BEVERLY HILLS — The Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer scandals are “the gift that keeps on giving” for the TV show “The Good Wife,” star Juliana Margulies said Monday.
Margulies, who plays Alicia Florek in the CBS series, told TV writers she feels “complete compassionate empathy” for Weiner’s wife Huma Abedin in the latest round of his sexting scandal.
“The Good Wife” began in 2009 with an echo of the Spitzer scandal — the wife of a disgraced politician standing beside him at a news conference where he tried to explain his sexual misconduct.
Now it conjures the Weiner case.
“I watched [Huma] up there,” said Margulies, “and my first thought as that she had the same look I tried to capture in our pilot. Sort of a soul-less look, like her soul was empty and her body was somewhere else.
“You go on automatic pilot.”
But that isn’t necessarily your final reaction, Margulies said. “You don’t know your reaction yet.”
After playing Alicia in the show, now going into a fifth season, Margulies added, “You see it differently.”
Robert King, co-creator of the show, said the writers had already planned a storyline this season about further potential infidelity by Alicia’s husband Peter (Chris Noth), who has revived his career and been elected governor of Illinois.
“It explores whether sexual dalliance increases with a politician’s power,” said King.
Margulies said the irrepressible Weiner scandal does trigger one other personal reaction for her: ambivalence that the show gets publicity each time it bubbles up again.
“I feel some guilt that it’s the gift that keeps on giving,” she said. “We’re starting season five and it feels brand new.”