Weaver stars in USA’s ‘Political Animals’

July 14, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

By Ellen Gray

Philadelphia Daily News

Say what you like about Hillary Clinton, but she probably didn’t set out to lead a made-for-TV life.

In fact, from hair to husband, the first lady-turned-politician-turned-stateswoman has largely resisted the choices that Hollywood would have made for her.

Married (still) to Bill Clinton, she’s neither “The Starter Wife” nor “The Good Wife.” He famously cheated. She famously stayed.

The 36-year Clinton marriage, endlessly dissected, remains as mysterious as anyone’s, but it’s not the kind of mystery television knows what to do with.

So don’t look for answers in “Political Animals,” the six-part “limited series” that premieres at 10 p.m. Sunday on USA Network, in which Sigourney Weaver stars as Elaine Barrish, a former first lady who, after failing to win the presidency, divorces her philandering husband, former President Bud Hammond (Ciaran Hinds), then joins her opponent’s administration as secretary of state.

Filmed in Philadelphia but set in Washington — most of the scenes in Sunday’s episode take place inside, including one shot in an Oval Office that’s reportedly from the set of “The West Wing” — “Political Animals” does represent a homecoming for Adrian Pasdar, who plays the current president.

Pasdar not only grew up here, but he played Nathan Petrelli, who at one point occupied the White House in “Heroes.”

All of those interiors, though, gave the only episode I’ve seen a faintly claustrophobic feel, particularly for USA, whose brand of “blue sky” programming includes shows such as “Royal Pains” and “Burn Notice.”

Current (or even recent) affairs aren’t the network’s brand, either, but this is more soap opera than satire, an intermittently entertaining but not exactly subtle look at the private and public lives of one extremely colorful family.

Not all the color is courtesy of the Clintons, by the way. Chelsea, that so-far most exemplary of political offspring, is replaced here by twin brothers. One, played by James Wolk (“Lone Star”), works as his mother’s chief of staff and is newly engaged to the “perfect” woman.

The other, played by Sebastian Stan (“Gossip Girl”), is a gay drug addict.

In case you need help telling them apart.

Ellen Burstyn plays Elaine’s drunken floozy of a mother and Carla Gugino the Maureen Dowd-ish journalist who blackmails the secretary of state’s office in exchange for face time with the woman who supposedly had her banned from the White House — even the Easter egg roll! — after she wrote about the president’s affairs.