Jeff Daniels played Newsroom role on Piers Morgan’s show

The Newsroom star Jeff Daniels slipped into character for an appearance on Piers Morgan’s real life news show by critiquing the host from the control room. The actor, who plays the tough anchor and managing editor of a fictional news programme in the series, appeared on Piers Morgan Live last week (ends14Jul13), and Morgan has now revealed Daniels spent most of the show watching him work.
In his column for Britain’s Event magazine, Morgan writes, “I faced Jeff Daniels, who plays the world’s most popular cable news anchorman… in Aaron Sorkin’s brilliant HBO series The Newsroom… (His character is) so realistic that I get many ‘fans’ suggesting on a daily basis that Daniels should be doing my job for real.
“Just to spice up the tension, he stood in our New York control room before coming out for his interview. ‘He’s watching your every move,’ chortled my producer.”
During the broadcast, Morgan sneezed while reporting on a serious news story, and he was devastated that Daniels was there to witness “one of the most embarrassing moments of my TV presenting career”.
Daniels was so amused by the incident, he told Morgan it may even inspire a scene in the next series of The Newsroom, adding, “I thought it was a brilliant moment, I really did… I didn’t feel for you at all, but… you can expect to see that in season three.”