Ronald Reagan’s daughter Patti Davis is furious over NBC’s “silly” new sitcom “1600 Penn,” and suspects it was inspired by a TV show she pitched last year about her eight years as “a reluctant and rebellious first daughter.”
Davis, 60, told The Post’s Los Angeles correspondent Richard Johnson, “This is a small town, and I’m sure word got around that I was pitching a TV pilot. But this industry doesn’t want authenticity, they want stupidity.”
In Davis’ show, titled “Ribbon” after her Secret Service code name, the president’s daughter gets pregnant out of wedlock, a plot point she didn’t personally experience. “And oh, what a surprise, the first daughter in the NBC show [played by Martha MacIsaac] is pregnant,” Davis said.
Bill Pullman plays the president in “1600 Penn,” and Jenna Elfman is the first lady. But Josh Gad, as their son, is “the black hole around which everything else orbits,” according to tv.com.
“What bothers me — that this show can get made and mine can’t — is that I did bring to it the authenticity of my experience, the complexity of being followed around by a group of men, my Secret Service detail,” Davis said.
“It’s a very complicated relationship. You didn’t choose this. They had an election, and suddenly your life is not your own. You are in your 20s . . . it made dating really hard.”
Davis is loath to cry sour grapes, but said when she saw “1600,” “I thought, you’ve got to be kidding.
“There is absolutely no substance to this. I hope next time a project of mine is rejected I can be more gracious, but this time I can’t be.”
President Obama hosted the “1600 Penn” cast and crew for a screening Wednesday at the White House. But, according to Gad, the commander in chief couldn’t stay around to watch it, excusing himself and saying, “Something came up.”
An NBC rep didn’t get back to us last night.