Shirley Schmidt
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Shirley Schmidt is a fictional character in the ABC Television Network series Boston Legal. She is portrayed by Candice Bergen.
Shirley is a woman in late middle age, who together with Denny Crane (William Shatner) founded the show's fictional Boston law firm, Crane, Poole & Schmidt (as she puts it to young junior associates, "I'm Schmidt"). She and Crane had a sexual/romantic relationship many years in the past, but now her chief role, aside from star litigator and top decision-maker, is to rein in Denny's excessive behavior and oversee damage control in the wake of his public statements. She has an elderly father who is comatose in a local hospital, and visits him periodically to talk with him and read aloud his favorite books. She was married for four years with Ivan Tiggs (Tom Selleck). She most recently had to suppress the auctioning of some "tasteful" nude photographs of her which had been taken by a photographer with whom she had had an adulterous sexual liaison decades ago (the photographer was married at the time, whereas Schmidt was not). Alan Shore (James Spader) finally persuaded the photographer's vengeful widow to sell him the photos so as to keep the public (and Schmidt's grandchildren) from seeing them. Recently, she and Ivan were on opposing sides in a case, Ivan saying he still wanted Shirley. He told her he and his new wife (a bubbly young woman named Missy) were divorcing and he and Shirley renewed their relationship. However, when Missy came to Shirley, saying she suspected Ivan was cheating on her, Shirley realized Ivan had lied about the marriage being over and broke it off. She then helped Missy create a "post-nup" so that if Ivan cheated on her, Missy would get a sizable portion of his earnings and estate. Missy thanked Shirley for making sure Ivan would never cheat on her with anyone and Shirley realized Missy had known all along about them and used Shirley's guilt to get the post-nup created. Denny tried to cheer her up afterward by telling her that men knew they weren't worthy of Shirley "but the mere possibility sustains us."
| Boston Legal |
| Alan Shore | Denny Crane | Shirley Schmidt Brad Chase | Paul Lewiston | Denise Bauer | Jeffrey Coho |
| Crane, Poole & Schmidt |
| List of Boston Legal episodes |
