Justin Trudeau and "The West Wing"

From The Hill: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he watched the hit TV show "The West Wing" to prep for debates against the incumbent Stephen Harper in 2015. As it turns out, he's a fan of the long-running series (which aired on NBC 1999-2006). The show is now available on Netflix.

Prime Minister Trudeau revealed this very interesting info recently to the podcast "The West Wing Weekly"--listen here to episode 3.15, Dead Irish Writers (with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau).  He does point out that real life being a head of government isn't as easy as it looks on TV. Maybe "I'm not a real Prime Minister but I played one on television" has something to recommend it.  More here from Maclean's. 

Pop culture has dominated the political news cycle over the past year or so. Stay tuned.

Star Trek: Voyager and The West Wing @BadAstronomer

Over at SyFyWire/Bad Astronomy, astronomer Phil Plait alerts us to an easter egg buried in the "Imperfection" episode of Star Trek: Voyager." Specifically, in one scene (at the 30:20 mark), some of The West Wing's characters turn up as "died in the line of duty" crew members. More here.  See also The West Wing Weekly.

White House Law

Keith A. Rowley, UNLV Law School, has published "In There a Lawyer in the (White) House?: Portraying Lawyers on The West Wing," in Lawyers in Your Living Room!: Law on Television (Michael Asimow ed.; ABA, 2009). Here is the abstract.

Ever since "L.A. Law" burst triumphantly onto the small screen in 1986 and the "Law & Order" franchise was born four years later, shows featuring lawyers have become a staple of American prime time network television. Sadly, many of the shows in which lawyers were or are the central characters -- "Ally McBeal," "The Practice," "Boston Legal," "Shark," "Damages," and, most recently, "Raising the Bar," to name a few -- have depicted lawyers as characatures who appear to be wholly unfamiliar with (and fairly unconcerned about) legal ethics and to view the law as a game to be won or a puzzle to be solved -- sometimes coincidentally for their client's benefit, but mostly for personal satisfaction. Standing in stark contrast to these cynical, self-indulgent, melodrama-prone, pomo-lawyers are those we meet from the White House Counsel's office of fictional President Jed Bartlet during the historic seven-year run of "The West Wing." While several of the show's more central characters -- Chief of Staff Leo McGarry, Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman, Communications Director Toby Ziegler, and Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn -- had law degrees, and some had substantial private-practice experience before entering politics, we saw them as policy advisors and political operatives. By contrast, the White House Counsel's office lawyers generally offered advice about matters of law, rather than policy or politics. As such, they are free to check their personal politics -- two of the lawyers featured during the series (Ainsley Hayes and Joe Quincy) were Republicans in a Democractic White House and a third (Lionel Tribbey) was substantially more liberal than the president on a number of issues -- at the door, to serve the president and his senior advisers and to represent the Office of the President.

Download the paper from SSRN here.