Lisa Cuddy
Encyclopedia
Dr. Lisa Cuddy, M.D.
, is a fictional character
on the Fox medical drama
House
. She is portrayed by Lisa Edelstein
. Cuddy was the Dean
of Medicine and hospital administrator of the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey
. She also becomes House's love interest through the years to start a relationship with him in season seven. Cuddy quit her job after the events of season's 7 finale.
when she was 12, graduated from medical school at age 25 as second best in her class, and became the first female and second youngest Dean
of Medicine ever at age 32. Cuddy attended the University of Michigan
, where she first met Gregory House
(Hugh Laurie
), her future employee, with whom she shared a one night stand. Years later, when House suffered an infarction
in his right leg prior to the beginning of the series, he was treated by Cuddy at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. Under Cuddy's care and the order of his Medical Proxy, House's then girlfriend of five years Stacy Warner (Sela Ward
), the dead muscle in his leg was removed against House's explicit wishes after he was put into an induced coma, leaving House with a permanent disability and chronic pain.
After hiring House to run the hospital's diagnostics department, Cuddy began setting aside $50,000 a year from the hospital's budget for potential legal expenses. When, during the show's first season, new chairman of the board Edward Vogler (Chi McBride
) tries to have House fired for refusing to kowtow
to his demands, Cuddy urges the board to save House and remove Vogler instead, losing the $100 million donation he had made to the hospital. During the second season of House, it is revealed that Cuddy is trying to conceive a child. House agrees to administer the twice-daily injections necessary for her to undergo in-vitro fertilization, and to keep the matter secret. During the third season, Cuddy confesses to the hospital's Head of Oncology
and House's best friend Wilson
(Robert Sean Leonard
) that she has had a total of three attempts at impregnation, one of which was miscarried
. She is hurt when House, who is going through Vicodin
withdrawal, tells her it is a good thing she has failed to become a mother, as she would be terrible at it. When House's career is threatened by Detective Michael Tritter
(David Morse
), Cuddy commits perjury
by falsifying documents and lying in court to cover up his wrong-doing.
Cuddy questions whether House has a romantic interest in her when he interferes in her love life, interrupting her repeatedly during a blind date. When Wilson takes Cuddy to the theatre, and later to an art exhibition, House intervenes in an attempt to prevent Cuddy from becoming Wilson's fourth wife. Cuddy reveals during the fifth season that she is planning to adopt a baby, however is devastated when the birth-mother of the child she names Joy decides to keep her. House consoles her, and the two share a passionate kiss. Cuddy professes not to want a relationship with House, but is touched when he has her old desk from medical school brought out of storage for her when her office is renovated. In episode "Joy to the World", Cuddy becomes a foster parent and potential adoptive parent to a baby girl she names Rachel. She initially struggles with parenthood, revealing to Wilson that she feels nothing for Rachel, but soon after is able to begin bonding with her. In episode "Under My Skin
" Cuddy helps House detox from Vicodin, and the two sleep together. In the following episode, fifth season finale "Both Sides Now
", this is revealed to have been a hallucination on House's part: in reality, he spent the evening alone and is suffering from psychiatric problems as a result of Vicodin and emotional trauma.
Throughout season six, Cuddy is busy in a relationship with a private investigator, Lucas (who was initially hired by House to spy on Wilson at the start of season 5) and her adopted daughter. She's still caring towards House after he goes through his rehabilitation for Vicodin. She finds though that life is stressful with managing the hospital, as with the new additions to her life and House still having feelings towards her. Cuddy eventually tries to ask House to just be friends, but he refuses, saying that that is the last thing he wants. In the season six finale, House gives Cuddy an antique medical text written by her great grandfather, which prompts her to confess that she and Lucas became engaged the previous night. However, at the conclusion of the episode, Cuddy goes to House's apartment and announces she has broken it off with Lucas. She then confesses her love for House; the two share a tender kiss and lock hands in a surprisingly romantic gesture.
Cuddy lied about her age, to make her two years older, when she began working at the hospital because she thought a lady in her early thirties, rather than late twenties, would get more respect.
At the end of season 7, House crashes into Cuddy's house with his car. She resigns as Dean of Medicine after this event.
, who had enjoyed Lisa Edelstein
's portrayal of a high-priced call girl putting herself through law school on The West Wing, and sent her a copy of the pilot script. Edelstein was attracted to the program's "...smart writing", and was cast in the role. The character has been described as "tough-as-nails" by Salons
Lily Burana, a woman who "clicks through the halls of the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital in low-cut sweaters and pencil skirts, bringing incredible Jewy glamour to prime time". The New York Times
' s Alessandra Stanley has similarly referred to her as the hospital's "comely but by-the-book chief administrator [...] who, like all heads of prestigious teaching hospitals, wears plunging necklines to work." Edelstein, questioned on whether she felt Cuddy's typical attire of tight-fitting, low-cut outfits was appropriate for her position, responded: "She doesn't care what people say [...] She's a television character, and I'm an actress playing a hospital administrator, and I don't want to be in frumpy clothes. I want to be a hot hospital administrator." TV Guide
' s Nina Hämmerling Smith calls Cuddy a foil
for House, who "doesn't take [his] nonsense and knows how to keep him in check — more or less." The Washington Post
' s Tom Shales has deemed Cuddy House's "nagging nemesis", whose role is "to make House miserable". Discussing Cuddy's characterization in terms of her relationship with House, Edelstein has opined: "I think that she very much loves House and also lives vicariously through him, because she's a very smart woman who was very successful as a doctor and has a great job and a wonderful position, but also has had less and less to do with the actual practice of medicine as the years have gone by. So I think she's excited by what he does and how he does it and deeply frustrated by him at the same time." Co-executive producer Garrett Lerner has praised Edelstein's versatility in the role when asked to summarise Cuddy, stating: "Lisa Edelstein can do absolutely anything, so, she's fantastic. You know, she can stand up to House, give it right back to him. She can be tender, she can be hurt, she can be strong...I think she's probably [the favorite character for] a lot of people I've talked to. It's a powerful role."
During the early fourth season of House, Cuddy received reduced screen time as the show focused on House's new fellows
. Edelstein revealed that the show would return to its regular format after the season's ninth episode. However, production was halted by the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike
, which delayed the remainder of the season. Edelstein commented: "Cuddy won't be sleeping with House unless we get the writers back. So I'm out there picketing." As a result of the strike, storylines involving Cuddy had to be pushed back into the show's fifth season, as the fourth season ran for a reduced number of episodes.
When Edelstein heard she had to do a strip scene in the episode "House's Head
", she called actress Sheila Kelley
, wife of Richard Schiff
(with whom Edelstein had worked previously on The West Wing and Relativity
). Kelley had worked on a movie about strippers long ago and Edelstein asked her for her advice on the choreography of the striptease. On the episode itself, Edelstein commented: "It is very interesting what happens in the first half of the finale in terms of learning about how House sees people and getting the world from his point of view entirely". Before the filming of the scene started, Edelstein showed the dance to Hugh Laurie, who, according to Edelstein, was "incredibly supportive, like a cheerleader". Edelstein commented that after the scene was filmed she, "felt beautiful, and it ended up being a really lovely experience".
Cuddy's desire for a baby paralleled Edelstein's personal life, with the actress explaining: "When the show started, I told the producers that at some point during the run of the show, if it was successful, that I was going to get pregnant one way or another. So they planted that seed in the character's story so it would be possible for me as a woman to experience that." When Cuddy became a mother to Rachel in the show's fifth season, executive producer Katie Jacobs
discussed the need for Cuddy to find a balance between her personal and professional life, as well as the impact motherhood would have on her relationship with House: "The tension and chemistry are still there. Neither one of them is actively fessing-up to looking for a relationship, but they are drawn to each other. None of the flirtatiousness is going to go away. The stakes are very high for them. The attraction is still there. We are absolutely going to continue that. It’s real and it’s palpable. And it’s who they are."
Cuddy has had a difficult relationship with her mother (played by Candice Bergen
) after her father passing away. Although they are cordial they tend to hide things from each other. As Cuddy had misgivings about House meeting her mother for a long time and how her mother hid an affair she was having for the past five years.
' s Peter Johnson terms a "cat-and-mouse" relationship with House. Edelstein has described it as "a really complicated, adult relationship", explaining: "These are people who have very full lives and lots of responsibilities that perhaps conflict with their feelings for each other." The actress "would love for them to have a [romantic] relationship, because it could be as complicated as the rest of their relationship", however, she is unsure how it would affect the dynamics of the show. Jacobs commented at the end of the show's third season: "I can't see them pairing them in a permanent fashion. But they are close; they have gone through a lot together. Might there be a moment of weakness in which the two might explore their chemistry? Maybe." Questioned at the end of the fourth season on whether Cuddy and House would ever consummate their relationship on-screen, Jacobs responded: "there is heat and chemistry between them and I never want to see that go away because that is the essence of their relationship. [...] we’ll never ignore [their chemistry] because, as I said, it’s the very essence of them. She wouldn’t forgive him over and over again if he wasn’t so brilliant in her eyes, clearly she’s got a soft spot for him. And he has one for her. You will continue to see that." Prior to the beginning of the fifth season, series creator David Shore
discussed his intention to further the relationship between the two, as: "If House is capable of any relationship with anyone, it's Cuddy. We can't have them dancing around forever." Following the fifth season revelation that House had hallucinated a physical relationship with Cuddy, Shore commented on the storyline's continuation into the sixth season: "it would be dishonest to just let that disappear. Obviously House has feelings for her. Even though the love affair didn’t happen, in House’s mind it did." Edelstein does not know whether the two characters will eventually end up together, however believes that the combination of frustration and love Cuddy feels for House "makes for a very interesting relationship", as: "there's a great deal of admiration and respect, and also an incredible amount of annoyance and frustration, which is like how most relationships are in your life." As of the very end of the Sixth Season finale, Help Me, House and Cuddy appear to have entered a romantic relationship. In the closing minutes of the episode, House came very close to relapsing and taking vicodin once again, at which point Cuddy entered to tell him that she had ended her relationship with Lucas. She professed her love for House, which led to them kissing briefly. A close-up shot of their clasped hands (House's left, Cuddy's right) was the closing shot of the episode, as well as the season. The relationship later ends in season 7; in the episode Bombshells
.
, Tom Shales noted in The Washington Post
that: "The skirmishes between House and Cuddy could get awfully tired, but by the second episode there are already some provocative wrinkles in what had seemed a simple situation." TV Guide
' s Nina Hämmerling Smith has deemed the banter between Cuddy and House "one of the best things about the show", while Salon
' s Lily Burana has declared herself to be on "Team Cuddy" in terms of House's romantic interests. Following the season three episode "Merry Little Christmas", Mary McNamara for the LA Times wrote: "The Avid Viewer was also happy to see the seeds of a romantic relationship between House and Cuddy being sown — that had to be part of the show's original bible because really, who else could survive a romantic relationship with House now that Sela Ward
's gone?" McNamara has opined that a romantic relationship between the two "makes perfect sense", as "she is the only one who seems able to accept House as he is, to give almost as good as she gets and to let most of his barbs fall where they may. How Edelstein can play this in a believable way is the point where acting moves from skill to art." When the show underwent a change of format at the beginning of the fourth series, McNamara commented positively on the changing dynamic in Cuddy's relationship with House, noting: "gone is the increasingly dull and unbelievable tension between him and Cuddy. (As subordinate/boss, that is. The sexual tension, one hopes, is still in there somewhere.) Cuddy is done trying to squelch him; now she is just shooting for managed chaos. Which is so much more fun because it revolves more around the medicine and less around all the personal pathos of the staff."
However, as USA Today' s Robert Bianco noted, when Cuddy and House finally began a physical relationship, in what later transpired to be a hallucination sequence, "It started a firestorm among fans who hated the change in the relationship". Following the pair's first screen kiss, IGN
reviewer James Chamberlin opined that the event was "kind of awkward" and "just didn't feel right to me". With regards to Cuddy's season five storylines as a whole, Chamberlin commented: "Cuddy's interest in becoming a mother was something I enjoyed. [..] This plot contained some heart-wrenching moments, particularly when Cuddy had to a take on the case as both a doctor and a potential mother in "Joy." The New York Times' s Lisa Belkin has also praised Cuddy's motherhood storyline, citing her as one of few examples of good parenting on television.
Discussing the numerous YouTube
fan videos dedicated to the "Huddy" relationship, The New York Times
' s Ginia Bellafante has assessed: "It is not merely the unrelenting push-pull of the show’s writing, but the “His Girl Friday
” chemistry between the actors Hugh Laurie (House) and Lisa Edelstein (Cuddy) that inspires otherwise reasonable women to bizarre, time-consuming digressions of fantasy." Bellafante considers herself amongst these women, writing: "Shamefully, I would have been overjoyed if the season finale had ended with House and Cuddy electing to spend the summer together in Corsica
. This would have betrayed the show’s primary covenant — to keep House miserable — and entirely erased its integrity. And yet I would mostly have wondered if House and Cuddy were going to make time for a stop in Sardinia
." Following the fifth season finale's revelation that the consummation of their relationship was a hallucination, Bellafante wrote: "I feel used and manipulated. I feel like a one-night stand who is never going to get calla lilies or a follow-up phone call. I feel hate for the show and I feel begrudging respect." Despite this, it is Bellafante's opinion that: "basically the show went in the obvious right direction, gratifying our base collective urge to finally see House and Cuddy together, not talking about lumbar punctures, in a fake-sex way that didn’t ultimately impinge on the show’s credibility." She considered: "What would we really have done if House and Cuddy had woken up together, if he’d made her waffles, if she had eaten them wearing one of his shirts, if they spent the next day exchanging coy, knowing glances at Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital? Then we would have been watching Grey’s Anatomy and we would have experienced not a jump-the-shark
moment, but a bungee-jumping-the-Arctic moment." Her conclusion is that:
Mike Hale for The New York Times has praised Edelstein's performance as Cuddy in comedic situations, writing: "Lisa Edelstein may not be the funniest performer around, but she is without a doubt the best sport in American television: every week the writers of House find new ways to embarrass her and her character, Dr. Cuddy, who is engaged in an excruciating mating dance with Hugh Laurie's Dr. House. Ms. Edelstein somehow manages to maintain her dignity while playing a 40-something dean of medicine who acts like a teenage girl". The fourth season scene in which Cuddy did a pole dance was very positively received by critics, Mary McNamara stated that these scenes "in three minutes earned back the price of Tivo
". James Chamberlin stated that he never expected Edelstein to do a strip tease, although he had hoped it.
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
, is a fictional character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
on the Fox medical drama
Medical drama
A medical drama is a television program, in which events center upon a hospital, an ambulance staff, or any medical environment.In the United States, most medical episodes are one hour long and, more often than not, are set in a hospital. Most current medical Dramatic programming go beyond the...
House
House (TV series)
House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...
. She is portrayed by Lisa Edelstein
Lisa Edelstein
Lisa Edelstein is an American actress and playwright. She is best known for her role as Dr. Lisa Cuddy on the television drama House.-Early life and education:...
. Cuddy was the Dean
Dean (education)
In academic administration, a dean is a person with significant authority over a specific academic unit, or over a specific area of concern, or both...
of Medicine and hospital administrator of the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. She also becomes House's love interest through the years to start a relationship with him in season seven. Cuddy quit her job after the events of season's 7 finale.
Storylines
Cuddy's role in House is that of Dean of Medicine and hospital administrator. She is 43 years old, Jewish, and has a mother and one sister; her father died. She began dreaming of becoming a doctorPhysician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
when she was 12, graduated from medical school at age 25 as second best in her class, and became the first female and second youngest Dean
Dean (education)
In academic administration, a dean is a person with significant authority over a specific academic unit, or over a specific area of concern, or both...
of Medicine ever at age 32. Cuddy attended the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
, where she first met Gregory House
Gregory House
Gregory House, M.D., or simply referred to as House, is a fictional antihero and title character of the American television series House, played by Hugh Laurie. He is the Chief of Diagnostic Medicine at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, where he leads a team of diagnosticians...
(Hugh Laurie
Hugh Laurie
James Hugh Calum Laurie, OBE , better known as Hugh Laurie , is an English actor, voice artist, comedian, writer, musician, recording artist, and director...
), her future employee, with whom she shared a one night stand. Years later, when House suffered an infarction
Infarction
In medicine, infarction refers to tissue death that is caused by a local lack of oxygen due to obstruction of the tissue's blood supply. The resulting lesion is referred to as an infarct.-Causes:...
in his right leg prior to the beginning of the series, he was treated by Cuddy at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. Under Cuddy's care and the order of his Medical Proxy, House's then girlfriend of five years Stacy Warner (Sela Ward
Sela Ward
Sela Ann Ward is an American movie and television actress, perhaps best known for her television roles as Teddy Reed on the American TV series Sisters and as Lily Manning on Once and Again...
), the dead muscle in his leg was removed against House's explicit wishes after he was put into an induced coma, leaving House with a permanent disability and chronic pain.
After hiring House to run the hospital's diagnostics department, Cuddy began setting aside $50,000 a year from the hospital's budget for potential legal expenses. When, during the show's first season, new chairman of the board Edward Vogler (Chi McBride
Chi McBride
Kenneth "Chi" McBride is an American actor. He starred as Steven Harper on the series Boston Public, as Emerson Cod on Pushing Daisies, and recently appeared in Fox's drama Human Target.-Early life:...
) tries to have House fired for refusing to kowtow
Kowtow
Kowtow is the act of deep respect shown by kneeling and bowing so low as to have one's head touching the ground. An alternative Chinese term is ketou, however the meaning is somewhat altered: kòu originally meant "knock with reverence", whereas kē has the general meaning of "touch upon ".In Han...
to his demands, Cuddy urges the board to save House and remove Vogler instead, losing the $100 million donation he had made to the hospital. During the second season of House, it is revealed that Cuddy is trying to conceive a child. House agrees to administer the twice-daily injections necessary for her to undergo in-vitro fertilization, and to keep the matter secret. During the third season, Cuddy confesses to the hospital's Head of Oncology
Oncology
Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with cancer...
and House's best friend Wilson
James Wilson (House)
James Evan Wilson, M.D., is a fictional character on the Fox medical drama House. He is played by Robert Sean Leonard. The character first appears in the show's pilot episode when he introduces a medical case to Dr. Gregory House, the protagonist of the show. Wilson is Dr. House's only true friend,...
(Robert Sean Leonard
Robert Sean Leonard
Robert Sean Leonard is an American actor, who has regularly starred in Broadway and off-Broadway productions. Since 2004 he has played the role of Dr. James Wilson on the TV series House...
) that she has had a total of three attempts at impregnation, one of which was miscarried
Miscarriage
Miscarriage or spontaneous abortion is the spontaneous end of a pregnancy at a stage where the embryo or fetus is incapable of surviving independently, generally defined in humans at prior to 20 weeks of gestation...
. She is hurt when House, who is going through Vicodin
Vicodin
Hydrocodone/paracetamol is a combination of two analgesic products hydrocodone and paracetamol used to relieve moderate to severe pain...
withdrawal, tells her it is a good thing she has failed to become a mother, as she would be terrible at it. When House's career is threatened by Detective Michael Tritter
Michael Tritter
Detective Michael Tritter is a recurring fictional character in the medical drama series House, portrayed by David Morse. He is the main antagonist of the third season, which ran between 2006 and 2007. Tritter is a police detective, who tries to get Dr. Gregory House to apologize for leaving him...
(David Morse
David Morse (actor)
David Bowditch Morse is an American stage, television, and film actor. He first came to national attention as Dr. Jack Morrison in the medical drama St. Elsewhere from 1982 to 1988...
), Cuddy commits perjury
Perjury
Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...
by falsifying documents and lying in court to cover up his wrong-doing.
Cuddy questions whether House has a romantic interest in her when he interferes in her love life, interrupting her repeatedly during a blind date. When Wilson takes Cuddy to the theatre, and later to an art exhibition, House intervenes in an attempt to prevent Cuddy from becoming Wilson's fourth wife. Cuddy reveals during the fifth season that she is planning to adopt a baby, however is devastated when the birth-mother of the child she names Joy decides to keep her. House consoles her, and the two share a passionate kiss. Cuddy professes not to want a relationship with House, but is touched when he has her old desk from medical school brought out of storage for her when her office is renovated. In episode "Joy to the World", Cuddy becomes a foster parent and potential adoptive parent to a baby girl she names Rachel. She initially struggles with parenthood, revealing to Wilson that she feels nothing for Rachel, but soon after is able to begin bonding with her. In episode "Under My Skin
Under My Skin (House)
"Under My Skin" is the twenty-third episode of the fifth season of House, which aired on May 4, 2009.-Plot:House and the team are given the challenge of diagnosing a ballerina, Penelope whose lungs collapse during rehearsal...
" Cuddy helps House detox from Vicodin, and the two sleep together. In the following episode, fifth season finale "Both Sides Now
Both Sides Now (House)
"Both Sides Now" is the twenty-fourth episode and season finale of the fifth season of House. It originally aired on May 11, 2009.-Plot:...
", this is revealed to have been a hallucination on House's part: in reality, he spent the evening alone and is suffering from psychiatric problems as a result of Vicodin and emotional trauma.
Throughout season six, Cuddy is busy in a relationship with a private investigator, Lucas (who was initially hired by House to spy on Wilson at the start of season 5) and her adopted daughter. She's still caring towards House after he goes through his rehabilitation for Vicodin. She finds though that life is stressful with managing the hospital, as with the new additions to her life and House still having feelings towards her. Cuddy eventually tries to ask House to just be friends, but he refuses, saying that that is the last thing he wants. In the season six finale, House gives Cuddy an antique medical text written by her great grandfather, which prompts her to confess that she and Lucas became engaged the previous night. However, at the conclusion of the episode, Cuddy goes to House's apartment and announces she has broken it off with Lucas. She then confesses her love for House; the two share a tender kiss and lock hands in a surprisingly romantic gesture.
Cuddy lied about her age, to make her two years older, when she began working at the hospital because she thought a lady in her early thirties, rather than late twenties, would get more respect.
At the end of season 7, House crashes into Cuddy's house with his car. She resigns as Dean of Medicine after this event.
Characterization
Cuddy was created by executive producer Bryan SingerBryan Singer
Bryan Singer is an American film director and film producer. Singer won critical acclaim for his work on The Usual Suspects, and is especially well-known among fans of the science fiction and superhero genres for his work on the X-Men films and Superman Returns.-Early life:Singer was born in New...
, who had enjoyed Lisa Edelstein
Lisa Edelstein
Lisa Edelstein is an American actress and playwright. She is best known for her role as Dr. Lisa Cuddy on the television drama House.-Early life and education:...
's portrayal of a high-priced call girl putting herself through law school on The West Wing, and sent her a copy of the pilot script. Edelstein was attracted to the program's "...smart writing", and was cast in the role. The character has been described as "tough-as-nails" by Salons
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
Lily Burana, a woman who "clicks through the halls of the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital in low-cut sweaters and pencil skirts, bringing incredible Jewy glamour to prime time". The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
Foil (literature)
In fiction, a foil is a character who contrasts with another character in order to highlight particular qualities of another character....
for House, who "doesn't take [his] nonsense and knows how to keep him in check — more or less." The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
Development
Fellowship (medicine)
A fellowship is the period of medical training in the United States and Canada that a physician may undertake after completing a specialty training program . During this time , the physician is known as a fellow...
. Edelstein revealed that the show would return to its regular format after the season's ninth episode. However, production was halted by the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike
2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike
The 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, more commonly referred to as simply the Writers' Strike, was a strike by the Writers Guild of America, East and the Writers Guild of America, West ....
, which delayed the remainder of the season. Edelstein commented: "Cuddy won't be sleeping with House unless we get the writers back. So I'm out there picketing." As a result of the strike, storylines involving Cuddy had to be pushed back into the show's fifth season, as the fourth season ran for a reduced number of episodes.
When Edelstein heard she had to do a strip scene in the episode "House's Head
House's Head
"House's Head" is the fifteenth episode of the fourth season of House and the eighty-fifth episode overall. It was the first part of the two-part season four finale, the second part being "Wilson's Heart". Co-written by several House producers and directed by Greg Yaitanes, "House's Head" premiered...
", she called actress Sheila Kelley
Sheila Kelley (American actress)
Sheila Kelley is an American television actress. She is best known for her roles as Gwen Taylor on L.A. Law and as Dr. Charlotte "Charley" Bennett Hayes on Sisters.-Early life:...
, wife of Richard Schiff
Richard Schiff
Richard Schiff is an American actor. He is best known for playing Toby Ziegler on the NBC television drama The West Wing, a role for which he received an Emmy Award...
(with whom Edelstein had worked previously on The West Wing and Relativity
Relativity (TV series)
Relativity is an American drama television series which followed a twenty-something couple, Isabel Lukens and Leo Roth , and the lives and loves of their friends and siblings...
). Kelley had worked on a movie about strippers long ago and Edelstein asked her for her advice on the choreography of the striptease. On the episode itself, Edelstein commented: "It is very interesting what happens in the first half of the finale in terms of learning about how House sees people and getting the world from his point of view entirely". Before the filming of the scene started, Edelstein showed the dance to Hugh Laurie, who, according to Edelstein, was "incredibly supportive, like a cheerleader". Edelstein commented that after the scene was filmed she, "felt beautiful, and it ended up being a really lovely experience".
Cuddy's desire for a baby paralleled Edelstein's personal life, with the actress explaining: "When the show started, I told the producers that at some point during the run of the show, if it was successful, that I was going to get pregnant one way or another. So they planted that seed in the character's story so it would be possible for me as a woman to experience that." When Cuddy became a mother to Rachel in the show's fifth season, executive producer Katie Jacobs
Katie Jacobs
Katie Jacobs is an American television producer and director. Together with her husband, Paul Attanasio, the couple run Heel and Toe Films production company, which produces the Fox series House and the now defunct series Century City...
discussed the need for Cuddy to find a balance between her personal and professional life, as well as the impact motherhood would have on her relationship with House: "The tension and chemistry are still there. Neither one of them is actively fessing-up to looking for a relationship, but they are drawn to each other. None of the flirtatiousness is going to go away. The stakes are very high for them. The attraction is still there. We are absolutely going to continue that. It’s real and it’s palpable. And it’s who they are."
Cuddy has had a difficult relationship with her mother (played by Candice Bergen
Candice Bergen
Candice Patricia Bergen is an American actress and former fashion model.She is known for starring in two TV series, as the title character on the situation comedy Murphy Brown , for which she won five Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards; and as Shirley Schmidt on the comedy-drama Boston Legal...
) after her father passing away. Although they are cordial they tend to hide things from each other. As Cuddy had misgivings about House meeting her mother for a long time and how her mother hid an affair she was having for the past five years.
"Huddy"
The relationship between House and Cuddy is known by the portmanteau term "Huddy". Cuddy has what USA TodayUSA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
David Shore
David Shore is a Canadian writer, best known for his work writing and producing in television. As a former lawyer, Shore became known for his work on Family Law, NYPD Blue, and Due South...
discussed his intention to further the relationship between the two, as: "If House is capable of any relationship with anyone, it's Cuddy. We can't have them dancing around forever." Following the fifth season revelation that House had hallucinated a physical relationship with Cuddy, Shore commented on the storyline's continuation into the sixth season: "it would be dishonest to just let that disappear. Obviously House has feelings for her. Even though the love affair didn’t happen, in House’s mind it did." Edelstein does not know whether the two characters will eventually end up together, however believes that the combination of frustration and love Cuddy feels for House "makes for a very interesting relationship", as: "there's a great deal of admiration and respect, and also an incredible amount of annoyance and frustration, which is like how most relationships are in your life." As of the very end of the Sixth Season finale, Help Me, House and Cuddy appear to have entered a romantic relationship. In the closing minutes of the episode, House came very close to relapsing and taking vicodin once again, at which point Cuddy entered to tell him that she had ended her relationship with Lucas. She professed her love for House, which led to them kissing briefly. A close-up shot of their clasped hands (House's left, Cuddy's right) was the closing shot of the episode, as well as the season. The relationship later ends in season 7; in the episode Bombshells
Bombshells (House)
"Bombshells" is the fifteenth episode of the seventh season of the American medical drama House. It aired on March 7, 2011.-Plot:A teenager is admitted to the hospital after spitting up blood. Taub also discovers that the boy has been depressed and appears to have been cutting himself...
.
Reception
In 2005, Edelstein won the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television for her role as Cuddy. Following the show's pilot episodePilot (House)
"Pilot", also known as "Everybody Lies", is the first episode of the U.S. television series House. The episode premiered on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. It introduces the character of Dr. Gregory House —a maverick antisocial doctor—and his team of diagnosticians at the fictional...
, Tom Shales noted in The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
that: "The skirmishes between House and Cuddy could get awfully tired, but by the second episode there are already some provocative wrinkles in what had seemed a simple situation." TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
Sela Ward
Sela Ann Ward is an American movie and television actress, perhaps best known for her television roles as Teddy Reed on the American TV series Sisters and as Lily Manning on Once and Again...
's gone?" McNamara has opined that a romantic relationship between the two "makes perfect sense", as "she is the only one who seems able to accept House as he is, to give almost as good as she gets and to let most of his barbs fall where they may. How Edelstein can play this in a believable way is the point where acting moves from skill to art." When the show underwent a change of format at the beginning of the fourth series, McNamara commented positively on the changing dynamic in Cuddy's relationship with House, noting: "gone is the increasingly dull and unbelievable tension between him and Cuddy. (As subordinate/boss, that is. The sexual tension, one hopes, is still in there somewhere.) Cuddy is done trying to squelch him; now she is just shooting for managed chaos. Which is so much more fun because it revolves more around the medicine and less around all the personal pathos of the staff."
However, as USA Today
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
reviewer James Chamberlin opined that the event was "kind of awkward" and "just didn't feel right to me". With regards to Cuddy's season five storylines as a whole, Chamberlin commented: "Cuddy's interest in becoming a mother was something I enjoyed. [..] This plot contained some heart-wrenching moments, particularly when Cuddy had to a take on the case as both a doctor and a potential mother in "Joy." The New York Times
Discussing the numerous YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
fan videos dedicated to the "Huddy" relationship, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
His Girl Friday
His Girl Friday is a 1940 American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, an adaptation by Charles Lederer, Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur of the play The Front Page by Hecht and MacArthur...
” chemistry between the actors Hugh Laurie (House) and Lisa Edelstein (Cuddy) that inspires otherwise reasonable women to bizarre, time-consuming digressions of fantasy." Bellafante considers herself amongst these women, writing: "Shamefully, I would have been overjoyed if the season finale had ended with House and Cuddy electing to spend the summer together in Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
. This would have betrayed the show’s primary covenant — to keep House miserable — and entirely erased its integrity. And yet I would mostly have wondered if House and Cuddy were going to make time for a stop in Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
." Following the fifth season finale's revelation that the consummation of their relationship was a hallucination, Bellafante wrote: "I feel used and manipulated. I feel like a one-night stand who is never going to get calla lilies or a follow-up phone call. I feel hate for the show and I feel begrudging respect." Despite this, it is Bellafante's opinion that: "basically the show went in the obvious right direction, gratifying our base collective urge to finally see House and Cuddy together, not talking about lumbar punctures, in a fake-sex way that didn’t ultimately impinge on the show’s credibility." She considered: "What would we really have done if House and Cuddy had woken up together, if he’d made her waffles, if she had eaten them wearing one of his shirts, if they spent the next day exchanging coy, knowing glances at Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital? Then we would have been watching Grey’s Anatomy and we would have experienced not a jump-the-shark
Jump the Shark
"Jump the Shark" is the 197th episode and the ninth season's fifteenth episode of the science fiction television series The X-Files. The episode first aired in the United States and Canada on April 21, 2002 on Fox, and subsequently aired in the United Kingdom. It was written by executive producers...
moment, but a bungee-jumping-the-Arctic moment." Her conclusion is that:
- "House refuses to buy into the myth that a good woman can save an ornery jerk, and the finale made it clear what a dope you were to even think the show would try. It doesn’t want to appease the woman who wants to appease her Harlequin Romance self. It wants to appease anyone who gets ticked off when a romantic comedy shows an accomplished woman in a skirt suit giving it all up for a jobless, slovenly idiot. The House-Cuddy attraction isn’t an attraction of opposites. It’s an attraction between two highly intelligent workaholics, two people too interesting for anyone else but ultimately unfit for each other — no matter how pathetically we’d like it to be otherwise."
Mike Hale for The New York Times has praised Edelstein's performance as Cuddy in comedic situations, writing: "Lisa Edelstein may not be the funniest performer around, but she is without a doubt the best sport in American television: every week the writers of House find new ways to embarrass her and her character, Dr. Cuddy, who is engaged in an excruciating mating dance with Hugh Laurie's Dr. House. Ms. Edelstein somehow manages to maintain her dignity while playing a 40-something dean of medicine who acts like a teenage girl". The fourth season scene in which Cuddy did a pole dance was very positively received by critics, Mary McNamara stated that these scenes "in three minutes earned back the price of Tivo
TiVo
TiVo is a digital video recorder developed and marketed by TiVo, Inc. and introduced in 1999. TiVo provides an on-screen guide of scheduled broadcast programming television programs, whose features include "Season Pass" schedules which record every new episode of a series, and "WishList"...
". James Chamberlin stated that he never expected Edelstein to do a strip tease, although he had hoped it.
External links
- Lisa Cuddy at Fox'sFox Broadcasting CompanyFox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
House Wiki