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Martha Logan is a fictional character played by Jean Smart in the television series ''24''. As the first lady of the United States within the ''24'' universe, she is the capable yet mercurial wife of President Charles Logan. Critics praised Martha Logan as the breakout character of the show's 2006 season, when it won an Emmy Award. In developing Martha Logan's character, the show's writers drew upon the historic example of a prominent whistleblower in the Watergate scandal, Martha Beall Mitchell. Similar to the real-life model, Martha Logan becomes contemptuous of her husband's conduct in office and decides to go public and end his career. Martha Logan takes part in a plot to get her husband to confess that he conspired with terrorists. Yet her mental health problems undermine her credibility and raise the possibility that she may be forced into treatment at an inpatient facility. After the events of the fifth season she was committed to a mental health facility. ==Concept and creation== The inspiration for Martha Logan was Martha Beall Mitchell, the wife of John N. Mitchell, Attorney General during the Nixon administration.〔 Mrs. Mitchell was a key whistleblower who contacted the press to disclose facts about the Watergate scandal, and for a time her statements were discredited because people believed she had a mental illness. Nixon said that "Watergate would have not occurred without Martha Mitchell." Howard Gordon, the executive producer of ''24'', said that, during character development, they "wanted an actress that had the strength and intelligence to be a first lady, yet have the unpredictability of never knowing when she might snap." Jean Smart was their first choice. Smart later told ''The New York Times'' that she decided she was eager to play the role after reading the character's introductory scene, and commented that in her almost 30 years of acting she had come across few roles that offered the possibilities that this one did: a character that is sexy, mysterious, and powerful, yet is mentally unstable and has lost her trust and respect for her husband.〔 Smart also said of the opening scene that: "It encapsulates that character in one moment and says so much about her impulsiveness. We could not have accomplished that with a dozen speeches. When I saw it in the script, I thought 'this is great, this lady is going to be fun to play.〔 On her first day on set, Smart was shocked to learn the producers wanted to cut the scene, a decision she felt was a mistake. She said "They had done this brilliant thing and now they were going to undo it. They were just being practical. They said, "It would be hours to get you back, your hair, your make-up." Smart spoke to the hair and makeup artists and guaranteed producers they could get it right in two takes; they did it in one, and the scene stayed in.〔 Jean Smart's character and Martha Mitchell were both labeled "unstable."〔 Although the real Martha Mitchell was not mentally ill, the fictional Martha Logan is, and with Smart's input the writers enhanced this aspect of the character. Smart has said of Martha that she is an impulsive, powerful, and capable woman,〔 and that she is intelligent, but has some "chemical problems".〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Martha Logan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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