C. J. Cregg

C. J. Cregg
The West Wing character
Allison Janney as C. J. Cregg
First appearance	"Pilot" September 22, 1999
Last appearance	"Tomorrow" May 14, 2006
Created by	Aaron Sorkin
Portrayed by	Allison Janney
In-universe information
Nickname	C. J.
Occupation	White House Press Secretary (Seasons 1-6), White House Chief of Staff (Seasons 6-7)
Family	Talmidge Cregg (father) Molly Lapham Cregg (stepmother) Libby Lapham (stepsister) Hogan Cregg (niece) Older brothers
Spouse	Danny Concannon (married post-series)
Children	at least one child, name unknown (born after series ends)
Relatives	at least two brothers
Religion	Roman Catholic
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Williams College University of California, Berkeley

Claudia Jean Cregg is a fictional character played by Allison Janney on the television political drama The West Wing. The role proved to be Janney's breakthrough role and earned her acclaim. For her performance, she received four Primetime Emmy Awards; twice for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series each, as well as four Screen Actors Guild Awards and four nominations for the Golden Globe Award. From the beginning of the series until the sixth season, she is White House Press Secretary in the administration of President Josiah Bartlet. After that, she is Bartlet's chief of staff. The character is inspired by Clinton's press secretary Dee Dee Myers, who served as a consultant to the show.

Creation and development[]

The casting for C. J. Cregg was jeopardized by worries of a lack of racial diversity in the show's original cast. In his intro to the West Wing Script Book, C. J.'s creator, Aaron Sorkin, writes that both the crew on the show and the network were concerned that every actor who had been cast so far was white.^[1] Sorkin writes that Allison Janney, a white woman, was the favorite for the role despite her impression that she had botched the audition.^[2] However, CCH Pounder,^[3] who was Guyanese,^[4] was also auditioning well for the role.^[1] In the end, Sorkin remarked, "when we closed our eyes at night we wanted Allison. So we cast Allison".^[1] Pounder would later guest star in the season one West Wing episode "Celestial Navigation" as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.^[5]

C. J.'s usual costume on the show was a gray pantsuit, sometimes signed by Calvin Klein or Armani. The pantsuit would have a neutral-colored shirt under, and sometimes a black or gray t-shirt to convey a casual feel.^[6] The costume was designed with more masculine effects, with costume designer Lyn Paolo commenting that Allison Janney's height of six feet^[2] gave way for a "longer drape".^[7]

Janney was cast after Aaron Sorkin saw her in the film Primary Colors^{[citation needed]}

The character is loosely based on Dee Dee Myers, a show consultant and former press secretary to the Clinton administration. One particular storyline in the episode "Lord John Marbury", in which C. J. is left in the dark about troop movement on the Indo-Pakistani border, is taken directly from one of Myers' experiences in the White House. Myers was kept out-of-the-loop with regard to the 1993 assassination attempt on former President George H. W. Bush and subsequently, she assured the press that there would be no more news coming out of the White House hours before the United States bombed Baghdad. Myers was upset with the resolution of this episode's plot, in which Leo McGarry brushes off C. J.'s anger by saying, "Just tell them you spoke without being informed." "This is like saying, 'I'm an idiot; you can't trust me'," says Myers. "I wanted to make her more angry. I wanted there to be some resolution, in order to preserve the strength of her character, where she calls 'the boys' on the rug." Sorkin admits that he "dropped the ball" in this instance.^[8][9]

C. J.'s lip-synched performance of "The Jackal" by Ronny Jordan in the episode "Six Meetings Before Lunch" was written in after Sorkin witnessed Janney doing "some impromptu lip-synching" in her trailer on the set.^[10]

Biography[]

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C. J., a Catholic, is originally from Dayton, Ohio (like Janney in real life, as well as fellow cast member Martin Sheen). She later earned a master's degree in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, and it is revealed in Season 1 Episode 21 that she is considered an expert in polling models; her undergraduate major is never disclosed. In 1998, C. J. joins Bartlet's 1998 presidential campaign for $600 a week ($31,200 a year). Coincidentally, she is fired from her public relations job on the same day that Toby Ziegler comes to California to ask her to join the Bartlet campaign. He tells her that Bartlet was impressed by the work C. J. had done at EMILY's List, then admits Bartlet has never heard of her. She is the choice of Toby and Leo McGarry, the latter of whom runs Bartlet's campaign.

During the third season, C. J. receives a series of death threats, which leads to her being placed under the protection of Secret Service agent Simon Donovan (played by Mark Harmon), with whom she becomes romantically involved. Shortly after going off-duty, Donovan is shot and killed after becoming caught up in the armed robbery of a New York City grocery store in the episode "Posse Comitatus". C. J. also has a long on-again, off-again relationship with the Washington Post's White House correspondent Danny Concannon, although C. J. feels that they should not date because it would be a conflict of interest with her job. In the seventh season (when C. J. has become chief of staff and no longer deals with the press on a daily basis) the subject is slowly revisited. At series' end, she and Danny are learning how to have a romantic relationship with each other.

In the fifth season, it is revealed that C. J. had a one-night stand with Vice President John Hoynes, who was married at the time, approximately four years before the Bartlet administration entered the White House. She tells Toby that she considers that night to be one of the greatest mistakes of her life.

C. J. succeeds Leo McGarry as White House Chief of Staff in the sixth season (halfway through Bartlet's second term) after McGarry suffers a heart attack at Camp David. She is recommended by Leo himself, giving the President a list of "just one name".

In spite of initial warmth (the pressroom gives C. J. a standing ovation when Bartlet announces her appointment), C. J. receives criticism on her appointment to the position of chief of staff because of her relative lack of foreign policy experience. While her subsequent performance as chief of staff appears at first to be procedural in nature and lacking the independent advice which McGarry brought to the position, C. J. grows into the role. The episode "The Wake Up Call" marks a significant turning point in C. J.'s relationship with both the President and her new role, when she tells Bartlet he needs to trust her to do her job after an international crisis involving Iran. By the seventh season, C. J. is as confident with her new role as she was with her old, and has learned to gauge the President's mood and when he will be most receptive of her ideas. She successfully navigates the murky waters of UN politics, setting up a UN Security Council resolution to end the (real-life) humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan.

After the election of Matt Santos as President of the United States, C. J. is offered any position she wants in the incoming Santos Administration by Chief of Staff-designate Josh Lyman and is later offered by President-elect Santos a job as Special Counselor to the President. This is only one of many job offers she receives, including several positions in the private sector, notably an offer by billionaire Frank Hollis to manage a new $10 billion charitable organization. She initially declines, but tells Hollis the best way to spend his money is to start building proper roads in Africa in order to make it easier to get food and services to people in need, and if there is money left over to start on the plumbing. Hollis is deeply impressed with this response, particularly when C. J. admits that nobody will give Hollis credit because the task is so mundane that the media won't even notice. She feels obligated to take the position in the Santos Administration, but is convinced by Danny Concannon to do what she wants, which is to take Hollis's money and change the world.

In the opening episode of the final season, a flash-forward to the time of the dedication of the Bartlet presidential library, three years after the end of his presidency, reveals that C. J. lives in Santa Monica, California, with Concannon and their child.

Reception[]

Throughout the seven season run of the show, the critical reception towards C. J. remained highly positive and she is now widely regarded as one of the greatest female characters on American television. The Atlantic listed C. J. as 1st on their ranking of 144 characters on The West Wing, writing that "her capability and combination of strength and simple compassion represented the fantasy of the Bartlet White House better than anyone."^[12] In their ranking of the best characters from all the television series created by Sorkin, Vulture, ranks C. J. at #2 and says; "If all the Sorkin women were as classy, self-assured, and legitimately funny (the turkey pardon!) as C. J., we'd never have had the Sorkin woman argument in the first place".^[13]

Her portrayal of C. J. Cregg brought Janney a multitude of accolades. She received four Primetime Emmy Awards, four Screen Actors Guild Award, a Satellite Award and four nominations for the Golden Globe Awards, making her the most awarded cast member of the series.^[11]

Legacy[]

Play media

Allison Janney's appearance at the White House Press Briefing on April 29, 2016

On April 29, 2016, Janney made an appearance at a White House Press Briefing in place of actual Press Secretary Josh Earnest to raise awareness of opioid use disorder. Janney made humorous references to her time on The West Wing, including joking about "Josh [Earnest] getting a root canal", which refers to an episode where Josh Lyman conducts a press briefing while C. J. recovers from an emergency root canal.^[14]

Janney reprised her role as C. J. for the pre-taped introduction of Not the White House Correspondents' Dinner.^[15]

See also[]

• The West Wing
• List of characters on The West Wing
• List of The West Wing episodes

References[]