Allison Janney Revives C.J. Cregg For White House Press Briefing
Celebrities pop up in the darndest places in Washington during White House Correspondents’ Dinner weekend. Today, for instance, former West Wing star Allison Janney made a surprise appearance at Friday’s White House press briefing, announcing that Press Secretary Josh Earnest “is out today. I believe he has a root canal. But let’s be honest, I’m better at this than he is, anyway.” Some press in the room seemed to know it was a nod to the WW episode in which her C.J. Cregg character — for which Janney won four Emmys — had emergency dental work, Josh Lyman filled in, and bad things happened.
She had two announcements, most importantly that “the President is still working on his jokes for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. I don’t have any details on that, other than he intends to be funny.” Watch the video above.
Then Janney, who has won back-to-back Emmys for playing recovering addict Bonnie Plunkett in the CBS comedy Mom, admitted she was there to talk about the problem of opiate addiction in this country. As we know from all the news coverage about Prince’s death, 80% of the world’s pain pills are consumed in the U.S., though we are 5% of the world’s population.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yz-Y5oUQRg&w=620&h=340]
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