Names and faces
■ Actress Julianna Margulies knew she was claustrophobic, but she didn’t realize just how much until she had to wear a sealed, full-body biosafety suit while filming the forthcoming limited series The Hot Zone. Margulies spent hours in the suit while filming the six-part show about how the deadly Ebola virus appeared on U.S. soil in 1989. She says the experience, which she describes as strange, lonely and extremely constrictive, brought her to tears three times. “I hated it,” Margulies said. “You immediately start to sweat. You are ensconced in rubber. There’s two fans keeping the air ventilating so you can’t hear yourself think and you can’t hear anyone else, so you’re sort of looking at everyone but you’re isolated. It’s a very lonely, strange experience.” But it was worth it, she says, to tell a story that will allow audiences to see Ebola as a global problem. Margulies hopes the series will drive home the importance of scientists and research. She plays Nancy Jaax, a veterinary pathologist with the U.S. Army faced with containing the highly contagious Ebola virus when monkeys shipped from the Philippines began testing positive at a facility in Reston, Va. Margulies, 52, said she hopes the show helps shine a light on the problem.
■ Meghan McCain apparently thinks Game of Thrones is like milk: there’s no point in crying about it getting spoiled. During Monday’s episode of The View, the talk show co-host revealed a major plot point in the previous evening’s final episode of the HBO drama. In the discussion, McCain was decidedly not pleased with the show’s ending. When McCain’s fellow co-host Sunny Hostin — who isn’t yet caught up on the latest season of Game of Thrones — protested, McCain at first defended her on-air comments. “I’m sorry, but it’s all over the Internet!” McCain said. “I wasn’t told I wasn’t allowed to say it.” And when some members of the studio audience seemed put out, too, she doubled down. “I’m sorry you guys are so triggered by me telling you the ending,” she added. “You guys are like genuinely upset.” However, McCain later on seemed more circumspect, and wrote a fuller apology — and appended a spoiler alert for anyone who hadn’t watched The View yet. “I’m so sorry for the #GOT spoilers on the show today!” she tweeted. “I assumed every diehard fan had watched! My bad. Don’t watch west coast if you don’t want a spoiler.”