Laurie, aka Brittany Rollins, enters the West Wing universe in the very first scene: making eyes at Sam Seaborn across a sophisticated, lowlit Georgetown jazz bar. They spend the night together, and unwittingly swap pagers in the morning. This leads Sam to discover, through a series of events, that in addition to being a final-year Law student and part-time bartender, Laurie is also an elite escort. Despite the attraction between them, Sam pulls back, in order to protect the Office of the President, and Laurie regretfully agrees.Notwithstanding, Laurie and Sam become good friends, despite a difficult encounter at a White House function which Laurie attends in her professional capacity. Sam mentors and heckles her through her final exams, and frequently attempts to reason her out of her night job. (And sometimes resorts to epithets: I'm just sayin', your night job stinks. ) Though he does not attend her graduation due to the risk of being spotted, he does arrange to meet her the night she passes her bar exam. He brings her the traditional gifts of an expensive briefcase and fountain pen; Laurie unknowingly brings along a spy who leads them into a paparazzi trap.The next day a photograph of Sam and Laurie hugging on the street hits the DC papers. While the fallout to Sam's career (thus also the President's reputation) is minimal, Laurie is not seen again in the series.Laurie serves three main roles in the series' first season: she showcases Sam's idealistic and slightly naive tendency to try to save the world from itself; she acts as a device for the key characters to explore the personal/public equation of the lives of public servants; and most importantly, she helps set the tone of a tolerant, compassionate White House that seeks to understand rather than censure or legislate. Show less «