The West Wing

Between President Obama's struggle and sort-of triumph to keep his BlackBerry and the West Wing's faltering email system — yesterday Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said it was down — it's a hardly a surprise to learn the White House is mired in cords and cables and 6-year-old computers.

Staff has traded in campaign MacBooks for desktops fitted with outdated Windows software, and the few laptops available are being rationed to very select staff. No Facebook. No IM. No Twitter. Not even wireless!

For a staff that relied on technology and social networking to win an election, White House employees will have to begrudgingly adjust to the loss of mobility. While it's done partly out of tradition, restrictions also ensure information is protected under the Presidential Records Act. Obama spokesman Bill Burton admitted, "It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari." And that's the official line!

If America is going to lead the world, should its government have access to leading technology?

Source

Every other Wednesday on BuzzSugar, I post a Recast challenge, where I ask you to choose new actors for a classic TV show or movie. The reader who submits the best cast wins a BuzzSugar T-shirt!

Last week, in light of all the election hubbub, I thought it would be fun to recast the White House staff that was so entertaining on The West Wing. Some of you couldn't bear to think of any other actors filling the original cast's shoes while others went ahead and gave it a whirl.

Whip's cast suggestions were great. I got a laugh out of Tina Fey as C.J., who would then secretly have the hots for Whip's suggestion for Josh Lyman, Matt Damon. Tina and Matt together is an amazing idea!

Mommapoppins had some creative ideas as well: Kal Penn as the young aide to President Bartlet is a fantastic idea, and I actually think Katie Holmes would make a decent Donna. I smiled at thecolourclear's casting for the president because Samuel L. Jackson would not be someone folks in Congress would mess with.

The winner came down to a cast full of actors I would love to see on screen together and who could totally pull off these roles as brilliant politicos. Congratulations to lauraonbway!

To see who lauraonbway chose, along with a new cast photo, read more

Every other Wednesday on BuzzSugar, I post a Recast challenge, where I ask you to choose new actors for a classic TV show or movie. The reader who submits the best cast wins a BuzzSugar t-shirt!

Since the air is still crackling with exciting presidential news, I thought it would be fun to recast one of the most presidential TV shows ever: The West Wing! And the timing is kind of perfect because as president-elect Barack Obama chooses his own White House staff, we'll be casting our own.

As fans of the show know, the cast was large, diverse, and ever-changing so for the purposes of this challenge I thought we'd stick to the president's long-standing inner circle. Who do you think could play President Bartlet with Martin Sheen's same level of integrity and intelligence, and his physician wife Abbey Bartlet? What about tough-as-nails press secretary turned chief of staff, C. J. Cregg (Allison Janney)? Then there are the guys: Deputy White House Communications Director Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe), Communications Director Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff), and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford).

Finally, who would you cast as the president's personal aide Charlie Young, Josh's assistant Donna Moss, and the president's closest confidant, Leo McGarry?

Leave your entry in the comment section below, and I'll pick one winner to feature Tuesday, Nov. 11, complete with a "new" cast photo. To see a list of characters to recast and a photo of the BuzzSugar t-shirt, read more

Oh, wish no longer! With all the squabbling around the delegates and the big convention in Denver looming, don't you wish you could just cozy up and watch the drama unfold, just like the good ol' days on West Wing? This is almost as good!

It's a full screen play of the the imaginings of the plot. It's good!

The leadership considers going to Hillary and telling her it’s time to drop out. They all know there will be blood if they do that. Someone suggests trying to get Barack to drop out.

Reid: Barack sure is a lot easier to talk to.
Pelosi: Are we really gonna ask him to drop out just because he’s easier to talk to?

They screw up the courage to go to Hillary. They all agree they have to have Gore onboard and they have to enlist at least one of Hillary’s most committed superdelegates to join them.

Noo! Tell us how it ends! No cliffhangers! I wonder if this fiction will parallel reality. . . Do you think President Bartlett is a superdelegate?

Photo courtesy of NBC

• There's a new, full-length trailer out for Get Smart with Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway and the dreamiest of men, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson up on /Film.
• Check out Mollygood for new images from The Incredible Hulk, starring Edward Norton.
• I'm not sure how I feel about this one, but The TV Addict is challenging NBC's remake-obsessed Ben Silverman to take on The West Wing: The Santos Years.
• You Ain't No Picasso loved Be Kind Rewind and tells us so with appropriate mp3s.
• According to Cinematical, anyone who calls himself or herself a horror film fan absolutely needs to see The Signal.
• TV with MeeVee thinks American Idol's Danny Noriega reminds them of someone a little fiercer.
• Popwatch wonders what shows you've been watching out of desperation while waiting for the strike drought to end, like, say, Two and a Half Men.
• Vulture decides that if Maxim can review albums without listening to them, they can review lots of things without seeing them.

Source

This article Buzz pointed out yesterday about Barack Obama being the real-life inspiration for Jimmy Smits' character, Matt Santos, got me all shades of nostalgic for The West Wing. Now granted, by the time that story line rolled around, I daresay the show had, ahem, Jumped the proverbial Shark, but the article is a good read and a nice blend of Ballot Bowl '08 and the Boob-tube.

Writer and producer Eli Attie said,

"Some of Santos's insistence on not being defined by his race, his pride in it even as he rises above it, came from that."

Attie acknowledges Obama's rising superstar image, saying,

"After that convention speech, Obama's life changed. He was mobbed wherever he went. He was more than a candidate seeking votes: people were seeking him. Some of Santos's celebrity aura came from that."

And a glorious, glorious treat for you: the video of the absolute best, classic West Wing scene, ever. Wanna see, "oh, and one more thing. In this building, when the President stands, nobody sits."? Then read more

• It's no coincidence: The West Wing character Matt Santos actually was based on Barack Obama, writes The Guardian.
• Variety reports that Amazon.com will produce its first movie, The Stolen Child, based on the fantasy novel by Keith Donahue.
• Zap2It writes about a new Lifetime movie titled Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal which will star Tatum O'Neal and Jenna Dewan.
• TV Guide reports that Joshua Jackson won't appear on Grey's Anatomy after all.
• According to Billboard, World Peace One, a not-for-profit global peace advocacy group, is hoping to bring top talent like U2, Madonna, Led Zeppelin, and Justin Timberlake to its series of international concerts, set to begin May 17.
• Daniel Henney and Lost's Dominic Monaghan are the latest additions to the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie, writes Variety.
• Jesse L. Martin is out and Anthony Anderson is in at Law & Order, Broadcasting & Cable reports. Guess that's bad news for K-Ville.