« Santa Paula seeks role on 'West Wing' show | Main | Lions in winter »
February 12, 2005
Real-life prof inspired 'West Wing' character
By Catherine Billey
The New York Times
February 12, 2005
Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford University professor who is a leading American intellectual property scholar known as "the Elvis of cyber law," has now achieved a measure of fame among fans of television's "The West Wing."
In Wednesday night's episode, "The Wake Up Call," Christopher Lloyd ("Back to the Future") made a guest appearance as Professor Lessig, a Harvard University legal expert enlisted to explain particulars of the Constitution to members of a delegation from Belarus.
The delegation was starting work on writing a new, democratic constitution.
The character is based on screenwriter Josh Singer's real-life mentor, Lessig, with whom he studied contract law at Harvard in 1997.
"It was one of my first courses, and he was unbelievable," Singer said. "He was a rock star."
In preparing for the episode, Singer also remembered that Lessig had been asked, in his capacity as co-director of the Center for the Study of Constitutionalism in Eastern Europe, to help work on the Georgian constitution.
"I called him up and asked him to tell me more about what had happened," Singer said. "On the set, we replicated what they had done."
No word yet on the real-life professor's feeling about the episode, although Singer said that after reading the script and giving his formal approval, his mentor "seemed to be pretty thrilled."
Posted by Jo at February 12, 2005 10:17 AM