platforms in "equal time" terms.
An example came in an engrossing hour last month, in which Glenn Close portrayed a liberal judge who was named chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Within this dramatic framework, Wells and his crew also introduced an intelligent, likable ultra-conservative lawyer who also ended up on the court.
And the script provided this candidate ample opportunity to fully express his conservative views in positive terms.
Granted, such episodes aren't going to get conservatives to join The West Wing fan club. But if they watched regularly they might agree the series offers much more than what many deride as "liberal drivel."
Politics aside, The West Wing remains one of the few bastions of TV drama where weekly plotlines are not always solved with a surgeon's scalpel, a judge's gavel or a cop's gun.
While audience ratings have diminished during the past two seasons, The West Wing already is scheduled for a sixth season next fall.
This was assured two years ago when Warner Bros., the production company and NBC agreed on a deal, a contract that was a definite plus for fans of The West Wing. In today's reality-happy environment, NBC might have decided the series would not be part of the 2004-05 lineup, despite its appeal to blue-chip advertisers.
Posted by Jo at 02:58 PM
'West Wing' star campaigns for tuberous sclerosis
By John Morgan, Spotlight Health, with medical adviser Stephen A. Shoop, M.D.
USA Today
As Will Bailey on The West Wing, Joshua Malina plays an idealist who often finds himself at odds with the president and his staff. In real life, Malina hopes to build a consensus fighting tuberous sclerosis complex.
After Malina's daughter recovered from open-heart surgery, the actor embraced the chance to help children with tuberous sclerosis.
"I want people to have the same epiphany I had which is understand how devastating tuberous sclerosis is and how deserving these kids and families are of our support," Malina says. "I have two kids of my own. And I know what it's like to deal with your child having medical problems. My heart just goes out to these families."
Tuberous sclerosis complex is a genetic disorder that causes multiple benign tumors primarily in the brain but can also involve the heart, lungs, kidneys, eyes and skin. According to the Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance, TSC affects about 50,000 Americans – or one in 6,000 live births. An estimated 1 million people have the disorder worldwide. The disease afflicts all racial groups and both sexes equally. Undiagnosed and untreated TSC can be fatal.
Malina, 38, points out that while his daughter's open heart surgery caused him "to age 100 years in the course of a week," she now lives a normal, healthy life.
"But for many parents whose children have tuberous sclerosis that possibility is not yet a reality," Malina states. "I respect that they are doing everything they can to raise awareness and money so there might be a future where their kids may actually be cured."
Malina took an active role in helping children with tuberous sclerosis after he received an email out of the blue.
"Last year I got an e-mail from a father who explained that his child had tuberous sclerosis and he asked if I might host a fundraising event," Malina recalls. "His e-mail made such an incredible impression on me, and he asked so little of me that I just couldn't say no."
TSC basics
Recently Malina attended the Comedy for a Cure fundraiser at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles. The event benefited the TSA and showcased a quorum of comedians as well as event chairperson Julianne Moore.
"My hat is really off to Julianne for taking this great cause up," Malina says. "I am so impressed at her commitment and compassion to help these families find a cure. She's really a mom before she's a movie star."
While Malina continues to be self deprecating about his new fame from West Wing, the actor says he intends to continue his advocacy work because a cure in desperately needed.
"Some of these children have undergone or are facing their third brain surgery," Malina notes.
But doctors are making progress in better understanding and treating TSC.
"About 95% of people with TSC will have brain involvement in some way," says Howard Weiner, associate professor of neurosurgery and pediatrics, New York University School of Medicine. "Most patients will present with seizures or epilepsy. About 70% will have a seizure in the first year if life."
Before the age of MRI scanning, TSC was harder to detect. The classic lesions – or tubers— are easily diagnosed with MRI scanning.
"If a child has seizures in the first year of life, they will undergo an MRI scan and these lesions will become evident," says Weiner, who is also a pediatric neurosurgeon specializing in epilepsy surgery for children. "Epilepsy is really just one of the manifestations of TSC. Almost all people with TSC have epilepsy, only a few who have epilepsy have TSC."
While TSC is not the most common genetic disorder, studying the condition will undoubtedly influence the treatment of millions of people with epilepsy. And because TSC causes uncontrolled cell growth to form the multiple tumors, solving the basic science of the condition will likely shape our understanding and treatment of cancer.
In the meantime, the tumors keep growing, causing increasingly devastating neurological damage.
"Developmental delays are very common in children with TSC," Weiner states. "The children will not meet their milestones or will lose milestones they've made – so they won't speak and they'll lag in their motor development."
Neurosurgical advances
Virtually all the children who have seizures are treated with anti-epileptic medications first, Weiner says. If this protocol fails, neurosurgery is another option that is coming into favor.
"Epilepsy surgery or brain surgery for children is a very young field, and many doctors don't consider it still," Weiner says. "Meanwhile, children are on medications for years and years while the clock is ticking developmentally."
Weiner explains that new imaging technology and better anesthesia for children is enabling neurosurgeons to more safely and effectively perform brain surgery on young children.
Another reason neurosurgery is not routinely performed on children with TSC is because of the multiple brain lesions.
"Up until 10 years ago, brain surgery was hard to approach because we want to find the one region of the brain that is the primary generator of the seizure activity and remove it," Weiner states. "But unlike single brain tumors, in TSC there are often several lesions."
Neurosurgeons often will remove several tumors in a series of operations. While the goal is to cure patients, surgeons are pleased if they can provide a child with three or four years of reduced seizure activity.
"Many kids can regain some ground developmentally because the surgeries reduce the number and frequency of seizures," Weiner explains. "In the past we only considered brain surgery for adolescents, but they were way past the developmental phase. Knowing what we know about seizures and their effect on the developing brain, we need to safely consider performing these surgeries younger and younger."
But in order to improve treatment outcomes, more funding is needed. Malina is grateful that people support the TSA and hopes more funding will lead to better treatments and eventually a cure.
"I feel enriched by my involvement with these families, and I hope people will get involved in helping," Malina says. "If you can write a check, that's great. Money is easy to do. But if you can volunteer, it's a greater deed. We all need to help."
Posted by Jo at 02:44 PM
April 25, 2004
Potpourri: Confessions of a West Wing lover
By Cathy Gillentine
Texas City Sun
Published April 25, 2004
I have become a commercial housewife.
By which I do not mean I’ve joined those smiling Merry Maids, whose mindless TV glee is astounding.
My version of commercial housewife is someone who does house work during commercials.
The term housewife is, for most women, anathema. Makes it sound like we have been married to a house. OK. Its true, many of us, at some time in our lives, have been.
Forget that.
What has happened to almost destroy my ability to function outside the sight of the constantly glowing video screen is a discovery that my favorite program can be viewed regularly as many as four times a day, and on its regular night, five times.
Since it is regularly shown on Wednesday night and I have other things to do, I generally tape it for watching on Thursday morning and completely lose count of all the versions I watch that day.
It’s “The West Wing” and, while others’ interest has waned, my addiction grows ever stronger.
It is now possible, if you have Bravo, to watch “West Wing” four times a day. There is no guarantee that you will get four separate installments. In fact, you won’t.
I have not yet figured out the arrangements for the two morning shows, at 10 and 11 a.m. Sometimes they are repeats, not only from TWW’s entire repertoire, but also from the night before.
I do know that the 6 p.m. version is frequently a new repeat (an oxymoron, I admit) and I also know for sure that if you forget and watch the 6 p.m. news, you can see the same TWW at 10 p.m. — and miss the 10 p.m. news.
The news being what it is nowadays, missing it is no big hardship. In fact, it is probably good for my spirit, my soul, and my equilibrium.
When I write TWW, standing for the show, it reminds me of a time long gone when we referred to “Gone With the Wind” as GWTW. Do you remember that?
When GWTW first came out, I was too young to see it. Later, I read the book, several times. Finally, I saw the movie in a theatre and since then, several times on TV.
To me, TWW is in a class with GWTW.
That class is made up of movies and television shows that are well written.
These days, many of the viewers of both movies and television would not recognize a well written script if it fell on them.
Television viewers— I think they are mostly younger viewers — are enjoying the so-called “reality” shows, which are supposed to be unscripted. A couple of people I watch have argued with their reality quotient, namely Regis Philbin and David Letterman, who think in spite of all the claims, somebody is scripting the action.
In addition to TWW, I am also a fan of lots of cop shows and they are proliferating on the cable stations as well.
If I switch to TNN at noon, I can get a repeat of Law and Order, followed by a couple of NYPD Blues.
By the time those are over, it’s time for Dr. Phil.
From time to time, I see somebody I haven’t seen in a while who asks me if I am enjoying my retirement.
Considering that it is now possible for me to do absolutely nothing all day long except watch TV, I’d say I’m happy as a retiree can be.
So long as I don’t grow into the lounge chair.
Posted by Jo at 09:15 AM
April 24, 2004
Sheen's wing is lacking on first pitch
'West Wing' president films segment
By Roch Kubatko
Baltimore Sun
Heavy rains in the Baltimore area did more than delay Friday night's game between the Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays at Camden Yards. They also kept the commander in chief waiting.
Actor Martin Sheen, who portrays President Josiah Bartlet in the popular television series The West Wing, threw out the first pitch for the drama's final episode of the season. His windups - there were four of them - came about 45 minutes late because of the weather.
Sheen rehearsed the scene earlier in the day, walking from the dugout to the mound and waving to a fictitious crowd. He bounced a few throws to home plate before retreating inside.
Once the real shooting began, Sheen was given four chances to record a strike, or something close to it. His first attempt veered outside, the second was high, the third skipped in front of catcher Javy Lopez, and the fourth sailed to the backstop.
Asked a few hours earlier what Lopez should look for, Sheen quipped: "A lot of dirt on the ball."
Cameramen and other employees of the show crowded the area in front of the home dugout before the game. Sheen and actor John Spencer, who portrays chief of staff Leo McGarry, were filmed as they toured the clubhouse.
Rafael Palmeiro and Miguel Tejada rose from one of the sofas to shake Sheen's hand, and Jerry Hairston wandered over for an introduction.
"Don't get up," Spencer said to Palmeiro. "You have a game to play tonight."
The actors also stopped by manager Lee Mazzilli's office. "I asked them if they could hit," he said.
Sheen said the mound looked "three miles away" from the plate, another sign that he's not a natural at the sport.
"I'm acting. That's what I do for a living. I'm into fakery," he said. "I'm not a baseball player. I don't have a sense of it at all."
Asked if he would be nervous once the crowd filed in, Sheen said, "Sure, wouldn't you?"
Sheen is the second member of his family to visit the ballpark. His son, actor Charlie Sheen, was filmed at Camden Yards for the movie Major League II.
"I watched him play here," Sheen said. "I also walked on the Yankee mound about 45 years ago. I did a commercial at Yankee Stadium. But that's about it."
Posted by Jo at 09:22 AM
April 23, 2004
'Broken Wing'
Ken Tucker wishes it were politics as usual on the White House drama
by Ken Tucker
Entertainment Weekly
Hey, I know I squinted hard at The West Wing just five months ago, when I lamented how the once-smart drama had been dumbed down, but the situation in the Bartlet White House is even more dire: The series is now the most irrelevant drama on television. Which is both sad and weird, since, as the real-life election approaches, there should be no network drama more stoked to serve up hot politics. It's no wonder the public is doing an entertainment version of impeachment: Go on the Internet now and there's a site called dontsaveourshow.org, mounted by former fans who've posted a petition to NBC prez Jeff Zucker that says in part, '[We] respectfully request that you put the actors and the audience out of our collective misery and cancel it at the end of this season.' Ouch.
It’s not as though the acting has become lazy or mannered; if anything, one feels embarrassment for the cast. When Stockard Channing's First Lady was pushed to do a public-service spot with Sesame Street's Muppets, to soften her image, you got the feeling that this was just semi-art imitating tawdry life--that maybe the producers thought putting Channing with Elmo would attract viewers.
We used to say that Martin Sheen's President Bartlet was the kind of leader we dreamed of--less cynically slick than Clinton, more intellectually curious than Bush. Now Bartlet is just a blustery guy working on his marriage. C.J. (Alison Janney) is busy giggling into the phone to her new boyfriend, the wincingly dubbed 'Ranger Rick' (Brian Kerwin), while other staffers such as Bradley Whitford's Josh Lyman can't converse--they have to deliver information sound bites. Thus, in the March 24, Glenn Close guest-starring episode about picking a new Supreme Court justice, Josh's most typical line was 'Nominees live or die by Roe v. Wade.' Do you think anyone inside or outside the White House doesn't know that bit of received wisdom?
There was always a little of that condescension in creator Aaron Sorkin's Wing: He liked crafting a playwright's version of a PowerPoint presentation. But now the show is so dumbed down, intelligent condescension would almost be welcome. At a time when politics is actually on the public's radar, West Wing could have morphed into something provocative: a canny satire of our policy makers. Instead, we get more smart cultural critiques from its time-period competition--The O.C. If principled people want a third candidate, forget Ralph Nader: Peter Gallagher for President! D
Posted by Jo at 07:20 PM
'West Wing' actor to speak at commencement
Barbara Wolff
University of Wisconsin-Madison News Release
MADISON - Bradley Whitford, a Wisconsin native and recipient of an Emmy Award for his role on NBC's "The West Wing," will address graduates at the University of Wisconsin-Madison during this spring's commencement weekend, Friday-Sunday, May 14-16.
Whitford studied drama and English literature at Wesleyan University and earned a master's degree from the Julliard Theater Center. His film credits include "Scent of a Woman," "A Perfect World," "Philadelphia," "The Client" and more. He also has been seen in such television series as "NYPD Blue," "The X-Files" and "ER," among others. In addition, he has appeared in on- and off-Broadway theater productions.
On "The West Wing," Whitford's character, Josh Lyman, serves as the White House deputy chief of staff. For that role, he won the 2003 Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Dramatic Series.
Whitford will speak at both the 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. commencement ceremonies on Saturday, May 15, and on Sunday, May 16.
His wife, "Malcolm in the Middle" actress Jane Kaczmarek, will receive a Wisconsin Alumni Association Distinguished Alumni Award on Friday, May 7, as part of the Wisconsin Alumni Association's Alumni Weekend festivities.
Honorary degree recipients will offer their remarks at the ceremony on Friday, May 14, at 5:30 p.m. Doctor of philosophy, master of fine arts, doctor of musical arts, doctor of judicial science, doctor of law, master of laws, master of legal institutions, doctor of medicine, master of physical therapy, doctor of veterinary medicine and doctor of pharmacy candidates will receive their degrees at the Friday ceremony.
Other ceremonies and degrees to be awarded are:
* May 15, 10 a.m.: Bachelor's and master's degrees in the College of Letters and Science (majors A-H, African languages and literature through history of science).
* May 15, 2 p.m.: Bachelor's and master's degrees in the College of Letters and Science (majors I-Z, industrial relations through zoology). Multiple majors should attend the ceremony of the major starting with the earliest letter of the alphabet.
* May 16, 10 a.m.: Bachelor's and master's degrees from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences; the schools of Education, Human Ecology, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy; and the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.
* May 16, 2 p.m.: Bachelor's and master's degrees from the School of Business and College of Engineering.
About 5,000 students are eligible for degrees from UW-Madison each spring; the exact number changes daily, according to the Office of the Registrar.
All ceremonies are held at the Kohl Center on Dayton Street, and are free and open to the public. No tickets are required. Parking is available on a first-come, first-served basis in most adjoining university lots and on city streets. Alcohol, food and beverages are strictly prohibited. In addition, guests are asked not to bring strollers, coolers, thermos bottles, balloons, backpacks, large bags or luggage into the Kohl Center.
For more information, visit the UW-Madison commencement Web site at http://wiscinfo.doit.wisc.edu/secfac/commence/Commence.html or call the commencement hotline, (608) 262-9076.
###
Posted by Jo at 06:39 PM
April 19, 2004
Josh Malina has been clever add to West Wing; season has four episodes left
BRIDGET BYRNE
National Post
Monday, April 19, 2004
BURBANK, Calif. (AP) - The vice-president's top aide, Will Bailey, is explaining the "talking points on the VP's energy speech" to White House press secretary C.J. Cregg so she can help him "control the media."
Their exchange is typical of the complex and often cynical pingpong of information that bounces about the fictional halls of power on NBC's The West Wing. Standing in one of those Washington corridors, built on the Warner Bros. studio lot, Josh Malina, who plays the bespectacled Bailey, gave his script an easy once-over before stepping in front of the cameras.
Malina himself no longer needs glasses, having undergone laser eye surgery, but he's kept his specs on the show.
"I think that was an Aaron decision with which I concurred. Any prop or costume piece that will help me appear as smart as the character, I like it," Malina says with a grin.
He's referring to the show's creator, Aaron Sorkin, who quit at the end of last season. Malina and Sorkin both grew up in the New York suburbs of Westchester County and met through family connections.
Malina has had a role in every one of Sorkin's projects, including supporting parts in the films A Few Good Men, Malice and The American President. More prominently, he played the clever associate producer Jeremy Goodwin on ABC's Sports Night.
The Game On episode of The West Wing in October 2002 was his first appearance as the political maverick Bailey, who irked the powers that be by running a congressional campaign for a dead man "because there are issues that can still be argued, even if the candidate is no longer alive."
"He was a classic sort of Aaron creation," says Malina, remarking that Sorkin is incapable of writing characters who aren't "very, very, very smart and hyper-articulate and - most of them - incredibly dedicated to what they do."
Malina was initially signed for a half-dozen episodes. "The way Aaron put it originally, probably to spare my feelings, was, 'We'll see whether you're happy. Whether we're happy.' As if there was much chance that after six episodes I was going to go, 'You know it's not working out from my point of view. I don't want to continue!"'
When Rob Lowe, who played deputy communications director Sam Seaborn, left the show last season in a reported salary dispute, there was room to pull Bailey into the regular mix.
He first entered President Bartlet's White House as a speechwriter but then segued slightly beyond the pale to run the office of Vice-President Bob Russell (Gary Cole), where he finds himself "not exactly on the same team" as all the president's men and struggling with the issue of idealism versus practicality.
Current affairs jargon, like in the energy speech scene with Allison Janney, who plays Cregg, is regular content on the series.
But Malina, 38, certainly wouldn't want to fluff any lines on this occasion. Richard Schiff, who co-stars as communications director Toby Ziegler, is directing for the first time and recently the cynical Ziegler and the opinionated Bailey have been in conflict.
"Luckily we don't get along in real life," Malina jokes, while expressing admiration for the way Schiff is handling the task. This particular episode, The Promise, airs 9 p.m. EDT Wednesday, beginning a four-episode story arc that ends the series' fifth season.
Mary McCormack guest stars as Deputy National Security Adviser Kate Harper, who could also appear next season when Bailey is supposed to play a prominent part in efforts to negotiate a peace process in the Middle East.
Alex Graves, a West Wing co-executive producer, says Malina fit in immediately with the show's intense work ethic and that "rare" phenomenon: "a group of really great, intelligent, nice adults who are also actors."
Bailey's move to the VP's office, where his opinions stand out more succinctly, was made, Graves says, "because part of the genesis of the character is he's not to be kept out of a room, he's too valuable."
A serious poker player, Malina is the co-executive producer of U.S. Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown, which kicks off 12 new episodes on May 27.
He says his love of card games goes back to his father's "very elaborate and sinister version of Go Fish in which you were allowed to lie a certain number of times ... but there was an honour system that you wouldn't cheat beyond the given terms!"
-
Posted by Jo at 03:14 PM
April 02, 2004
‘West Wing’ set takes extra back to days in Israeli army
By Arayna Thomas
The Desert Sun
April 2, 2004
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Who wants to be a movie star?" came a cry into the crowded holding tent at midday Wednesday, and nearly 200 weary hands shot into the air. "OK, then get back on set."
"Will there be a wrap party?" I asked, but no answer came. I shrugged it off and went back to my post at "the border of Israel and the Gaza Strip."
Why had 200 people come out to the Salton Sea to stand under the hot desert sun for 10 hours, dressed in army gear, carrying 20- pound weapons and having orders shouted at them?
Was it to find discipline in a foreign military’s boot camp?
No. It was because of the lure of Hollywood.
My day as an extra in the filming of an episode of "The West Wing" began at 2 a.m. I drove to Indio and found the bus that would take me and the other actors-for-the-day to the set.
From there, we rode for more than an hour to see firsthand how the Warner Bros. hit television show organizes its shoots.
There was already a buzz in the air about "getting discovered." I was surrounded by hundreds of actors hoping to make it big, with a few tag-along bored businessmen who just wanted to get out of the office and be in pictures.
First stop was wardrobe. I was fitted in Israeli army fatigues, while others were being transformed into Palestinian guards, civilians and schoolchildren.
Next were props. I was assigned an M-16 assault rifle, a revolver and an army belt. Clipping that around my hips was definitely a new sensation.
No time for breakfast, as they wanted us on the set NOW. We worked all morning, patrolling, guarding and looking as tough as possible.
Palestinian shopkeepers and market-goers did their thing. Principal characters from the show came in for various dialogue scenes and were gone.
As the day wore on, I found myself back in Israel, standing on an army base in the middle of the Negev -- after all, I had served as a volunteer for Israel back in 1993, and had worn this same uniform and gone to target practice with this same rifle (which, just between you and me, is outdated. Maybe that’s why they’re using them here as props.)
There were three actors who had actually served in the Israeli army, and we all agreed that this set looked quite authentic.
With only five more working hours to go, here we were, sitting in our only refuge, being told to get back on set. As I pulled myself back to my feet, I looked around and saw a subtle excitement in the faces of my comrades. I didn’t care any more about the wrap party; I had a higher cause.
They were all asking when the show would air, when we could sit in our own living rooms and watch it. Then it struck me -- this was going be aired on TV. This was going to be made into an intelligible story that people all across America would watch and enjoy. And that was why we were all out there, in the sun, in army fatigues. We weren’t just watching anymore. We were part of the show.
Posted by Jo at 08:04 AM