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Donna Moss
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Donnatella 'Donna' Moss is a fictional character played by Janel Moloney on the television serial drama The West Wing. Donna is officially a recurring character during the first season, although she appears in every episode, making her a de facto regular. She officially becomes part of the regular cast starting with the second season.
For most of the series, Donna is Senior Assistant to Deputy White House Chief of Staff Josh Lyman (or, as she jokingly calls herself in one episode, the "Deputy Deputy Chief of Staff").
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Encyclopedia
Donnatella 'Donna' Moss is a fictional character played by Janel Moloney on the television serial drama The West Wing. Donna is officially a recurring character during the first season, although she appears in every episode, making her a de facto regular. She officially becomes part of the regular cast starting with the second season.
For most of the series, Donna is Senior Assistant to Deputy White House Chief of Staff Josh Lyman (or, as she jokingly calls herself in one episode, the "Deputy Deputy Chief of Staff"). Although all of the senior staff's assistants are continuing characters with personal backgrounds, Donna is the most well-defined and frequently featured staff member on the assistant level.
Character biography
Donna was born outside of Warroad, Minnesota, to an Irish-American father and an Italian-American mother. Donna's United States citizenship was briefly revoked after the Minnesota town in which she was born ended up in Canada due to border changes. However, her citizenship was quickly restored after the discovery of a grandfather clause in the law. Donna has been identified by Josh as Protestant. He also made a remark about her Catholic school uniform, although it could have been his sarcasm. She later moved to Wisconsin where she attended University of Wisconsin-Madison and dropped out half-way through to support her boyfriend as he went through medical school. After breaking up with her boyfriend, Donna left Madison and drove to New Hampshire to work for the "Bartlet for America" campaign, even going so far as to pretend she'd already been hired as Josh Lyman's assistant. Josh discovered the deception but was somewhat amused by it, and impressed by her initiative, eventually hiring her. It is mentioned that she briefly left the campaign to return to her boyfriend, but returned following an incident when, after Donna sprained her ankle in a car accident, her boyfriend chose to meet his friends for a drink rather than immediately pick her up from the hospital.
Donna remained Josh's assistant during Josiah Bartlet's first presidential term and the beginning of his second. Her job during this time usually took the form of little more than a secretary (albeit in an unusually challenging and glorified environment) until Josh sent her as an observer for an American diplomatic mission to Gaza in response to her request for opportunities for job growth. While in Gaza, Donna was seriously injured as a result of a terrorist attack on the American convoy. She gradually recovered from these injuries and returned to her duties at the White House, but eventually quit her job (as depicted in the season 6 episode "Impact Winter") to become senior aide to Will Bailey - Vice President Bob Russell's presidential campaign manager (as revealed in the episode "Faith-Based Initiative"). Her new position placed her in direct conflict with Josh, who had convinced US Congressman Matt Santos to also run for the Democratic nomination, with himself as campaign manager. After Santos won the nomination, Donna applied to work for Josh at the Santos campaign. However, all of the personal attacks on Santos that Donna made as Russell's press secretary forced Josh to refuse her application. Later, on the Santos campaign trail, Donna was hired (unbeknownst to Josh) by Communications Director Louise "Lou" Thornton as a campaign spokesperson. After Santos's victory, Donna was offered a position in the new administration as Deputy White House Press Secretary. However, having become close with Helen Santos during the campaign, she was also offered the position as Chief of Staff to the First Lady. She chose to accept this offer, as she felt she could not work for Josh while something was also happening between them personally. Her large White House office, which she was shocked to see, symbolizes her growth since the beginning of the series, when her place of work was a cubicle in Josh's bullpen.
Donna is a Democrat, but is sometimes critical of the logic behind various Democratic Party policies. Her political debates with Josh, which are often left unresolved, are one of the show's trademark methods of exploring multiple sides of an issue.
Relationship with Josh Lyman
The chemistry between Janel Moloney and Bradley Whitford, who portrayed Josh Lyman, caught producers' attention early in the series. After seeing Moloney and Whitford perform together in the pilot, Aaron Sorkin added a scene in which Donna argues with Josh to change his shirt before attending a meeting, eventually convincing him by saying that "All the girls think you look really hot in this shirt." Although Mandy Hampton was originally intended to be Josh's romantic interest, by the end of the show's first season the character has been written out and the role taken over by Donna.
During the first four seasons, the relationship remains in stasis, with neither daring to make any real romantic move on the other. Sorkin admits that he was more inclined to move the relationship forward, but every time he discussed the possibility fellow executive producer Thomas Schlamme would shout, "No! Wait another year!" Besides, adds Sorkin, "Sexual and romantic tension is, to me, much more fun than taking the tension away by having the sex and romance."
Other characters occasionally speculate on the pair's relationship. When Donna encourages Josh to ask Joey Lucas on a date, Joey guesses that Donna is attempting to cover her own feelings for Josh through misdirection. During her first meeting with Josh, Amy Gardner asks him if he is dating his assistant, and later asks Donna directly, "Are you in love with Josh?", although the show cuts to another scene before we can see the answer. When Donna recruits Josh to help her get a date with Jack Reese, Josh's behavior leads Jack to wonder whether he is getting "in between anything".
Following Sorkin and Schlamme's departure from the series at the end of the fourth season, the relationship takes some new turns, with Donna attempting to broaden her horizons past Josh and pursue her own social life outside of the White House. When Donna is badly injured in a terrorist attack in Gaza, Josh rushes overseas to keep vigil at her bedside at a military hospital in Germany. In the sixth season episode "Impact Winter," Donna finally breaks loose and quits her job as assistant to Josh, seeing no chance of career advancement. She joins the Russell campaign, which later puts her in direct confrontation with her former boss. After Santos beats Russell for the Democratic nomination, Donna wants to return as Josh's deputy in season 7 premiere "The Ticket," but he finds himself forced to reject her as she is on record trashing his candidate while she was still working for the other team. During their conversation he reveals that he misses her "every day." Donna is eventually hired anyway.
In the season seven episode "The Cold," Josh and Donna kiss passionately as she brings him the good news that Congressman Santos has caught up to Vinick and that they are tied in the national tracking polls. Josh apologizes, saying the kiss was "inappropriate", but Donna says "it was bound to happen sometime." Donna talks to Will, who says pursuing a relationship with Josh wouldn't be inappropriate, and to C.J. about the matter. Later in the episode, Donna discreetly leaves the key to her hotel room on the table for Josh, but Edith Ortega notices the key before Josh can retrieve it and returns the key to Donna. In "Election Day," Josh and Donna consummate their relationship, sleeping together twice, both times on her initiative. Donna gives Josh four weeks to figure out "what they want from each other." She insists that if this cannot happen within four weeks, their relationship will remain in a constant state of ambiguity, which is not what Donna wants. After Josh blows up at Otto concerning the location of Josh's Blackberry, his deputy-of-choice Sam Seaborn threatens Josh that he won't stay on unless Josh takes a vacation. Josh wisely decides to take a break from work before the Inauguration and at the end of the episode Josh and Donna go on vacation together. In the series finale "Tomorrow," Josh and Donna wake up in bed together on the morning of Inauguration Day.
See also
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