--- title: Scandal: How Bush Reacted to the Show According to Real Olivia Pope description: 'Love you. Want you. You left me!' the 90-year-old former president and Fitzpatrick Grant inspiration told P.R. professional Judy Smith canonical: https://time.com/3433338/scandal-george-h-w-bush/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-26T20:19:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T09:01:41.282Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Real-Life Olivia Pope Reveals What President George H.W. Bush Thinks of "Scandal" og:description: 'Love you. Want you. You left me!' the 90-year-old former president and Fitzpatrick Grant inspiration told P.R. professional Judy Smith og:url: https://time.com/3433338/scandal-george-h-w-bush/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Real-Life Olivia Pope Reveals What President George H.W. Bush Thinks of "Scandal" twitter:description: 'Love you. Want you. You left me!' the 90-year-old former president and Fitzpatrick Grant inspiration told P.R. professional Judy Smith twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Real-Life Olivia Pope Reveals What President George H.W. Bush Thinks of _Scandal_ > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with Ally. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. ## Video: The Nantucket Project: Judy Smith [Watch (HLS stream): The Nantucket Project: Judy Smith](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/wRwidb8Z.m3u8) (3:04)  _Published 2014-09-27. The Nantucket Project: Judy Smith_ by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Sep 26, 2014 8:19 PM UTC The Nantucket Project: Judy Smith by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Sep 26, 2014 8:19 PM UTC Olivia Pope, television phenom and Washington fixer extraordinaire, seems to have found a fan in George H.W. Bush. Pope, the Kerry Washington character, is inspired by real-life crisis management pro Judy Smith, a consultant on the ABC show and one-time special assistant to Bush. When the show departed from Smith’s own biography and showed Pope having an affair with the president, who as a Navy veteran and scion of a wealthy Republican political family is a Bush-like figure, Smith felt that she had to give the now 90-year-old former president a heads up. “I had to quickly call President Bush to help frame the message. To help form the narrative before he heard from anyone else,” she told a crowd gathered Friday at the Nantucket Project, a conference on art and commerce, hours after the fourth season of the show premiered. So Smith called Bush’s office, where they said he was proud of her and couldn’t wait to see the show. She insisted, however, that she needed to talk to him to explain something. When he called back, she was in the middle of work and couldn’t pick up, but he left a message: “Love you. Want you. You left me! And by the way, this is the former leader of the free world. Call me.” She called him back to say, “See? This is why I’m calling you now, you need some talking points!” He replied, “I’m going to confirm the affair…I have young people working in my office now. They said I need to stay relevant, it’s good for my reputation.” “I said, ‘Look now, if you don’t stay on these messages, I am going to call your boss,’” Smith remembers saying. “You wouldn’t call Barbara, would you?,” the former president asked. ## Transcript [00:02] [ MUSIC ] I remember [00:06] when I was talking to Sean Derons who [ COUGH ] [00:09] talked to me about the show. And we're talking about [00:12] what the idea for the show should be. And, [00:17] she told me that I'm thinking that I'm [00:22] going to create a character where a president is [00:26] involved. I said well of course, I mean you know I was [00:29] president Bush's deputy press secretary, and we [00:31] worked on a whole host of things. Gorbachev [00:35] resigning, LA riots. I could just go on. And she said [00:39] yeah, I'm thinking of sort of a different story line. You [00:43] know one where the two of you are close. I'm so, yeah [00:47] no, I talk to him every month or so, we're good. She [00:50] said, well no I mean actually sex. I'm like, with [00:55] the president? [ LAUGHS ] She said, yes, I [00:59] said. Well, as any good crisis manager would have [01:03] it, I had to quickly call President Bush to [01:07] help frame the message. To frame the narrative [01:11] before he heard it from anybody else. So I picked up [01:14] and the phone and I called the President. And his Chief [01:17] of Staff picked up the phone and it was Gene. I said [01:19] Gene, is he in? I, I need to speak with him. And I said, [01:23] I need to tell him about the show. And she said, oh, my [01:26] God, he's heard about it. He's so excited to [01:31] watch. [ LAUGH ] He's so proud of you. He can't wait. I [01:34] said, no, I sort of need some one on one time [01:38] [ LAUGH ] to break it to him. And she said, yeah, well, [01:41] tell him to call me. So I'm on the phone, of course, [01:44] handling some big corporate crisis and I saw the Texas [01:48] number come up. And I couldn't pick up that quickly. [01:51] And I said well, let me check the message. You know, [01:54] maybe he's told me, like, what time should I call. And [01:58] so I check the message and the message said. Love [02:03] you. Want you. You left me. [ NOISE ] [02:09] And by the way, this is the former leader of the free [02:12] world. Call me. [ NOISE ] [02:16] So I called him up, and I said, see. This is why I'm [02:20] calling you now. You need some talking points. [02:22] [ LAUGH ] You need to stay on message. And [02:27] he said, I'm gonna confirm the affair. I said, [02:31] what affair? There was no affair. He said, I have young [02:35] people working in my office now. They said I need to [02:38] stay relevant. That [ LAUGH ] [02:43] that it's good for my reputation. I'm like, what [02:46] reputation? You're almost 90. What are you talking [02:54] about? ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3433338/scandal-george-h-w-bush/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3433338/scandal-george-h-w-bush/"},"headline":"Real-Life Olivia Pope Reveals What President George H.W. Bush Thinks of Scandal","datePublished":"2014-09-26T20:19:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-01T09:01:41.282Z","description":"'Love you. Want you. You left me!' the 90-year-old former president and Fitzpatrick Grant inspiration told P.R. professional Judy Smith","url":"https://time.com/3433338/scandal-george-h-w-bush/","keywords":["Television","Scandal","George H.W. 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