PASADENA – The creators of NBC’s hot new White House drama, “West Wing,” are bracing to be slammed by religious groups angry over some of the show’s political themes.
The series, which is set in the White House, follows the day-to-day trials of a sitting President (Martin Sheen) and his adminstration much the same way “ER” presents life in a hospital emergency room.
During one of many climactic scenes in the show’s pilot, White House staffers and the President clash with a group of emissaries from the religious right. One of the losers in the battle: A white-haired character who bears a striking resemblance to Jerry Falwell in both name and appearance.
“The show is fiction, there is no Falwell character,” said Aaron Sorkin, who created the show with “ER” honcho John Wells. “It certainly wasn’t my intention to make that kind of generalization.”
Sorkin, who writes “West Wing” and ABC’s “Sports Night,” has also written several box-office blockbusters including “A Few Good Men,” and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for “The American President.”
“I do apologize if I offend anyone on the Christian right,” Sorkin said. “It’s not my intention to offend, nor do I back off.”
The Falwell-like character is a friend of the President and a good man. Sorkin said “he clearly has regrets about what happens,” when the President’s 12-year-old granddaughter receives a gruesome threat in the mail from a violent right-wing group called The Lambs of God.
“It wasn’t my intention to paint the entire religious right with one brush,” Sorkin said. “On the other hand, I admit that there are moments when I take a personal passion of mine and get up on a box and let you all know about it.”
With the nation still reeling from the Lewinsky scandal and a Presidential election around the bend, Sorkin said the show – which stars Rob Lowe in his first-ever series role – will tackle tough issues but will try not rip its stories straight from newspaper headlines.
“The Monica thing is so hyper-dominant that it kind of ruined scandal for everybody now,” Sorkin said.”Believe me, I could have written a good one.”
The city’s infant-mortality rate dropped slightly last year, but some of the poorest neighborhoods experienced worrisome increases despite heavy investments in prenatal care, according to statistics released yesterday.
The Health Department reported there were 5.9 deaths per 1,000 births citywide in 2006, down from 6.0 in 2005.
In Central Harlem, however, the closely watched rate went in the opposite direction, from 7.4 in 2005 to 11.2 in 2006.
The same was true in the Mott Haven section of The Bronx and the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, the only other two neighborhoods to register double-digit infant-mortality rates.
Officials cautioned against reading too much into one year’s change in any one neighborhood, stressing that the numbers were based on a small number of cases each year.
“While those are incidental kinds of numbers, nevertheless they are alarming,” said state Sen. Bill Perkins, who for years has funneled government funds into prenatal programs in Harlem.
“We remain concerned whenever we see fluctuations going upward,” said Assistant Health Commissioner Deborah Kaplan.
She said further study is needed to come to conclusions about why there were increases in specific neighborhoods.
But she also said one trend is clear: there are sharp differences in outcomes based on race and ethnicity, both here and nationwide.
“Despite the fact that the rate has gone down dramatically over the years, we have not narrowed the gap in disparity,” Kaplan said.
The infant-mortality rate for black mothers last year was 10.5 per 1,000 births, for Puerto Ricans 9.3, and for whites 3.8.
Kaplan pointed out that black moms are more likely to carry very premature babies, those born after just 33 or fewer weeks, and that puts them at the greatest risk.
Dr. Adam Aponte, a pediatrician and medical director of the diagnostic and treatment center at Harlem’s North General Hospital, said there’s no easy answer to decreasing the number of preemies.
“When you control all the factors – access to care, standards of care – you still can’t impact the prematurity rate,” he said.
After 12 years, Fox News Channel’s Alan Colmes will relinquish his role as co-host of “Hannity & Colmes” at the end of the year.
“I approached Bill Shine (FNC’s Senior Vice President of Programming) earlier this year about wanting to move on after 12 years to develop new and challenging ways to contribute to the growth of the network,” Colmes said.
“Although it’s bittersweet to leave one of the longest marriages on cable news, I’m proud that both Sean [Hannity] and I remained unharmed after sitting side by side, night after night, for so many years.”
Fox News officials have not yet determined if Hannity will be joined by someone new and, if so, they haven’t said who is a likely candidate.
Colmes will continue to work at FNC, as he will serve as a liberal commentator on a variety of Fox News programming. He will also continue hosting his radio program, “The Alan Colmes Show” and begin developing a weekend program.
“Not only has Alan been a remarkable co-host, he’s been a great friend, which is rare in this industry – I’ll genuinely miss sparring with such a skillful debate partner,” Hannity said.
With an average of about 3.3 million viewers, “Hannity & Colmes” is the second-highest-rated FNC show behind “The O’Reilly Factor” and the top-rated cable news program in its timeslot. – Post staff writer
So you wanted to know what happened to the Knicks who began the season 8-1 before resembling a gathering of World War I veterans for two games. So did the Knicks.
Based on yesterday’s 121-100 pummeling of the Pistons at the Garden, they didn’t go anywhere. They just got out of Texas.
“We wanted to bounce back,” said Carmelo Anthony, who fired in 29 points in under 32 minutes. “We did that. We got back to playing the defense we know how. We had to go back to trusting each other on the defensive end and we did that. The last two games, we didn’t.”
There were a lot of things the Knicks didn’t do in Dallas and Houston. But then they got back to the Garden.
“It was a lot better than when we were playing on the road,” coach Mike Woodson said. “We were committed.”
In every way. The Knicks, who visit Barclays Center tonight for their first showdown with the Nets of Brooklyn, allowed Detroit to hang around for a bit. At 6:40 of the second quarter, Detroit was within 38-34. Just 1:35 — and three Pistons misses plus a turnover — later, the Knicks’ lead was 10. Then 4:03 — containing two Steve Novak 3-pointers — after that, the lead was 20. The Knicks finished 17-of-33 on 3-pointers.
“It doesn’t concern me because we’ve got guys who can make them. It would concern me if I had guys who couldn’t make them and we were jacking up 33 threes a game, then I got a problem with that,” Woodson said. “Everybody around the league is shooting threes.”
But none are shooting like the Knicks, who average 12.2 makes a game. Against Detroit, Novak drilled five. Still, defense was what folks talked about.
“We have guys that are defensive-minded. That’s how it was when I was on that Pistons team,” said Rasheed Wallace, who returned after missing Friday with a sore foot.
“We weren’t happy with the way we played. We knew defensively we let down,” Novak said of the two losses. “We needed to refocus and that is what we did.”
It was no surprise to Detroit coach Lawrence Frank, who knows the Knicks have a priceless intangible: Jason Kidd. The numbers were pedestrian for Kidd: 25 minutes, six points, five rebounds three assists. But Kidd never has been about numbers.
“He’s a culture changer. He changes it all. He’s one of the few in the league that can do it,” Frank said. “I know what he meant to our franchise. Your team is going to embody everything that winning is about. You’re going to put defense first. You’re going to share the basketball. You’re going to compete every single night because he’s going to do it every single night.”
President Trump will visit the United Kingdom to meet with Prime Minister Theresa May this summer, the British government announced on Thursday.
“Delighted that President @realDonaldTrump will visit the UK on 13 July and hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister May,” tweeted Kim Darroch, the British ambassador to the US
Trump and May have had a frosty relationship at times, especially after the commander-in-chief retweeted anti-Muslim videos from a far-right hate group.
The president also slammed London Mayor Sadiq Khan after a terror attack, misrepresenting a Khan comment as being soft on terrorism.
Khan had said that there was no reason for Brits to be alarmed by the increased police presence following the attack.
Trump called the comment “pathetic,” and falsely charged that the London mayor meant there was no reason to be alarmed about terrorism in general.
The 27-year-old star shared: "I was almost embarrassed by how overwhelmingly confident I was afterwards. I thought, 'God, is it really that simple?'"
He told ShortList magazine: "I had this weird moment ...did I not love myself enough to just keep the face I was given?"
Asked whether his popularity on social media serves to pave over his insecurities, he confessed: "That all felt terrifying, to be honest. It felt entirely possible that my real self would be a huge disappointment to all these people who were putting me on a pedestal. And if I met anyone who knew me online ... it would be so horrifying. They think you're one thing but you feel so far away from that. And then I would have these thoughts about people making judgements on me or my personal life, who my ex-boyfriends were. I had a negative reaction to it."
He said: "I get a real thrill for being 'overtly queer' in my aesthetic. I used to be scared of people thinking I was gay but now I'd be shocked if they didn't.
"I'd hesitate to say I had a more developed sense of self, though, because how I look doesn't take into account my mind, or how I develop internally."