A Day in the Life of Shonda Rhimes

Shonda Rhimes

Shonda Rhimes: What Did You Do Today?

After creating ''Grey's Anatomy'' and ''Private Practice,'' Rhimes is launching ''Scandal,'' another drama for ABC which stars Kerry Washington as the powerful head of a Washington, D.C., crisis-management firm. Here's how the busy producer spent a recent Tuesday—Lynette Rice, Entertainment Weekly, Published March 23, 2012 

4 a.m. Wake up in a panic I was worrying about a big Owen [Kevin McKidd] and Cristina [Sandra Oh] scene we're shooting today on Grey's. I changed it the night before, and I was wondering whether I should change it again.

9:30 a.m. Get in car, go to work I'm lucky because I'm driven by a Teamster. I watched a director's cut of Grey's. It's the quietest space I have, because no one is asking questions. Sometimes [my driver] will take the long way so I can finish watching a cut.

9:49 a.m. Send tweet about new ABC drama @shondarhimes: ''Anyone seen the promos for Missing? Ashley Judd looks badass.''

11 a.m. Discuss hair color of a guest actor on Grey's Somebody we had used before changed her hair color, but we can't dye it, so she may have to wear a wig. This is my day!

11:55 a.m. Talk with costume designer Mimi Melgaard about Ellen Pompeo's wardrobe It's a huge spoiler, so I can't say [too much]. But it was about whether Meredith needed a particular accessory to go with her outfit.

1:45 p.m. Read email from ABC casting exec approving Torchwood's John Barrowman as costar in Rhimes' fall pilot Gilded Lilys He's wonderful. I have an irrational love for him. I feel like I want to lean on his shoulder. The poor man may have to get a restraining order against me.

2:20 p.m. Meeting in Grey's writers' room We do a table read and I give notes. This can last two hours.

4 p.m. Discuss a Grey's prop It's the Harper Avery award, a big legendary award given to a surgeon on the show. Apparently it was too shiny and reflective.

4:15 p.m. Trade emails with Kerry Washington I'm so excited about Scandal, and she is too!

4:20 p.m. Check in with Grey's and Private Practice editors We have a cool editing bay that shows up directly on my office and home TVs.

5 p.m. Head over to Grey's soundstage I went to watch a controversial scene with Sandra and Kevin. I also emailed Sara Ramirez [who plays Callie Torres] about interesting bone surgeries. We are both so into them.

5:40 p.m. Set playdate for daughter, approve press releases for Grey's and Private Practice Between the script ABC reads and what we shoot, the story line sometimes changes.

6:30 p.m. Phone call with assistant before driver arrives She tells me what I need to take home with me for the evening. I'll have a Private Practice cut delivered to my house, where I'll go drink a glass of wine.

Cool Black's Mad Commentary: That 4:20 p.m. check in is so GANGSTA!

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See ALL of our posts about Scandal by clicking the show logo below

I Need To Talk About Kerry Washington

Blog Post #8 

Let me say I’ve always been a fan of Kerry Washington (pictured above). I’ve always thought she was a solid actor.

I really enjoyed her performance in the independent film Night Catches Us which I saw at the 2010 Maryland Film Festival (which I reviewed here), but one of my favorite performances by her though was in the poorly received film I Think I Love My Wife (even though I liked it) where she played the deliciously vampy Nikki. 

I used the term vampy because she was off the chain without being ghetto. She was just a wild girl and we don’t see that in film with women of color without them being ghetto, loud and obnoxious. A really fine performance.

Her performance in I Think I Love My Wife was my favorite by her—until Scandal. 

The level of nuanced performance she gives in Scandal is in a word—OUTSTANDING. Most actors can’t play nuance. They’re either WAY UP or WAY DOWN with their expressions and performance. Kerry can play the perfect subtlety.

It’s sad that much like the Oscars that the Emmys can be a “personality contest” and if this show does not become a hit and get renewed she may never get a well deserved Emmy for her brilliant performance in Scandal. 

Below is what I said about Scandal when it was announced in February 2011

Cool Black's Mad Commentary: I'm a fan of Shonda Rhimes (Pictured left) DESPITE not watching any of her previous shows. Her “medical shows” just didn’t appeal to me. I’m a fan because of the moves she has made in Hollywood as a successful African American Executive Producer.

I’m also a fan of Kerry Washington having enjoyed her work in numerous films including the recent Night Catches Us (You can read what I had to say about that film here ) I also like the additions of Columbus Short and Henry Ian Cusick and YES unlike her other shows the concept of this show does appeal to me.


May 11, 2012
Scandal was renewed for Season 2! Read the news at The Huffington Post here

See ALL of our posts about Scandal by clicking the show logo below

RELATED LINK
Read about Kerry Washington at WIKIPEDIA

Shonda Rhimes Speaks on Diversity in Television

Shonda Rhimes on why TV has so few African-American leads
Tim Molloy
Reuters
8:20 PM CST, January 10, 2012

Jan 10 (TheWrap.com) - Why does network television have so few African-American lead actors? The team behind ABC's "Scandal," the only current network series with an African-American lead, has a few ideas.

Kerry Washington

Creator Shonda Rhimes (pictured left), who cast Kerry Washington (pictured right) as a Washington, D.C., crisis PR expert, said the country has been ready for African-American leads for years. She referenced Diahann Carroll's lead turn on "Julia" more than four decades ago. The problem, she said, is that "people have failed to cast the actors that they should have been casting."

Rhimes and the cast spoke during a panel Tuesday at the Television Critics Association winter press tour.

After decades of African-Americans leading some of television's biggest shows -- including "The Cosby Show" -- series have increasingly featured African-American actors only in multi-racial casts that appeal to as many demographics as possible.

Laurence Fishburne was the key character on "CSI" before he departed at the end of last season, but even his show was an ensemble. NBC's "Undercovers," with two African-American leads, was quickly canceled last season.

Columbus Short

"Scandal" co-star Columbus Short (pictured left) said minorities have been marginalized on television, and that he hopes Washington's work on "Scandal" will encourage more colorblind casting.

"I think there's a way people want to perceive people of color," he said. "This is what they are, this is how they work, this is how we accept them. Which is a completely gross overassumption of people. And I think this show... tells the story of people. It has nothing to do with color."

ABC announced Tuesday that "Scandal" will debut Thursday, April 5, after the Rhimes-produced "Grey's Anatomy."


(Editing By Zorianna Kit)

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More Details on Kerry Washington's New Show

The cast of Scandal

For the record, the show DOES NOT have a full season order (22-23 episodes) only SEVEN episodes and will premiere in mid-season in 2012. While mid season orders are not unusual this order of episodes is. Below is a current example.

In midseason ABC's campy hour-long GCB (formerly known as Good Christian Belles), from Darren Star (Melrose Place) and starring Kristin Chenoweth, will produce 10 episodes; horror series The River, from Paranormal Activity director Oren Peli, has an eight-episode order; Ashley Judd's Missing has 10; Shonda Rhimes' Kerry Washington-led political drama Scandal was given a seven-episode order.-TV Guide, July 8, 2011 

The cast is-

• Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope
• Henry Ian Cusick as Stephen Finch
• Columbus Short as Harrison Wright
• Guillermo Diaz as Huck
• Darby Stanchfield as Abby Whelan
• Katie Lowes as Quinn Perkins  
• Tony Goldwyn as President Fitzgerald Grant
• Jeff Perry as Cyrus

See clips and photos from the show at the website CinemaBlend here

Official Webpage - http://abc.go.com/shows/scandal

Shonda Rhimes Fixer Show Gets Picked Up and Another Title

Shonda Rhimes brings ‘Scandal’ to ABC-- but not until mid-season

Danielle Turchiano
Examiner.com

Shonda Rhimes has done it again. Well, I guess technically that remains to be seen. But ABC is hoping she will do it again, surely. Though they cancelled Off The Map, a show that fell under her umbrella of programming, they ordered Scandal (formerly Damage Control) to series to start in the midseason of 2011-2012.

What used to be the death slot, or at least the "we may never even air" slot has increasingly become a launch pad for critical successes, as well as fan favorites. Hell, Seinfeld was a mid-season series way back when and just a few months ago ABC saw a rally around Happy Endings when it premiered almost a year after the pilot was shot.

Entertainment president Paul Lee for ABC did admit that he has "big plans" for the shows he is saving for mid-season. He just felt that some of the pilots he picked up were too big to be ready to launch in the fall, and he wanted to take the time to nurture them. There has to be something to respect about that, right?

Anyway, Scandal will be Rhimes’ third series on-air in the ABC 2011-2012 line-up as Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice are still going strong, but this one doesn’t deal in the medical field but instead public relations.

Great pic of Kerry Washington from the pilot

See more promotional pics from the pilot here



Related posts- 
Feb. 10, 2011- Shonda Rhimes new Fixer show
Feb. 28, 2011- Shonda Rhimes New Show has a Title and New Co-Stars

Shonda Rhimes New Show has a Title & New Co-Stars

The previously untitled Shonda Rhimes' ABC pilot AKA "the fixer show" , now has a title--Damage Control.

Tony Goldwyn (Ghost, pictured bottom left)  is the latest addition to Damage Control.

Based on the life of PR guru Judy Smith, Damage Control centers on a crisis management professional (Kerry Washington, pictured top left) and her dysfunctional staff.

Goldwyn, also a director and producer in film and television, will play President Fitzgerald Grant.

Guillermo Diaz (Pictured right) was also cast in the pilot in an undefined role.

Read the initial post about the show here

Shonda Rhimes new Fixer show

By NELLIE ANDREEVA

Deadline.com
 
EXCLUSIVE: In her first regular TV series gig, Kerry Washington (pictured left) has signed on to topline Shonda Rhimes' untitled drama pilot for ABC aka In Crisis. Actor-dancer-choreographer Columbus Short (Stomp the Yard) is set to co-star in the pilot based on the career of famous crisis management consultant Judy Smith. The pilot, from ABC Studios, revolves around the life and work of professional fixer Olivia Price (Washington) and her dysfunctional staff. Olivia Price is described as something of a legend, a formidable, driven, insightful, intuitive and fearless woman. Short will play a lawyer on her team.

The series is based on the life of famous PR guru Judy Smith (pictured right), a former White House press aide under President George H. Bush; she also counseled Monica Lewinsky, Michael Vick, Senator Larry Craig, worked on the prosecution of former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court hearings, the Chandra Levy investigation and the Enron Congressional inquiry.

According to Deadline, Rhimes explained: "My fixer is not necessarily Judy Smith but is based a lot on her... It revolves around the life of a fixer and her fairly dysfunctional staff based in Washington DC."

From the get-go, Washington had been a front-runner for the lead, which was written African American, something very unusual for a network drama. The rest of the roles on the pilot are being cast colorblind, which is also how Rhimes cast Grey's Anatomy. CAA-repped Washington, known for such movies as Ray and The Last King of Scotland, recently co-starred in For Colored Girls. On TV, she recurred on Boston Legal and 100 Centre Street. Short, repped by CAA and Brillstein, recurred on NBC's Aaron Sorkin drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

It was recently announced that Lost veteran Henry Ian Cusick (pictured left) is returning to ABC to join the pilot. Katie Lowes (CW's Easy Money, Pictured bottom right) has also joined the project.

Innovative-repped Cusick will play what is considered by some the male lead on the show, a handsome, intense and brilliant litigator who works for Olivia. Cusick started off as a recurring on Lost, landing a guest starring Emmy nomination for his role as former Scottish solder Desmond Hume, before getting promoted to regular in Season 3 of the island drama. Lowes, repped by Innovative and Sweeney Management, will play an ambitious and naive young lawyer recruited by Olivia to work for her. Lowes guest starred in this season's opener of Rhimes' Private Practice.

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Cool Black's Mad Commentary: I'm a fan of Shonda Rhimes (Pictured left) DESPITE not watching any of her previous shows. Her “medical shows” just didn’t appeal to me. I’m a fan because of the moves she has made in Hollywood as a successful African American Executive Producer.

I’m also a fan of Kerry Washington having enjoyed her work in numerous films including the recent ‘Night Catches Us’ (You can read what I had to say about that film here ) I also like the additions of Columbus Short and Henry Ian Cusick and YES unlike her other shows the concept of this show does appeal to me.

Read more about Shonda Rhimes at Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shonda_Rhimes
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Update February 28, 2011:  Shonda Rhimes New Show has a Title and New Co-Stars