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November 28, 2004
THE CONVERSATION
'Struggling actor' isn't the part Michael O'Neill, like many veteran TV and film professionals, thought he'd be playing in middle age. Feeling undervalued and underpaid, it's tough to avoid that talk
By Mary McNamara
Los Angeles Times
Imagine Los Angeles in a blackout with only those windows belonging to actors illuminated. Windows in mansions and in bungalows and in storefront apartments. More than a hundred thousand windows, according to the membership of the Screen Actors Guild, and behind at least half of them, at any given time, someone is having The Conversation.
This year, Michael O'Neill is having The Conversation. With increasing regularity, he and his wife talk about what else he could do. About whether he could teach or take early retirement. About selling the house and leaving L.A., going somewhere a family of five can actually afford to live. About how long is too long, how tired is too tired and how a person knows when it's time to move on.
They have had The Conversation before in their nine-year marriage, but O'Neill did not expect to be having it now. He expected to be having his best year ever, and he had reason.
Last year, in addition to loads of TV work, including five episodes of "The West Wing" as Secret Service agent Ron Butterfield, O'Neill had small roles in "Secondhand Lions" and "Seabiscuit." As jockey Red Pollard's poetry-loving father, O'Neill became a man worn down to such literal and emotional rags by the Depression that he gives his adolescent son into the care of strangers. It was the sort of performance that could change a career, lead to bigger film roles, or a regular spot on a TV series.
Only it hasn't.
Making it in Hollywood has always been a bit like Peter Pan's recipe for flight: All it takes is faith and trust; oh yes, and a little pixie dust. For 20 years, O'Neill has had the faith and trust; he's done the work and accepted that most actors never become big-deal movie stars. He was happy just to be an actor, to support himself and his family by acting. But lately, cost cutting, offshore production, the explosion of reality television shows and a shift in pay scales have made life harder for the journeyman actor to make a decent living.
"It saddens me," O'Neill says. "Because I'm not ready yet. I am an actor, that's who I am, who I've been most of my life. But the industry I'm in now is completely different than the one I got into.
"It's not that there's no work. There's never been any work. But the work you get now does not recognize the value of your experience; it certainly does not compensate you for your experience. All the rules have changed."
Except, of course, the one he is now breaking. The Conversation is, historically, a private thing, an unmentionable part of an industry that thrives on spin. In public, an actor is always doing just great, always getting really good work, always thrilled just to be asked to audition.
The words "lucky," or "fortunate," or "blessed" drop from actors' mouths like coins to be left by a roadside god. O'Neill is no exception.
"I have been very, very fortunate in my career," he says, recounting the innumerable stars he has worked with, the great directors, the camaraderie he has found among all variety of casts.
But he is also old enough — now in his early 50s — to appreciate the value of simple truth. "And the truth is I cannot support my family on scale plus 10," he says. "I am too old and too good to be making scale plus 10."
A HEAD ABOVE WATER
At any given time, 80% of SAG members are out of work. And not just for a week or two. "Most of our members are not making the $13,000 a year they need to qualify for health insurance," says Ilyanne Morden Kichaven, the union's national director of communication. "Two percent are the big earners, and the rest, the middle class, are just making a living, maybe $50,000 a year. Scale-plus-10 work."
If you want to make a middle-class actor flinch, say "scale plus 10." "Scale" is $695 a day, the minimum an actor must be paid by SAG signatory productions; "plus 10" is 10% added on to pay the actor's agent so that the actor gets to keep the scale rate.
Even as recently as five years ago, someone like O'Neill might do a scale-plus-10 role if it were part of a small, independently financed project he or she believed in. For most jobs, however, actors expected to get their quote — the highest fee they were ever paid. Quotes range from just above scale to multiple millions. O'Neill's quote falls in the thousands, not the millions, although he can't remember the last time he got it.
"In the past, you could expect to be paid more as your experience grew," says O'Neill, who still lives with his wife and kids in the small Marina del Rey bungalow he bought 12 years ago as an investment property. "No actor works all the time — scale plus 10 would be fine if you were working 52 weeks. But that's not how the business works; you need to make your quote to carry you through the stretches when you're not working."
In the last decade, many of the tacit rules of the industry — including that experienced actors would be paid, and treated, better than those right off the bus — have been rewritten, leaving many middle-class actors squeezed financially and psychologically.
"Times are very hard," says Kichaven. "The vertical integration of the industry has given us very little leverage to negotiate."
"I used to be able to get journeymen actors their quotes," says Lisa Beach, an independent casting director whose credits include "About Schmidt," "American Wedding" and "White Chicks." "Now I have no say in the budget, I am told by the producer or the director 'these are scale-plus-10 roles and if they don't like it, there are 300 actors right behind them who will.' "
Many actors now find themselves accepting fees they once would have considered too low just to get health insurance.
"I cannot tell you how many people are calling my office at the end of the year," says Gary Zuckerbrod, a casting director for CBS' "Without a Trace," whose career includes a wide range of TV and film projects, among them "Pulp Fiction." "They want me to put them on the show for a day just so they can make the insurance."
And most of the time, Zuckerbrod just can't help. "Without a Trace" is an episodic show with few recurring minor characters. "Look at the lineups these days," he says. "Reality shows everywhere. There are hardly any half-hour shows, and a lot of the hours are like ours. So if you've worked on the show once, you can't do it again."
It isn't just the bit players who are feeling the squeeze; even actors who, 10 years ago, had moved beyond having to audition for parts are back at square one.
"Unless you are a big star, you don't get work based on your accumulated work," says actress Bonnie Bartlett, who is married to former SAG President William Daniels and has worked steadily in television for 20 years. "When we came to Los Angeles 20 years ago, you could make a living working steadily. Now, even if you do 10 episodes a year, and that's a lot of work, you can't make a decent living. And so we're losing quality people."
Daniels, she says, refuses to read for parts, figuring that his body of work speaks for itself. "Me, I'm a hard-headed Norwegian," she says. "I want to work, I want my health insurance, so I go to the auditions and sit there with a bunch of my friends and we all say, 'How can we still be doing this?' "
Loren Lester, who like O'Neill has supported himself for almost 20 years in small roles, says he's seen countless friends take early retirement in the last few years because they just couldn't go on one more audition for a scale-plus-10 job. "It's humiliating if you're an actor with 300 to 500 guest appearances to have to audition for a casting director for a small part. People now are saying, 'Why do it?' Especially when you can't make a living anymore."
O'Neill asks himself the same question, sometimes daily. And he comes up with the same answer:
"Because I have to," he says.
And there it is, the deal every artist has struck since someone decided to skip the hunting party to draw on the dim cave walls: You will do most of your work alone and in darkness and although there is a chance you will become rich and beloved, in all likelihood you will not. Instead you will have to sing for your supper and your mortgage, your dental coverage and your children's shoes over and over again while people in desk jobs roll their eyes the moment you start to complain.
So it's a good thing you like to sing.
LOVE OFTEN UNREQUITED
Michael O'NEILL is a tall man and his voice makes him seem taller — years in L.A. and New York have roughed up the backcountry drawl of his native Alabama, given it a bit more heft, so he sounds like a statesman or scholar from some indeterminately Southern state. A bona fide American. It is not at all surprising that he gets a lot of voice-over work or that one of his rules is that he will not play the racist in the crowd. "I'll play the angry jerk in the crowd," he says. "But I will not say the N-word unless you give me a very good character and a very good reason."
His face has character rather than big-screen beauty, though the eyes are leading-man blue — which explains why he has played, among others, a young Mark Twain and a young Robert Frost and why his Secret Service character on "West Wing" has lasted much longer than originally intended. Whatever he might be feeling, O'Neill projects calm and quiet authority — the farmer determined to hold onto the last 40 acres, the union organizer who still believes, the father able to make the impossible decision.
"I never expected to be super successful when I was young," he says. "I've looked this way since I was 20, sounded this way since my voice broke. Which makes the fact that this has been my worst year doubly frustrating because this was supposed to be my time. Finally I'm actually old enough to play the roles I'm best at."
As far as there's a blueprint for success for actors, O'Neill has followed it — studied his craft here and in New York, gone to countless auditions, done the voice-over work, given his level best in the steady procession of small roles he has won in film ("Traffic," "Sea of Love" and "Lorenzo's Oil" among them) and on TV ("Crossing Jordan," "The Practice," "Ally McBeal" and many more). His listing on the Internet Movie Database is long and healthy, and for the last 20 years, he has made a living solely as an actor.
During the early days, he worked all the jobs people work when they're trying to be an actor, and he never let himself take a job that might interest him enough to leave acting.
"So I would work as a carpenter, but I wouldn't design," he says. "Because I knew if I got distracted, if I found something I could do and advance and make money, then it would be too tempting to give up."
The Conversation remains in the conversing stage because he still loves what he does — whether they pay him for it or not. "When I nail a performance, when I do something that in all likelihood is too far out there to stick and then it works," he says, "there is no feeling like it in the world. If it's in an audition it doesn't matter if I get that job or another job. For a while anyway," he adds, laughing.
Earlier last month, he had a lot of auditions, for voice-overs and television roles, and put in hundreds of miles on the road; he called friends from the car, describing an audition for "CSI," which was in Santa Clarita.
"The script said they wanted the guy to be so angry he was foaming at the mouth," he says, "so I did that, I went there. And the director says, 'OK, maybe not foaming then.' "
He didn't get the part, but it didn't matter so much because he felt he had done well enough to avoid a kitchen sink moment. "When I have a bad audition," he explains, "my wife always knows it because I'll be standing there doing the dishes or whatever and I'll just groan out loud, thinking of what I could have, should have done."
O'Neill became an actor on a fluke — when he was in college, he recorded a speech made for his fraternity at Auburn University and alumnus Will Geer heard it. Geer called O'Neill. "He said: 'Son, you should try acting before the corporate structure snaps you up.' And I said: 'Mr. Geer, I don't know anything about it.' And he said: 'Come on out here and I'll work with you.' "
O'Neill had wanted to get out of the South since he was a child; when civil rights marchers came to Montgomery, Ala., he recognized many of the movie stars who spoke. "I remember thinking that they knew how to do it differently in California," he says. "That there was a place where people lived differently."
So he took Geer up on his offer of help, drove across country and spent the first two weeks of his life as an actor sleeping on Geer's back patio. He helped Geer and his daughter Ellen build the Theatricum Botanica and supported himself as a parking garage attendant and a day laborer.
His first movie role was in the 1981 film "Ghost Story." During production, he mostly stood agape — at the way Melvyn Douglas held an entire set still with his voice, at the sight of Fred Astaire's feet unobtrusively dancing the rhythm of a scene under the table. Most of his role as the deputy got cut, he says, "but I wouldn't trade that first job for any other in the world."
MARRIED TO THE DREAM
If living by the whims of Hollywood is hard on an actor, it may be harder on the spouse. Mary O'Keefe is a lawyer and a poet who understands a thing or two about the vagaries of the acting life. Her brother is Michael O'Keefe, who won accolades in his early 20s as the son in "The Great Santini" and in "Caddyshack." Watching his career soar and dip — O'Keefe is currently on Broadway in "Reckless" — his sister learned early on that there are no such things as rules in Hollywood. Nine years ago, she married O'Neill anyway.
During her husband's great year last year, she did not expect this year to be even better. That doesn't mean she didn't hope; she just didn't expect. She says she could easily see them moving back East or down South where they have family and a four-bedroom house is affordable.
But when it comes down to it, she knows she is just a small part of The Conversation. O'Keefe is not a woman afraid to show anger or say what she thinks. But she married an actor, and when you marry an actor, there is only so much you can do.
"It's his decision," she says simply. "Because it has to be his decision."
It's also one thing to talk about walking away, another to do it. O'Keefe works part time as a lawyer and full time as a mom; she has chosen to home school the girls because of the flexibility it provides — should her husband have to go on location for several months, as he did for his small part in "The Legend of Bagger Vance," she could take the girls and be with him.
"In a lot of ways, the actor's life is the best lifestyle," she says. "Michael is home with the kids much more than other fathers we know.
"It doesn't bother me so much when he isn't working. I know we will get by because we always do. He's my steady Eddie." But it bothers him. And that's why they keep having The Conversation. "Because I can live with him not working," she says. "I just can't live with his depression when he's not working."
O'Keefe, like many others, refers to the acting life as the lottery, because the reason some succeed and some do not often defies explanation and she knows it could change overnight. The list of actors who hit the big numbers in later years is endless — Judd Hirsch, Richard Schiff, Dennis Franz, Chris Cooper. "You have to play to win," she says.
But that's not quite how her husband sees it anymore. O'Neill and O'Keefe have three daughters — Ella, 6, and twins Molly and Annie, 5 — and they give The Conversation a growing sense of urgency.
"When it was me and Mary, that was one thing," says O'Neill. "But the girls? They need what they need, and I have to be able to give it to them."
What the couple want, what the family is starting to need, is for O'Neill to get a series — the "long money" that would also provide a sense of stability.
When Ella was born, they remodeled to create another bedroom. When the twins were born, they added another bathroom, turned the garage into an office-playroom and put a high wall around the front patio so the girls could play safely. O'Neill has been so involved in the construction projects that, when asked what their father does for a living, the girls say "he builds things."
"People find out your husband is an actor, or they see him on TV and they assume you're rich," says O'Keefe. "And you can be at parties or on sets with other actors who are talking about buying $2-million starter homes and it's hard to think you are all part of the same industry."
They both know there are certain things about the business you cannot change — O'Neill has seen the supporting role he won cut down to a half-dozen lines in the time it took him to fly to the Southern location because a star wanted his role expanded, has watched many other parts simply disappear in the editing. An actor knows these things happen to everyone.
But some things could change. If O'Neill decides in the next few years to stop being an actor it won't be because he couldn't live without the stardom. It will be because of the money. He has watched his salary decrease as his experience increases, watched the gap in salary between the stars and the rest of the cast widen to almost indescribable proportions.
"I just keep thinking if some of these big stars would just say something," he says. "Like, 'How about I only get $24 million and you take the other $1 million and make sure the rest of the cast is getting their quotes.' "
He knows that talking about such things may well cost him opportunities, but O'Neill believes that the problem is not so much greed as ignorance.
"Most people just aren't aware of the plight of the middle-class actor," he says. "As in any business, the fact that we tell ourselves we can't talk about money or how things are really going benefits no one but the heads of the studios and the stockholders. It sure doesn't benefit the actors."
After a spate of auditions, weeks go by without a call. "There is nothing," he says, sounding more curious than angry. "I mean nothing. I've had two of the best film auditions that I've ever had this year," he says. "I haven't heard anything. Nothing is happening."
Meanwhile, he does the work that is put in front of him. Drops his wife off at the office, takes the girls to art class. He has resolved to learn a poem every day to keep his memory flexible; he's trying to do some writing. He knows he is not as talented as some of the actors who have big careers and that he is more talented than others. He tries not to think about this. Instead, he returns the calls and waits for something to change. Just a little.
"The men I went to college with, they're all doctors or lawyers or engineers," says O'Neill. "And they think I'm the successful one. And maybe I am, because I did do this thing, this incredibly strange and sometimes beautiful thing, which was follow a dream."
Posted by Jo at 07:52 AM
November 27, 2004
'West Wing' gathers authentic NH items for episode
By MICHAEL COUSINEAU
Union Leader
MANCHESTER — NBC's "West Wing" is rounding up items from around the city so its make-believe Manchester appears more authentic in a television episode expected to air in February.
Everything from a Union Leader vending box to a New Hampshire Fisher Cats baseball cap to a Manchester Monarchs hockey jersey could appear on the show, according to Lloyd Brown, the show's set decoration buyer.
The producers of "The West Wing" are gathering N.H. items that would look familiar to President Bartlet (played by actor Martin Sheen) for use in location filming. (AP)
"I'm actually dealing with a lot of different companies in Manchester to acquire things," Brown said in a phone interview from the Toronto area yesterday. "Basically, I can end up using it in a number of scenes. Some things will end up on a bulletin board. Some things will end up on cars."
The show's crew is "doing some shooting north of Toronto that's doubling for Manchester and a few other towns in New Hampshire, as well as Iowa, for a story line that they're developing," Brown said.
The show called the Hatfield Gallery on Elm Street Tuesday.
"I was so excited," said co-owner Diane Boucher. "I watch the show all the time."
Brown was interested in seven photographs that her husband, Ron, shot.
"The thing that excited me the most is he has panoramic shots," Brown said.
Ron Boucher said the item Brown liked the most contains three panels. One contains a 1903 panoramic shot of downtown Manchester that mill worker Alphonso Sanborn took from the roof of Millwest, a building directly across from Catholic Medical Center on the West Side.
Boucher shot the identical picture in 2003, and he left an empty panel for someone else to photograph the same scene in 2103.
The show wanted other downtown scenes, including the Palace Theatre. Boucher also picked up an assignment to photograph street signs to give added authenticity to the political drama.
In 2002, the city sent six voting machines for the "West Wing" to use in an election episode.
The Fisher Cats shipped two shirts, three hats, three pennants, four bumper stickers, programs and other gear to the show, which insisted on buying the items.
"They're filming in Toronto and, ironically enough, it's the home of the parent club of the Fisher Cats," said team spokesman John Zahr.
Monarchs public relations director Mike Kalinowski said the show wanted to borrow items. The team sent a replica jersey, a few player photos, a stuffed Max mascot doll, a license plate cover and a Monarchs flag.
"Part of the episode is going to appear in a hockey rink," said Kalinowski, a fan of the show. "We gave them what we think will look good on TV, based on what they told us and what will represent the organization."
And forget about using a generic newspaper on "West Wing."
"Your newspaper boxes will be appearing in the television show — and your actual newspaper," Brown told The Union Leader.
Posted by Jo at 08:08 AM
November 24, 2004
Philly's Constitution Center gets cameo on 'West Wing' show
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia will make a cameo appearance on next week's episode of NBC's "The West Wing" as the archive of a document by fictional President Josiah Bartlet that temporarily relinquished his power.
The Dec. 1 episode includes a short White House scene between Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen, and a fictional Pennsylvania governor. During the exchange, Bartlet hands over the letter that signed away his presidency to the House speaker after his daughter was kidnapped in the show's last season. The vice presidency was vacant at the time.
The Pennsylvania governor accepts the letter on behalf of the Constitution Center, which opened less than two years ago in Philadelphia. The museum will be mentioned in three other scenes during the hour-long show.
Constitution Center spokeswoman Denise Venuti Free said she did not immediately know what actor would play the Pennsylvania executive, known on the show as "Gov. Baker." But the state's real-life executive, Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell, said he is "thrilled that Hollywood is recognizing the importance of the National Constitution Center - one of my favorite places in Pennsylvania."
Free said the museum's cameo was the idea of Philadelphia native Josh Singer, who is among the script writers for the popular show.
Posted by Jo at 08:24 PM
November 22, 2004
Toyota for President
By Rich Smith
The Motley Fool
November 22, 2004
I don't know whether the company paid for it or how much. All I know is it should have, and even if it did, it didn't pay enough. I refer, of course, to last week's episode of NBC's The West Wing. For those who missed it (or who were too politically exhausted to watch, after the recent presidential race), here's a summary of the show:
The world is running out of oil because GM (NYSE: GM) makes a gas-guzzler called the "Hummer" that kills little fuel-efficient cars. We should nonetheless all buy shares in ChevronTexaco (NYSE: CVX) because Americans love gas-guzzlers. Plus, if we try to develop hydrogen fuel cell cars manufactured with Ballard's (Nasdaq: BLDP) technology, they will explode like the Hindenburg. The only alternative to the above scenario is for every man, woman, and child in America to immediately sign onto a waiting list to buy a Prius at their nearest Toyota (NYSE: TM) dealer.
That last bit is key. West Wingers mentioned the Prius by name 10 times in the course of one hour of network television. Now, I don't know whether Toyota anted up a product placement fee for this. NBC parent GE (NYSE: GE) probably wanted one, just like Fox (NYSE: FOX) wanted, and got, a fee for giving Ford (NYSE: F) vehicles a prominent role in the past couple seasons of its 24 drama.
But it's quite possible that Toyota paid not a dime for its honorable, and numerous, mentions during the show. Word has it that because of incredible demand -- so great that, yes, people now have to wait in line for the "privilege" of paying a premium to the sticker price to buy the car -- Toyota no longer actively advertises the Prius. Rather, the company allows customer word of mouth, and the innumerable mentions of the car whenever any journalist reports on the hybrid vehicle phenomenon, to advertise the car for free. I strongly suspect that this is what happened on The West Wing. The car mentioned by default when referring to hybrids is not Honda's Insight (too cosmic in appearance) or Civic (too easily confused with the non-hybrid Civic) or Ford's new Escape SUV hybrid (same reason). The Prius, as a normal-looking car available only in hybrid form, gets tapped to play poster child for the whole hybrid movement.
That's not just free advertising, folks. It's advertising that money can't buy. When everybody talks about you as though you're the only game in town, before long, you are.
Posted by Jo at 04:25 PM
November 15, 2004
Busfield Keeps Busy Behind the Scenes
By Jay Bobbin
Zap2it.com
Timothy Busfield could do more jobs on "Without a Trace" ... but he already has enough, thank you very much.
Best-known for his Emmy-winning portrayal of perpetual screw-up Elliott on the seminal 1980s series "thirtysomething," Busfield has done lots of behind-the-scenes work since. He's doing it in one place this TV year, as a co-executive producer of the hit CBS Thursday crime drama "Without a Trace." And that's not all: Busfield also directed the episode airing Thursday, Nov. 18, and he's also a recurring guest star as the divorce attorney for FBI missing-persons investigator Jack Malone (Anthony LaPaglia).
"At first, it was the producing end only," the amiable Busfield recalls of being hired for the show. "Hank [Steinberg, the series' creator and another producer on it] started writing the first episode, as he was carving it out, he started thinking of me ... which inevitably happens on a lot of shows. A writer or director will suddenly look up and say, 'Wait a minute. Why not him?' It worked out really well here."
Then came the opportunity for Busfield to develop a continuing character on "Without a Trace" as well.
"This man was in a car accident, or at least that's the reason we came up with" for the fact that his alter ego uses a wheelchair, Busfield explains. "In reality, the day before I started work on the show, I tripped and broke my right leg in four places while carrying a beanbag chair down some stairs. I also tore all the ligaments in my right foot, so I was unable to move, really. Since I had to work the next day, we decided the guy would either be on crutches or in a wheelchair, so we went with the wheelchair."
Busfield says he's fine now. "I'm not limpin' around. I was very fortunate that the breaks lined up enough that I didn't need surgery, but it was bad enough that I couldn't put any weight on the leg. I was actually using the wheelchair for about four or five weeks, so we just decided to keep it. I've gotten to play a lot of characters, but never one in this condition. Maybe I'll even act better like this, though I don't know that's possible."
The upcoming "Without a Trace" episode directed by Busfield is a sequel to a story from last season, with Tony Goldwyn ("Ghost") reprising his role -- or, more precisely, roles -- as twin brothers suspected of being involved in another murder after a woman vanishes from a shelter for the homeless. "I really didn't know the show that well before my first meeting with Hank on it," Busfield admits. "I saw an episode just before that, and I thought, 'Wow. This is pretty doggone good.' Hank sent me a few more tapes, then it became a ritual for me to watch every episode with my wife. By the time I came on board, I was infatuated with the writing, the camera work, and the incredible performances by this great cast."
With a TV career dating back to his stint as the son of "Trapper John, M.D.," Busfield isn't the only actor who has gone into series producing this season. Tim Matheson ("The West Wing," "National Lampoon's Animal House") is serving that function on another CBS show, "Cold Case," also under the domain of "Without a Trace" executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Previously, Busfield also was a producer of "Ed," the now-defunct NBC series on which he made several appearances as the title character's hapless brother.
"I think a lot of it is probably that I know why I'm there," he reasons, "having been a part of 'thirtysomething' and having been a part of 'The West Wing' (as reporter Danny Concannon), shows that worked their way through 'hit' status to the point of questioning how you keep up the quality. Primarily, I'm here to free up Hank so he can focus on the writing and to be in charge of how the show is filmed and performed."
Since "Without a Trace" and NBC's "The West Wing" are both made by Warner Bros. Television, it's not impossible for Busfield to turn up again on the White House drama, where he's usually teamed with fellow Emmy winner Allison Janney (as press secretary C.J. Cregg). "Hey, Danny buried stories about assassinations for C.J.," muses Busfield, whose brother-in-law, Joshua Malina, is also on "The West Wing." "He'd have done anything if she'd slept with him just once. It's all in the writing, except maybe for that element between an actor and another actor. I hate to use the word 'chemistry' because it gets so overused, and everyone tries to target what it is. When Allison and I worked together and we'd see each other, we'd just start to laugh. It was like, 'Let's play' every single time."
For "thirtysomething" fans longing for DVD sets of the show, rest assured the actors are, too. Busfield that reports the cast of the drama -- about a group of spouses and friends in their 30s -- "reunited for dinner recently. "Everybody showed up, and we had a spectacular time. We are all still incredibly close. With Kenny (Ken Olin, who played Michael) co-producing 'Alias' while I was on 'Ed,' we'd compare notes. Now Peter Horton (alias Gary) is involved in making (the midseason ABC show) 'Gray's Anatomy,' It's kind of odd, and kind of neat, that we're all producer-directors now."
Posted by Jo at 06:51 PM
Almost Blue
With one dramatic twist, The West Wing honors its mandate: wish fulfillment for the loyal opposition.
By John Leonard
New York Magazine
When Leo (John Spencer) collapsed of a massive heart attack in the woods at Camp David the other Wednesday night on The West Wing, the troubled series wasn’t just looking to goose its ratings by wasting a favorite. For one thing, the Mideast no-peace process really is a killer, both serial and mass, and Leo had been passionately opposed to President Bartlet’s two-state agenda. Second, from previous seasons we knew that Leo, a recovering abuser of at least two substances and a workaholic, was a walking recipe for coronary catastrophe. Third, The West Wing has in the past melodramatized with a Jacobean shamelessness—early on, with an assassination attempt by white racists that left Josh (Bradley Whitford) in a hospital playing the part of “Who Shot J.R.?” as if he were in Finnegans Wake; a year ago, with the kidnapping by swarthy terrorists of Zoey “Bookbag” (Elisabeth Moss), the president’s annoying daughter, who should never have trusted her gelid French boyfriend; and in May, when Islamic jihadists in Gaza blew up a bus whose passengers included the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a very blonde Donna (Janel Moloney).
Note that two of these three narrative debauches were Aaron Sorkin’s fault, before NBC stripped him of his epaulets and Palm device on account of bad behavior. What happened to WW last year without Sorkin was a shame that had nothing to do with sharks or writers who jump them. Each hour lasted at least 90 minutes, which is how long we had to stare at sad faces in extreme close-up before they finished selling out another principle. Their pores were more magnified than their qualms; their scruples were invisible. Except for C.J. (Allison Janney). The press secretary—I think of her as the Statue of Liberty—was the last liberal left anywhere near the Oval Office, the only staffer willing to contradict the received wisdom and spineless advice of pollsters and focus groups. So naturally she lost every battle on every issue while I was watching, which wasn’t always anymore because I missed Sorkin’s speed-freak sermons, his Keystone Kops deployment of these frantic motormouths, and his savage eye on their self-destructive arrogance. If I wanted to see principles betrayed, I could open a window, and then a vein.
Of course, although The West Wing began in the last year of squishy Clinton, it shortly turned into a bedtime story, a religious retreat, an analgesic, and an alternative reality to the Bushies. Imagine a series that wore its progressive politics on its operatic sleeve and sang arias in its very first two weeks about abortion, health care, medium-range missiles, condoms in the schools, anti-Semitism, and the Christian right. There was even an Alger Hiss pumpkin joke. What happened? Well, 9/11, after which cowards had an alibi. The sky fell down on the media conglomerates, and every Chicken Little turned into a Tiny Tim.
But wait a minute. They are still shouting more than they used to, their faces clenched like fists, but Jed Bartlet, while waiting for Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits to join the cast, has decided on his lonesome to go all-out for U.S. peacekeepers in an internationalized Jerusalem. And if that weren’t already too regressively progressive for the wing-nuts, he is also replacing Leo as chief of the White House staff with—not Toby (Richard Schiff), nor Josh, though both have been maneuvering like Slinkys—but with C.J., the last leftie. Unlikely, yes. But less so than what we have to look at now on the nightly news, a form of extreme dodgeball. With the Statue of Liberty whispering sweet scruples into Bartlet’s ear, maybe Eleanor Roosevelt’s not so dead after all. So, incorrigibly, I hope. Otherwise, the case for economic and social justice will have just vanished from the screen, like hockey.
Posted by Jo at 06:46 PM
November 13, 2004
'West Wing' capitalizes on solid writing, acting
By Charlie McCollum
Ventura County Star
This may constitute revisionist critical thinking, but maybe we should give credit to the current incarnation of "The West Wing" for what it still does fairly well.
Sure, it's not "The West Wing" of the days when creator Aaron Sorkin was writing almost every word. Sorkin never would have let it drift into the kind of excessive melodrama (Leo McGarry's heart attack) that has marred key episodes since his departure. While he might have come up with this plot twist -- C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney) became the new White House chief of staff in last week's episode -- Sorkin certainly wouldn't set up the surprise choice by making the other, more senior staffers look like idiots.
And the show sure could use more Sorkin-esque wit and screwball comedy dialogue.
But based on the first few episodes, the White House drama remains a very watchable, well-produced series with a fine cast and a willingness to talk about issues with some intelligence. That puts it a step above most dramas on network TV, even if the show is just a shadow of its former greatness.
One thing, though: It's time for "The West Wing" to end. The producers should not try to extend the series' run by bringing in a new president and staff.
This is not a drama like "ER" or "Law & Order" where the formula can stay the same while characters can come and go. As Matt Roush of TV Guide said recently, "It is the story of the Bartlet presidency, pure and simple."
Let President Bartlet leave office at the end of this season and call it a day.
Posted by Jo at 07:27 AM
November 11, 2004
SMITS 'WINGS' HIS DEBUT
by Adam Buckman
New York Post
November 11, 2004 -- JIMMY SMITS made his long-awaited debut last night on "The West Wing," but the episode belonged to Allison Janney.
Janney was center stage for the entire hour as her character, presidential press secretary C.J. Cregg, was promoted by President Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen) to replace Leo McGarry as White House chief of staff.
McGarry (John Spencer), who was still in intensive care after suffering a near-fatal heart attack two episodes ago, will not be returning to his job, although he is expected to make a full recovery following bypass surgery, President Bartlet told his staff last night.
In the "West Wing" episode seen last night on NBC, C.J. struggled with her new job at first. But by the episode's end, she was taking charge, first neutralizing an overly aggressive defense secretary and then ordering a call placed to the British prime minister - not bad for a first day's work. Smits, meanwhile, made his entrance about 35 minutes into the show in the role of Rep. Matthew Santos, a charismatic, three-term Democratic congressman from Houston.
In his one and only scene, which lasted only a few minutes, Santos informed White House political director Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) that he would not seek re-election and was planning to retire from politics at age 42.
Lyman was paying Santos a visit in his Capitol Hill office to try and persuade the congressman to seek a fourth term.
The retirement storyline sounds like a red herring because Santos is expected in future episodes to emerge as a strong contender for a presidential nomination, now that the two-term Bartlet administration is coming to an end.
Few hints were provided last night, however, about what the future holds for San tos, although it's pretty obvious the producers of "The West Wing" did not go out and hire a charismatic TV star like Smits in order to let his character retire to Texas.
And true to form, Smits, the former star of "L.A. Law" and "NYPD Blue," aced his appearance last night, brief as it was.
Still up in the air is the question of who will replace C.J. as press secretary. After last night, the odds favor a new deputy press secretary played by new cast member Kristin Chenoweth, who also made her debut last night.
Posted by Jo at 04:18 PM
November 10, 2004
Smits heads 'West'
By MARISA GUTHRIE
New York Daily News
Jimmy Smits left series television five years ago to do theater.
Now he's back on the small screen, but doesn't necessarily like what he sees.
"Look at the landscape of what television has become since I've been away," Smits told the Daily News. "People are into looking at train wrecks. The level of ridicule and the humiliation factor is ridiculous."
Smits reprised his role as Detective Bobby Simone on "NYPD Blue" last night, appearing as an apparition to counsel former partner Detective Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz). Tonight at 9, he makes his debut on NBC's "The West Wing" as a Democratic senator from Houston who could, if the show continues next season, be the next President.
For Smits, who has played a series of introspective good guys, TV has always been about more than just surface gloss. "The medium is very powerful at serving up images," he said.
So the arc of his "West Wing" character, Sen. Matthew Santos, will be one of evolution and growth.
"[Executive producer John Wells] wanted to investigate the dynamics of a person who enters a life of public service, the whys and what happens along the way when you aspire to help and aspire to do better," said Smits. "That was something that really fascinated me."
Smits is signed to "The West Wing" through season's end. If NBC renews the drama, which is in a ratings slump, Smits has an option to stay.
Beyond "The West Wing," he may have a hand in getting the kinds of images he wants on television through his development deal with ABC.
"I've been knocking around for the past three or four years, trying to crack an idea for a show," said Smits. "I still believe that there is a way in this landscape of reality shows on one end of the spectrum and procedural shows on the opposite end to find a place in between where I can live and breath and maneuver.
"I still believe that the audience wants to attach itself to people, not just science," he continued. "They get involved with a Sipowicz character or a Simone character or a Jim Rockford or an Archie Bunker. They let that person into their homes and then they traverse that particular landscape with them."
But the terrain Sen. Santos will be on, said Smits, is still a mystery to him. "I don't know where this character is going to go," said Smits, whose Santos will face a Republican played by Alan Alda.
"Some of the criticism of the show is that it leans a little too much to the left," he said. "Now we'll have both points of view. But we're not in any rush. The story arc is going to be done in John Wells' time and I'm fine with that."
Smits does know what he wants for his future: no more Mr. Nice Guy.
"Whatever character I play next," said Smits, "he will have a lot of foibles and chinks in his armor. There's a part of me that really wants to do something that is darker and grittier."
Originally published on November 10, 2004
Posted by Jo at 06:45 AM
November 09, 2004
Saunders: Roles shift on 'West Wing'
by Dusty Saunders
Rocky Mountain News
The nation's presidents were busy last week.
One finished his campaign and was elected to a second term.
The other, already in a second term, attempted to work out a peace agreement at Camp David between Israel and Palestine while deciding to appoint his female press secretary as chief of staff.
Ah, the intriguing world of presidential politics.
The fact that President Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen) wants C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney) as his No. 1 adviser will raise eyebrows - at least among television critics.
Even in the world of presidential make-believe that exists on The West Wing (conservatives call it the Left Wing) the elevation of the press secretary to such a key position seems far-fetched.
Would Bill Clinton ever have made Dee Dee Myers his right-hand woman?
Can anyone see George W. Bush promoting Scott McClellan? Hardly.
Anyway, this is the TV White House where anything can happen to intensify dramatic scripts.
But Janney contends such a promotion is "not that far-fetched."
"It's relationship driven," the Emmy-winning actress said on the phone.
"The president has a lot of faith and confidence in C.J. He trusts her.
"And he needs somebody he can trust now that Leo (John Spencer) has suffered a severe heart attack."
In the final scene of last week's episode, Bartlet told C.J. he wanted someone who "will jump off the cliff for him."
She officially assumes that job in this week's episode.
Political realism aside, the promotion of Janney's character could add more story-line zest.
C.J. Cregg is more than just a former press secretary thrust into a position of power. She's a woman who undoubtedly will bump up against more obstacles in that key position than would a man.
"From strictly a script perspective, the promotion of C.J. should provide some intriguing White House situations," Janney said.
"I can't tell you exactly what will happen because, frankly, I don't know. That's part of the charm of this show for the actors."
Some critics and viewers contend The West Wing, now in its second season without the incisive writing of creator Aaron Sorkin, has suffered in quality.
Showing political skill, Janney deftly sidesteps any comparisons.
"Aaron was a genius . . . an amazing writer, Janney said.
"But we're so fortunate to have the talents of John Wells (executive producer) who cares so deeply about the show.
"He and the other writers have provided different voices for the scripts. We trust them all."
Janney has "no idea" what direction The West Wing will go regarding long-range, politically-oriented story lines.
But she does hear reports that C.J., whose romantic life has never been fulfilled, might find someone who cares.
Spencer will remain on the show even though Leo McGarry is going through tough times physically. He collapsed on the grounds at Camp David and nobody noticed (an unrealistic scenario, by the way).
Wednesday's episode also introduces Jimmy Smits, playing a Hispanic congressman from Houston, who has his eye on the White House.
Later this month, Alan Alda joins the cast, portraying a middle-of- the-road Republican senator from California with presidential dreams.
Also in the presidential mix is Gary Cole, as Bartlet's pragmatic vice president and former congressman from Colorado.
These characters should add to the intrigue, particularly if The West Wing has an election and goes into its seventh season next fall.
Such a jigsaw-puzzle situation could add a touch of political reality to the careers of major cast members.
If a new "president" is elected by scriptwriters, logic would dictate he'd surround himself with a new team.
That could mean Janney, Spencer, Richard Schiff, Bradley Whitford, Dule Hill and Lily Tomlin might leave the series.
"That does produce some paranoia," Janney admitted.
Her role on The West Wing has boosted Janney's career and revived her interest in politics.
"I grew up in the Watergate era and was pretty much turned off by politics and politicians.
"Working on The West Wing has changed all that."
She voted Nov. 2.
Posted by Jo at 07:00 AM
November 08, 2004
How the West Wing was lost
by Ian Bell
The Glasgow Herald
Perhaps I should apologise for returning so soon to politics and American affairs. It seems likely, after all, that there will not be much worth talking about where the United States is concerned for the next four years. Nevertheless, the re-election of George W Vader has sent a tremor through the Force, and it is having interesting effects on the television universe.
On Wednesday morning, for example, you could have caught Andrew Marr, the BBC's political editor, on The Daily Politics (BBC2) while he attempted to explain why the return of Bush was such an excellent outcome for Tony Blair. Andrew Neil, the show's host, exuded the smugness of a conservative vindicated. Alastair Campbell, the prime minister's former spin-master, told of how his old boss would take any number of "hits", especially from his own party, in the nation's interest. But Marr's problem was close to theological.
Why was Blair quite so wedded to Bush? How did it come about that a Labour prime minister would prefer a born-again and proudly reactionary Republican to a dull and decent Democrat? If there was an answer that did not involve sheer expedience, I'm not sure I followed it, but the sense of a profound change in America and the world endured. So much had been clear in the aftermath of the election. The citizens of the US might have translated a rational fear of terrorism into votes. On that, all the pundits were agreed. Their society might remain divided, 51% to 48%, as John Kerry had noted in his concession speech. But something else was going on, and it was baffling the sophisticated minds of every political editor. What Richard Nixon once called the silent majority had become an actual majority. Conservatism, however you define it, had become America's creed.
Whether the people of these islands have yet grasped the fact remains to be seen. When The Daily Politics got around to Prime Minister's Questions, nevertheless, it was striking to see how relaxed Blair had become. When Alice Mahon, one of his anti-war back-benchers, rose to ask about the pending "punishment assault" on Falluja, Blair all but swatted her away. In effect, he demonstrated a tendency common in Republican circles but little discussed, so far, on this side of the Atlantic: reality is what we say it is.
In the parallel universe of TV, the echoes of the Bush victory were everywhere. You could hear them in Marr trying to explain the Bush/Blair relationship. You could catch it in the voices of the correspondents embedded with the US Marines outside Falluja itself, now taking it for granted that a town would be flattened, that women and children would die. One of the people from Sky News explained, for example, that while the troops were forbidden to express political views they had told him "privately" that they were exultant over Bush's re-election. A new world order, nothing less, was already asserting itself.
On TV, even mundane effects were striking. Was it just this reviewer, or did The West Wing (E4, Tuesday) become instantly redundant as the election results rolled in? Lately, the series has attempted to balance its liberal instincts with Republican realities. The great John Spencer, as chief of staff Leo McGarry, has been given the job of voicing uncompromising Bushite attitudes. But with the real thing reannointed, and vastly more powerful than before, Martin Sheen's President Bartlet, a Democrat pure in heart and mind, suddenly seems ludicrous.
The character was not exactly realistic to begin with. Ever since Bill Clinton set out the template for the "new Democrats" – hence new Labour; you didn't think it was original, did you? – the idea of a genuinely liberal president has been fiction's territory. Nevertheless, the ballot was a convincing proof that a Bartlet would never have been elected, far less, as The West Wing pretends, earn a second term. The White House would not, and will not, be defending controversial medical research against cynical reactionaries, as this week's episode pretended. It would not, and will not, be trying to do the decent thing over judicial appointments. Bush has been packing every court in America. He isn't going to stop now.
The contrast between Bartlet and the president who gathered more votes than any candidate in US history has become glaring. Overnight, The West Wing ceased to work. It lost its point and its purpose. What was once regarded as an insightful fiction based on actual realities now has as much of a relationship to the truth as a James Bond movie has to the real MI6.
"We've got an image problem," Leo told press secretary CJ. "Stories aren't dying down." As a matter of record, the real Bush White House has a simple formula for dealing with difficult stories and troublesome journalists: the reports are ignored and their writers are excluded from the information loop, exiled without ceremony. After all, as a Republican might put it, who won?
CJ herself, attempting to rein in the president's rebellious wife, would later refer to the White House press corps as "the most cynical b******s on the planet". A fine sentiment overlooks the capacity of the real Republican presidency and its neo-conservative stalwarts for news management, for fiction, and for bottomless cynicism. Adam Curtis explained as much in the last episode of his riveting The Power of Nightmares (BBC2, Wednesday). Yet even this powerful documentary seemed to shrink and fade in the aftershock of Bush's re-election.
How much does it matter now, you wondered, to be told that al Qaeda was effectively an American invention, that bin Laden himself never used the term before 9/11? As Curtis showed, Islamist extremism was a failing fringe movement before the neo-cons discovered the need for an enemy. It was, moreover, little more than a loose association of disillusioned fanatics. Bin Laden was their funder, not their commander. Yet in order to secure convictions after the 1998 African embassy bombings US prosecutors had to make the evidence fit with American laws. In other words, they had to prove the existence of an organisation, such as the Mafia. Hence "al Qaeda".
Before the late 1990s, according to the film, "bin Laden had no formal organisation until the Americans invented one for him". That much, as it happens, is indisputably true. Yet even as you admired this investigation of a dark fantasy, even if you quibbled over some of the techniques Curtis employed, or worried about the facts he ignored to construct a compelling case, by Wednesday night it already felt like ancient history. Bush has the war that he wanted, a war endorsed by a clear majority of voting Americans. Subversive documentaries, whether from Curtis or Michael Moore, have changed nothing.
What was most remarkable as Tuesday became Wednesday was a series of images.
In effect, it was the same image: a queue, a snaking line of people waiting to tell the world that they were voting for Bush, not Bartlet, that they believed what the former had told them about terror and Christian values, that they required no international alliances or lectures. It was reality TV without a hint of trickery. We had better get used to it.
Posted by Jo at 06:58 AM
November 06, 2004
West Wing's C.J. Promoted
by Daniel R. Coleridge
TV Guide Online
As reported by TV Guide Online last month, Leo McGarry's sudden heart attack will prompt The West Wing's President Bartlet to appoint himself a new chief of staff: C.J. Cregg. In tonight's episode (9 pm/ET on NBC), the spunky press secretary learns the stunning news of her promotion. Yeah, we can just hear you asking, "Isn't the choice of a PR flack to fill Leo's shoes just a bit silly?" Well, here's what the flack in question thinks...
"I'm sure it came up with [the writers]," says Allison Janney, "and yet, they found it a fascinating way to go and not that far-fetched. At the White House, job descriptions don't necessarily define who trusts your input. It's more relationship-driven, and C.J. has proved herself a respected member of the administration.
"When I first heard about it, I was terrified," she admits. "Then I thought, 'Why not? It's TV.' C.J.'s a great role model. This is very positive for women. I don't think there's ever been a female chief of staff before, so why not?"
Speaking of White House staffing problems, we'll wager the current cast is angsty about talk that a new administration may come in to replace Martin Sheen's Bartlet. Wouldn't that mean the show's stars will lose their jobs?
"It does make for some paranoia," the 43-year-old Janney chuckles. "We're all like, 'Are we gonna have a job?' But as John Wells has said, it's unrealistic that C.J. would be press secretary for that many years. The turnover is high in these [White House] jobs.
"Anything is possible," she continues. "I certainly hope that if they go into the next administration, and if there's room for C.J., they'd ask me to be a part of it. If not, I'm happy with the ride I've had so far, and I'd go on and do something else. I don't know what's gonna happen. It's a little scary, but you never know what's next."
Meanwhile, Janney looks forward to new challenges for C.J., as well as new love. "There are plans underway to bring someone in for C.J.," she confirms, although she'll spill no specifics on whom. In case you're wondering, it's not Jimmy Smits.
"[Smits] certainly fits the height requirement for C.J.," the 6-foot-tall actress laughs, "but his character is happily married. Although we're trying to get C.J. happy in her personal life, I don't think she'll go there. But boy, he's nice to look at."
Posted by Jo at 08:13 AM
Wicked's Chenoweth to Begin "West Wing" Role in November
By Andrew Gans
Playbill
Tony Award winner Kristin Chenoweth, most recently on Broadway in the hit musical Wicked, will begin her recurring role on TV's "West Wing" this month.
On Nov. 17 the actress-singer will make her "West Wing" debut in the role of media consultant Annabeth Schott. "Fresh off the political talk show circuit," reads production notes, "Annabeth Schott brings savvy image advice and plucky attitude to her new job as a White House media consultant. Having once discovered Republican foe Taylor Reid, she's tasked with unearthing the next rising star for the Bartlet administration: a new Press Secretary to fill the shoes of C.J. Cregg. In the meantime, she schools Toby on the subtle art of seducing the press, be it with beard trims, non-hostile posturing, or straightforward answers to their questions. In her media consultant role, Annabeth will prep staff for Sunday morning news shows, offer advice on crafting final-year messages, and occasionally step up to the podium to take on the press herself."
Chenoweth, who received a Tony nomination for her work as Glinda in Stephen Schwartz's Wicked, made her New York theatrical debut opposite Bill Irwin in a production of Molière's Scapin and followed that with a role in Kander and Ebb's Steel Pier. Roles in Off-Broadway's A New Brain, the Broadway comedy Epic Proportions and the City Center Encores! productions of Strike Up the Band and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever ensued. Chenoweth won her Tony for her performance as Sally Brown in the Broadway bow of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.
The actress-singer also starred in the TV adaptations of "Annie" and "The Music Man" as well as in her own short-lived sitcom, "Kristin." Upcoming film projects include "The Pink Panther," "Bewitched" and the movie musical "Asphalt Beach." Chenoweth's solo albums include "Let Yourself Go" and the forthcoming "Songs I Grew Up On."
"The West Wing" began its new season Oct. 20. The series about the President of the United States and his advisers airs Wednesdays on NBC-TV, 9-10 PM ET. Check local listings.
Posted by Jo at 08:09 AM
'West Wing' star to deliver keynote to group
Anna Deavere Smith, actress, playwright, sees world as humanist
By Janet Forgrieve
Rocky Mountain News
November 6, 2004
Anna Deavere Smith has built several careers around her interest in people.
A self-described humanist and born mimic, the actress likely best-known to most as National Security Adviser Nancy McNally on NBC's West Wing, Smith is also a playwright, author and tenured professor.
Smith, who will keynote the Women's Foundation of Colorado's annual luncheon on Monday, recently took time - after the gym and a lunch where she ran into Walter Cronkite and before an afternoon meeting - to speak with the Rocky Mountain News.
"I'm interested in people and the world we live in," she said. "The forum I took to express my interest was acting because it came easily to me."
Her acting credits include roles on the CBS drama Presidio Med, appearances on ABC's The Practice and films such as Philadelphia with Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington.
In addition, Smith is a tenured professor at New York University, teaching in both the theater department and law school.
"But I think of my plays as the center of what I do - occasionally I do TV and movies," she said.
The women's foundation chose Smith because of the many human angles her work takes, especially issues that hit home for women and children, said foundation spokeswoman Stephanie Blackford.
And, she hinted, attendees may get a treat in the form of some of Smith's characters coming to life at the podium.
Smith's plays include Twilight Los Angeles, about the aftermath of the Rodney King verdict and the violence that ripped apart the city. Instead of using her own impressions, Smith interviewed hundreds of those involved in and affected by the L.A. riots.
The resulting one-woman show spoke verbatim the words of 46 diverse voices.
Taking a journalistic approach has led Smith into neighborhoods, homes and lives she might not otherwise have seen, she said. She talked to both blacks and Hassidic Jews while researching a play about racial tensions in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn.
"I don't presume to speak for somebody," she said of her stage efforts. "I'm trying to speak as them. But an audience is intelligent - they know I'm not them, can never be them. I'm telling you the words that came from them. It seems the most honest thing to do."
Smith also talked about the mission and state of art, and how she sees it changing, especially since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
As part of creating the Institute on the Arts & Civic Dialogue, Smith worked on a summer program at Harvard for three years for artists who came to create work about social change.
She's looking at re-creating the program at NYU.
"Now there's an even greater appetite among artists and audiences to use art as that kind of window, to really look at ourselves - (to use art as) the opposite of escape," she said.
"It's a new and interesting collaboration between artists and activists. Artists will need the credibility of activists and activists will need the creativity of artists."
Americans have lost much of their faith in public institutions, she said.
"We don't trust the media to bring us the truth, we don't trust our school teachers," Smith said. "I think that artists could also stand in what otherwise is not entirely claimed territory. If people thought artists were not reliable in the past, they ask now 'Is my doctor? Is my teacher?' "
That thought takes her back to Walter Cronkite. When she saw him while out at lunch, she added pursuing an interview opportunity with him to her "to-do" list.
"There is no one voice of reassurance anywhere in the world anymore," she said. "We're facing a profound ignorance, a profound unknown. I think the best position is humility - I want to learn things, so I meet people at universities, in life. Then I figure out how to put the pieces together."
Speaking softly but seriously about the work that has shaped her life, Smith lightened the mood when she talked about how she gets it all done.
"I have a lot of stamina," she said with a laugh, before adding more seriously "I also have a lot of different ideas, and I just try to act on those ideas."
If you go
• What: The Women's Foundation of Colorado's annual luncheon
• When: Monday
• Where: Adam's Mark Hotel, 1550 Court Place, Denver
• Keynote speaker: Actress, playwright, author and professor Anna Deavere Smith, right
• Tickets: $80 for individuals; call 303-285-2965 or go to www.wfco.org
Posted by Jo at 08:08 AM
The Gurus of What's In Wonder if They're Out of Touch
By SHARON WAXMAN and RANDY KENNEDY
New York Times
Published: November 6, 2004
Disappointment was thick and palpable, an ill-tempered fog at the United Talent Agency in Beverly Hills where - who could concentrate? - the business of Hollywood was interrupted by constant discussions of What Went Wrong.
The assistant to Jim Berkus, the agency's chairman, fielded an e-mail message from a colleague who apologized for voting for President Bush, while an administrator, preparing a podium for a company event, grumbled quietly about wedge issues.
"They demonized Hollywood," said the administrator, Michael Conway, referring to the Bush campaign. "We make the one product everyone wants, we make the best American-made product there is. What's going to happen, some kind of blacklist?"
In the best of times Hollywood and New York, liberal strongholds and the main engines of the country's entertainment and arts, are not closely connected to what people on the coasts call "the flyover states," that vast center of the country that voted its majority for Mr. Bush.
But in the wake of the election result, many producers, actors, writers and others in the culture business had to ask: are we seriously out of touch? What does the election result, felt so bitterly in Hollywood and New York, say about the divide between those who create popular culture and many of those who consume it?
"The majority of the American voting public is not comfortable with what's in the movies and on TV - it's what I have to assume," said Peter Benedek, a partner at the talent agency. "Hollywood is obsessed with 18- to 34-year-olds, and those people didn't come out and vote. My guess is most people who watch 'The Sopranos' voted for Kerry. Most people who saw 'The Grudge' didn't vote."
Of course, there were some in Hollywood and New York who voted for the president. By and large, though, the election left creative people in both places dumbstruck, anguished, even desperate. Dozens of celebrities had thrown their weight behind the Democratic candidate, Senator John Kerry, to little result. Sean Penn knocked on doors in New Mexico. Leonardo DiCaprio, Jon Bon Jovi, and Bruce Springsteen tirelessly stumped for Mr. Kerry.
"There's a mournfulness going on - people are talking about secession, and they're not completely joking," said Lawrence O'Donnell, a writer on "The West Wing" and a political commentator. "The intensity of disappointment is so enormous. I haven't experienced or witnessed anything like it since 1972," when George McGovern lost to Richard Nixon.
But others said they believed that the unusually broad swath of creative people who supported Mr. Kerry should not see the defeat as a repudiation of their efforts. "I think it's bad news for the left if we begin paying too much attention to all the noise people are making that this means the country has been completely remade into a conservative Christian nation," said the playwright Tony Kushner, who volunteered for Mr. Kerry in Broward County, Fla. Mr. Kushner said: "I don't believe that it will just go up in smoke, because the fears and anger and the patriotism that motivated people to do that will still have the same power."
John Cameron Mitchell, a director and actor, agreed. "Ultimately after a period of depression yesterday, today I feel even more energized," said Mr. Mitchell, talking via cellphone as he drove to New York from Ohio on Thursday. He was in Ohio to help with get-out-the-vote efforts and described how he found a "protect marriage" sign, along with some splattered pieces of pumpkin, left on his car by some children who had asked earlier if he was gay.
He added that, as an artist and actor, the election did not make him feel much more out of step with much of America than he had before. "I can always go back to the United States of New York and feel quite at home," he said.
But in Los Angeles, the mood seemed a little more ominous. On the Sony lot there were quiet remarks of commiseration in a marketing meeting and the impression one executive had of "an overwhelmingly dark cloud." The starkly divided country led him and others to speculate: how do we cater, as he called it, to "those people" - meaning, Bush voters?
Mr. O'Donnell said he could not imagine changing "The West Wing" to conform to the competing sensibility of more than half the electorate.
"I don't see any way to write 'The West Wing' for current Bush voters," he said. "I couldn't possibly write a heroic president who goes to war for an announced reason that turns out to be false and changes his story about how he went to war. There's nothing in the Bush presidency that holds up for a 'West Wing'-style presidency, which is a fundamentally honest and honorable administration. That's the notion of it. Tony Blair's administration would hold up much better."
There is plenty that Hollywood creates that caters to a solid, middle-American audience with solid, middle-of-the-road values, whether family friendly movies like "Finding Nemo" or regular-guy shows like "Everybody Loves Raymond."
But even Jon Stewart joked on "The Daily Show," on Wednesday night that the election result was the revenge of viewers who were offended by "Will & Grace."
"Obviously the country is really divided, and it's divided culturally, not just economically," said the writer and director Gary Ross, a Democrat whose movies, including "Seabiscuit" and "Dave," have embraced populist themes.
The screenwriter John Ridley, who wrote the story for "Three Kings" and now writes for television, disagreed, saying Hollywood is out of touch economically.
"When you have people who make this much money, it's simplistic to say they're all liberals," said Mr. Ridley, who added that he agonized before voting for Mr. Bush. "I think they're out of touch with mainstream America in the same way as people making seven figures are out of touch."
But Lawrence Bender, who produced "Kill Bill," Quentin Tarantino's blood-drenched revenge film, said he believed moviemakers were not seriously disconnected from what Americans wanted to watch, and that this was tested every week at the box office. "As soon as we're out of touch, our movies bomb," Mr. Bender said. "It's impossible. The studios wouldn't be standing."
" 'Kill Bill' did mass business," he said. "It was not just young people in cities." He added: "Personally, I'm more liberal. But what's my biggest concern? It's the same as the rest of the country - Iraq, health care, education."
Posted by Jo at 08:04 AM
November 02, 2004
Allison Janney's at center of a shakeup on 'West Wing'
by Gail Shister
Philadelphia Inquirer
Allison Janney isn't ready for a promotion.
When West Wing boss John Wells told Janney that her press secretary C.J. Cregg would replace Leo McGarry (John Spencer) as the president's chief of staff this season, she freaked.
"There was silence for a full minute," Janney recalls. "I went, 'What? Are you sure? I don't know. This is kind of crazy.' I was terrified about taking over that job."
In last week's episode, Leo suffered a massive heart attack alone in the woods at Camp David, soon after he resigned over foreign-policy conflicts with President Bartlet (Martin Sheen).
Leo lives, and will continue to serve "an advisory role" for the staff, says an NBC rep. Spencer will remain with the show for all 22 episodes, his publicist says.
Tomorrow, Bartlet names C.J. to the post, passing over deputy chief of staff Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) and communications chief Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff), both more senior advisers.
"The more John talked to me, the more it actually made sense for C.J. to have this job," says Janney, 43, a two-time Emmy-winner for the role. "It creates so many new dynamics and conflicts. It shakes up the chemistry."
In its sixth season, West Wing needs shaking. It ranks 32d on the Nielsen chart, averaging 12.3 million viewers.
Critics complain the show has grown tired. With the Bartlet administration winding down, new plotlines are preparing some of the main characters for the next occupant of the Oval Office.
"I knew they wanted to shake things up, but I thought C.J. would always be press secretary. John might as well have said that C.J. is going to be president. It's been a little daunting for me."
Josh and Toby are not thrilled by C.J.'s ascent. "They're above me in the chain of command, and now I'm their boss," she says. Also, C.J. "is still a woman in a man's world."
Ironically, Janney says she is nothing like the powerful women she plays.
"I'm the biggest wimp. I have a hard time saying no to anybody. I'm not the boss. I'm the team player. I'm very shy. I don't like to speak in front of people. I like to stay at home, not doing anything."
On West Wing, C.J.'s future may depend on Bartlet's successor.
Two contenders join the cast this season: Jimmy Smits as Matt Santos, a Democratic congressman from Texas, and Alan Alda as Arnold Vinick, a Republican from California. (Republican, California, Arnold. Get it?)
Smits debuts Nov. 10, but he doesn't declare until Jan. 5. Alda will debut in early January, as a candidate.
Though C.J. "could go on to do other jobs in another administration," Janney says she's not counting on it for next season. "I don't know what John will do with all of us... .
"Who knows? Maybe C.J. will be president. Why not? I would so love that. It wouldn't happen until season 15 or 20. Or maybe she'll find someone, fall in love and leave Washington."
Will art imitate life? Janney and her fiance, actor Richard Jenik, 37, a native of Delanco, Burlington County, are aiming to wed this spring. It's the first marriage for both.
Posted by Jo at 06:47 PM
Rethinking 'West Wing'
by Ellen Gray
Philadelphia Daily News
I WOKE UP yesterday to find someone had removed the Bush-Cheney signs from my street.
Can't say I missed them, but I wouldn't have minded seeing the Kerry-Edwards signs go, too.
Whether or not you believe "good fences make good neighbors," it's unlikely dueling lawn signs have the same effect.
And as I've been reminding myself for weeks now, signs or no, I already have good neighbors.
I think that's called perspective.
Whatever happens today, by tomorrow many of us will need a little perspective.
If our candidate loses, we'll need to remind ourselves of all the mediocre-to-bad presidents this country has already survived.
If he wins, we'll need to remember that even the best-qualified candidates have been known to fall short, that the federal government is a complicated machine and the presidency only one branch of it.
I've been finding some perspective lately in, of all places, the third-season DVD of "The West Wing," which goes on sale today.
I say "of all places" because for me, the 2001-02 season was the one where the wheels started to come off the wagon.
Beginning with the preachy, ill-considered "Isaac and Ishmael" - in which creator Aaron Sorkin attempted to address the events of Sept. 11 without mentioning them directly or linking that episode to the rest of the series - and ending with the shooting death of C.J.'s Secret Service agent/love interest, it felt at the time like one long train wreck.
Which, oddly enough, is not how it plays on DVD.
Oh, "Isaac and Ishmael" is still a mistake. Didn't like it then, don't like it now.
And I continue to find the too-convenient convenience-store demise of Mark Harmon's character as believable, as, say, the idea that the president's chief of staff could fall in the forest of Camp David and no one in the Secret Service hear it.
But the rest of the season, viewed without commercial breaks or, more importantly, the long stretches created by reruns and NBC pre-emptions, is full of good stuff. There are discussions of wonky issues you probably haven't heard mentioned much, if at all, in this year's election campaigns - war crimes, Indian reparations, the obsolescence of the Lincoln penny - as well as some, like our dependence on foreign oil and the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia, that feel all too current.
It's better than I remember it being at the time.
And whatever happens today, I hope that a few years from now, I'll see all this, too, more clearly than I do now.
Posted by Jo at 06:39 AM
November 01, 2004
Mideast meets 'West Wing'
By Hannah Brown
Jerusalem Post
The popular US television drama The West Wing aired an episode on the Middle East peace process last week and won high praise from both fans and Israeli Arab actor Makram J. Khoury, who played the part of the Palestinian Authority chairman.
"I found it to be fair and a very good script," said Khoury, who works with the Haifa Theater and also stars in the soon-to-be released, award-winning film, The Syrian Bride. "I was satisfied that it was equal for both sides. It was such a wonderful experience working with all the regulars. Everything was perfect."
The plot summary for the episode that appeared in TV Guide reads: "As bombs fall on a terrorist training camp in Syria, the Palestinian and Israeli leaderships gather at Camp David for negotiations on ending their impasse. It'll be a six-day war (of wills, anyhow)." The episode, Khoury said, was based more on the Camp David negotiations in 2000 than on the current situation.
In a rare move for the show, which generally takes place in the White House and Washington, the episode was filmed on location in Virginia, to simulate Camp David. Khoury appeared in scenes with all the show's stars, including Martin Sheen, who plays President Josiah Bartlett. Khoury was impressed by the talent of all those on show, and singled out Lily Tomlin, who plays an aide to the president, for special praise. The part of the Israeli prime minister was played by Armin Mueller-Stahl, a German-born actor best known in the US for his starring role in the 1990 film Avalon. Khoury found the cast knowledgeable about Israel, but said that the cast and crew were surprised when he met Eli Danker, an Israeli actor playing Israel's defense minister, on the set.
"I hadn't seen Eli for years, and we embraced. People were surprised to see an Arab hugging an Israeli. All the time, they asked questions, they were very curious and very enthusiastic."
Richard Schiff, who plays Toby Ziegler, the White House director of communications, was quoted in an Associated Press article on the episode as saying that he was impressed with the actors' off-screen friendship: "Both actors are working for peace [outside of the TV world] and are truly good friends."
Fans of The West Wing discussed the episode on the many Web sites devoted to the series, but most viewers seemed more interested in the relationships among the regular characters on the series than the portrayal of Israel or the political situation. One viewer noted a minor inaccuracy, wondering, "How crazy/blind/insensitive would the administration have been to serve crab cakes to Jews and Muslims?"
One negative comment about the episode came from a Palestinian newspaper, the Palestinian Chronicle, by syndicated columnist Ray Hanania, who argued that the "plot follows almost word-for-word Israel's official propaganda about the Palestinians... It reinforces what Americans have been brainwashed for years by pro-Israel propaganda to accept for the past 56 years."
Khoury would not agree with this assessment. Seeing the Middle East situation portrayed realistically on television, he said, "is so important for the American public."
For Khoury, a veteran actor who has worked a great deal on stage, the chance to be seen by millions of viewers in a high-quality television show was a blessing.
"I hope it makes a noise and gets noticed," he said. "I would wish to be on [the show] again."
Posted by Jo at 07:29 AM
'West Wing' is still a notch above
By Charlie McCollum
San Jose Mercury News
Some flotsam and jetsam we found bobbing on the constantly churning sea of TV:
• This may constitute revisionist critical thinking but maybe we should give credit to the current incarnation of ``The West Wing'' for what it still does fairly well.
Sure, it's not ``The West Wing'' of the days when creator Aaron Sorkin was writing almost every word. Sorkin never would have let it drift into the kind of excessive melodrama (Leo McGarry's heart attack) that have marred key episodes since his departure. (Warning: Spoiler in next sentence.) While he might have come up with this Wednesday's (9 p.m., Chs. 8, 11) plot twist, -- C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney) becomes the new White House chief of staff -- Sorkin certainly wouldn't set up the surprise choice by making the other, more senior staffers look like idiots.
And the show sure could use more Sorkin-esque wit and screwball comedy dialogue.
But based on the first three episodes, the White House drama remains a very watchable, well-produced series with a fine cast and a willingness to talk about issues with some intelligence. That puts it a step above most dramas on network TV, even if the show is just a shadow of its former greatness.
One thing, though: It's time for ``The West Wing'' to end. The producers should not try to extend the series' run by bringing in a new president and staff. This is not a drama like ``ER'' or ``Law & Order'' where the formula can stay the same while characters can come and go. As Matt Roush of TV Guide said recently, ``It is the story of the Bartlet presidency, pure and simple.''
Let President Bartlet leave office at the end of this season and call it a day.
Posted by Jo at 07:12 AM
'West Wing' is still a notch above
By Charlie McCollum
San Jose Mercury News
Some flotsam and jetsam we found bobbing on the constantly churning sea of TV:
• This may constitute revisionist critical thinking but maybe we should give credit to the current incarnation of ``The West Wing'' for what it still does fairly well.
Sure, it's not ``The West Wing'' of the days when creator Aaron Sorkin was writing almost every word. Sorkin never would have let it drift into the kind of excessive melodrama (Leo McGarry's heart attack) that have marred key episodes since his departure. (Warning: Spoiler in next sentence.) While he might have come up with this Wednesday's (9 p.m., Chs. 8, 11) plot twist, -- C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney) becomes the new White House chief of staff -- Sorkin certainly wouldn't set up the surprise choice by making the other, more senior staffers look like idiots.
And the show sure could use more Sorkin-esque wit and screwball comedy dialogue.
But based on the first three episodes, the White House drama remains a very watchable, well-produced series with a fine cast and a willingness to talk about issues with some intelligence. That puts it a step above most dramas on network TV, even if the show is just a shadow of its former greatness.
One thing, though: It's time for ``The West Wing'' to end. The producers should not try to extend the series' run by bringing in a new president and staff. This is not a drama like ``ER'' or ``Law & Order'' where the formula can stay the same while characters can come and go. As Matt Roush of TV Guide said recently, ``It is the story of the Bartlet presidency, pure and simple.''
Let President Bartlet leave office at the end of this season and call it a day.
Posted by Jo at 07:12 AM
'West Wing' is still a notch above
By Charlie McCollum
San Jose Mercury News
Some flotsam and jetsam we found bobbing on the constantly churning sea of TV:
• This may constitute revisionist critical thinking but maybe we should give credit to the current incarnation of ``The West Wing'' for what it still does fairly well.
Sure, it's not ``The West Wing'' of the days when creator Aaron Sorkin was writing almost every word. Sorkin never would have let it drift into the kind of excessive melodrama (Leo McGarry's heart attack) that have marred key episodes since his departure. (Warning: Spoiler in next sentence.) While he might have come up with this Wednesday's (9 p.m., Chs. 8, 11) plot twist, -- C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney) becomes the new White House chief of staff -- Sorkin certainly wouldn't set up the surprise choice by making the other, more senior staffers look like idiots.
And the show sure could use more Sorkin-esque wit and screwball comedy dialogue.
But based on the first three episodes, the White House drama remains a very watchable, well-produced series with a fine cast and a willingness to talk about issues with some intelligence. That puts it a step above most dramas on network TV, even if the show is just a shadow of its former greatness.
One thing, though: It's time for ``The West Wing'' to end. The producers should not try to extend the series' run by bringing in a new president and staff. This is not a drama like ``ER'' or ``Law & Order'' where the formula can stay the same while characters can come and go. As Matt Roush of TV Guide said recently, ``It is the story of the Bartlet presidency, pure and simple.''
Let President Bartlet leave office at the end of this season and call it a day.
Posted by Jo at 07:12 AM