At the Television Critics Association tour this week, the 24 producers announced that the seventh season of the hit action-thriller would indeed feature a female President of the United States. Not only that, they announced that veteran Broadway and film actress Cherry Jones would be portraying the role of the president. We have the president’s name (“Allison Taylor”), but besides that there’s not a whole lot of info about the character.
Cherry Jones has quite the resume. Best known for her work on Broadway, Jones has won two Tony awards, one in 1995 (for The Heiress) and one in 2005 (for Doubt). On the screen, she has appeared in high-profile films such as The Horse Whisperer, Cradle Will Rock, Erin Brockovich, The Perfect Storm, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Signs, The Village and Ocean’s Twelve. As for her personal life, Jones has been openly gay for most of her career. In fact, she may currently be in a relationship with Sarah Paulson (Harriet Hayes on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip).
The 24 producers revealed nothing significant about the story of season 7, and their reason for that might be simple: they don’t know yet. Recently, the FOX brass denied 24 the budget to film a number of episodes in Africa for season 7, sending the writers back to the drawing board and delaying production. They may not have come up with a replacement story as of yet.
The inclusion of a female president will be a nice change, but don’t expect it to turn the show on its head. Cherry Jones is as capable of playing a hard ass as anyone, maybe even more so than Wayne Palmer. The question is this: will the female president be a sympathetic one? Will she hinder Bauer’s quest or aid it?
-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
Source: TVGuide
(Image Courtesy of Playbill News)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
