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| Rob Lowe dives into `Lyon's Den' lead Ex-`West Wing' player says he wanted control By R.D. Heldenfels HOLLYWOOD - When Rob Lowe talks about why he left The West Wing, the answers finally come down to something very simple. Control. The Lyon's Den, an NBC legal drama premiering this fall, boasts Lowe both as star and as an executive producer. ``The West Wing wasn't mine,'' Lowe said at a recent press conference to promote The Lyon's Den. ``I was a working stiff there. This is my show.'' Getting to his show was a bumpy ride for Lowe, who a year ago was hiding from the same reporters he now hopes will write about The Lyon's Den. When his departure from The West Wing was announced, it looked as if Lowe's ego had overtaken him, with reports that he wanted more screen time and more money. Then ratings for the White House drama tumbled. At the end of last season two key players in the series, writer Aaron Sorkin and director Thomas Schlamme, left. Another producer, John Wells, is now in charge. ``Do I feel like I was prescient?'' wondered Lowe, who played deputy communications director Sam Seaborn on The West Wing. ``I felt the show had definitely changed course, without question.... And I think it continues on that course. It just wasn't for me.'' He considers Sorkin, famously late with his scripts, to be a genius. ``He could be 15 years late on a script for me, and that would never be a problem,'' Lowe said. ``When you got it, it was like Christmas morning.'' Only Lowe thought his packages were getting smaller. While he stopped short of saying that West Wing turned his career around, Lowe did say, ``I do know that it showed me in a light that I have been seen in before.... For that I am grateful.'' Still, he said, ``I found that Sam was having less and less to do with the stories on the show that were really important.... I had a storyline once where I was trying to get people to wear seat belts. It was hilarious... but I wanted Sam to have the president's ear. I wanted Sam to be involved in the big storylines, not just shuffled in and out.'' So he decided to leave. And while finishing up West Wing, he began meeting quietly with writer-producer Remi Aubuchon about Lyon's Den. In that drama, Lowe plays Jack Turner, member of a famous political family, and a lawyer with a small firm. Then one day he is swept into a much larger firm, one full of intrigue and schemers (the latter including Cleveland's James Pickens Jr.) The big firm -- Lyon, LaCrosse and Levine, hence the show's title -- ``is a place that's fighting for its soul,'' Lowe said. ``There are soldiers on both sides.... It leaves open the question who is going to win.'' It also has, in Lowe's view, ``themes that have some majesty and heft to them.... Every week on this show, I'm going to be involved in a story with some real heft to it.'' And there was the attraction of being executive producer. ``If I was going to come back to television, particularly so quickly, I wanted to come back in a way that I could really learn about a different area of the business,'' Lowe said. ``And really grow, and not just as an actor.'' Yes, Lowe likes to hit the positive notes about the change in his TV career. And he is still on NBC, the network televising The West Wing. But when he talks about ``unfinished business'' with his old show, part of that business seems to be proving that he could have done more, and better, than The West Wing was giving him. Looking at the other members of the Lyon's Den cast, he mused about taking on The West Wing in some variation of Battle of the Network Stars. ``Us versus them,'' he said. Turning to Matt Craven, he said. ``You can do a soliloquy against Richard Schiff.'' To Elizabeth Mitchell: ``You can take Allison Janney down with arm-wrestling.'' Notice that Lowe is calling the shots. ``Game on,'' he said. |