Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes has taken a brief respite from setting medical drama spores adrift on the wind to create a new ABC series about the spin-filled world of crisis management. However, rather than the more minor celebrity-related snafus—such as, say, your cast members openly complaining about writers not fully appreciating their estimable talents, or blaming their firing on a vast homosexual conspiracy—Rhimes is looking to the big-league example of Judy Smith, the former George H.W. Bush press aide who’s been at the center of some of the most controversial fuck-ups in recent history: Smith’s client list includes Monica Lewinsky, Michael Vick, and Senator Larry Craig, and she’s also worked on the Iran-Contra investigation, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry’s arrest, Clarence Thomas’ Supreme Court nomination, the Chandra Levy investigation, Clinton’s impeachment, the D.C. sniper case, and the Congressional inquiry into Enron. Smith will serve as a consultant and co-executive producer on the show, which will use her career as a basis for its look into how a powerful PR guru and her “dysfunctional staff” turn scandal lemons into redemption lemonades while also, presumably, having sex with each other.
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