Daily Pilot makes its prime time debut

S.J. Cahn

The clock is ticking. Time left: about 13 1/2 minutes.

Those few -- it seems like a few, really, in Newport-Mesa --

watching the NBC drama “The West Wing” on Wednesday night know whose

15 minutes of fame is dropping grain by grain through the hourglass.

It’s ours.

For those many (really, as strange as it sounds, not many in this

conservatively minded area seem avid viewers of the leftish show) who

did not see the program, a quick recap.

White House Deputy Director of Communications Sam Seaborn (played

by Rob Lowe) is running for a Congressional seat in the 47th

District, a fictionalized amalgamation of Rep. Chris Cox’s home turf.

To help his campaign, which is sputtering just a bit, President

Bartlet (played by Martin Sheen) and company make a swing out to

Orange County.

Now, imagine the reception Bill Clinton would have received had he

come to Newport Beach to pitch one of his White House staffers.

And then multiply it by “Hollywood” and you have the negative

response Bartlet gets when he arrives.

Early the next morning, the staffers are grousing about the

reception, including the coverage by the media. Then comes the

moment: In the middle of the complaining, “the Daily Pilot” gets

mentioned on the airwaves as one of the local papers.

Shocking, no? Maybe not. But realistic, yes, and that was the

intent of including the local paper, one of the show’s writing

assistants said.

“They do their research and figure out who will be covering these

events,” Stephen Hootstein said.

It was one of many details the show has incorporated into episodes

to root them in reality, he added.

But it is hard to say who, exactly, brought the Pilot to the

writing table, he pointed out.

Newport Beach Mayor Steve Bromberg, one of the few who do -- yes

indeed -- watch the show, has this compelling explanation --

conjecture might be more accurate.

“Personally, I think they’re probably doing it because someone who

works on it lives here,” Bromberg said, adding as proof that he heard

on Wednesday’s episode the name of a local person he recognized.

Trouble was, the mayor couldn’t recall the name.

Bromberg, who described himself as a fan of the show, reacted to

hearing Newport Beach and the Daily Pilot in a typically fan-like

way.

“My rear-end just about hit the couch,” he said.

The episode wasn’t the first time Newport Beach has been a locale

for the show, but this week’s show, which included a local couple

berating a pregnant and unwed congresswoman for being a bad example

and pointing out the president’s African-American aide as the one who

had been dating his daughter, “got a little heavy-handed,” Bromberg

said.

Orange County as conservative, socially and economically is how

the rest of the country (Hollywood included) imagines this area,

Newport Beach probably more so than any other part.

A way to change that, politically speaking (given this is all

about a White House show, after all), is to have good Democratic

candidates, said Jim Toledano, a Costa Mesa resident, former head of

the county Democrats and -- believe it or not -- a man who does not

own a television.

“The way you’d fight that image would be to have a functioning

Democratic Party,” he said, which would include fund-raising and

organizational strength, as well as a candidate.

Would a good candidate be one like Lowe’s character, who has White

House connections and the ability to tag along with the president?

Those connections worked for Reps. Cox and Dana Rohrabacher,

Toledano pointed out (which might just give away next week’s episode,

which appears to be election night for the congressional race).

To be fair, the Pilot wasn’t alone in getting a little air time.

The Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce got a quick mention -- as did

the Newport Beach Police Department, which was involved in an

altercation that was part of the story line, and a certain other

Orange County newspaper.

The police department did not help out with the production, though

they were contacted about the use of official department patches,

Sgt. Steve Shulman said.

“We wouldn’t do that unless we had some control over the script or

in some way felt it would benefit the department,” he said.

Still, for those watching, including Newport Deputy Fire Chief Tom

Arnold, the police patches looked remarkably familiar.

“It did look very real,” said Arnold, another fan who points to

the quality of the writing and the interesting situations as the

reason he tunes in.

Shulman also had this tidbit (again, for those handful of fans):

He received a fax on Feb. 11 asking for help, and the show was being

done on Feb. 13, which makes for quick turnaround.

The chamber did not get any pre-warning or pleas for aid, said

spokesman Doug Stuckey, who also provided a bit of circumstantial

support to Bromberg’s contention that a writer of the show must live

in Newport.

The rumor Stuckey has heard has the writer living on the Balboa

Peninsula.

But, seeing how there can’t be more than 12 minutes left of this

fame, back to the paper’s story.

“It blew me away,” Arnold said of hearing the Pilot’s being

mentioned.

After the show, calls came into the Pilot offices from former

employees and family members. There was even one e-mail from a former

Orange County resident now living in Minneapolis.

“I have often thought that no matter where this 47th District is,

the HQ won’t be in Newport Beach. It would be in Irvine, or Costa

Mesa, or Laguna Beach, but not in Newport Beach,” Hanna Hill wrote.

Lucky for this paper, it was.

* S.J. CAHN is the managing editor. He can be reached at (949)

574-4233 or by e-mail at s.j.cahn@latimes.com.