Lisa Cuddy

Lisa Cuddy, M.D., is a fictional character on the Fox medical drama ''House''. She is portrayed by Lisa Edelstein. Cuddy was the Dean of Medicine of the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey. Cuddy quit her job after the events of season seven's finale " Moving On".

Storylines

Cuddy's job title in ''House'' is Dean of Medicine and Hospital Administrator. She is Jewish, and has a mother and one sister; her father is dead. She began dreaming of becoming a doctor when she was 12, graduated from medical school at age 25 as second best in her class, and became the first female and second youngest Dean of Medicine at the age of 32 (she was actually 29 but she added three years to her age in order to seem more mature to the Selection Committee). Cuddy attended the University of Michigan, where she first met Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), and with whom she shared a one-night stand.

After hiring House to run the hospital's Diagnostics Department, Cuddy began setting aside $50,000 a year from the hospital's budget for potential legal expenses. When, during Season 1, the new Chairman of the Board Edward Vogler ( Chi McBride) tries to have House fired for refusing to kowtow to his demands, Cuddy urges the board to save House and remove Vogler instead, losing the $100 million donation he had made to the hospital. In Season 2, it is revealed that Cuddy is trying to conceive a child. House agrees to administer the twice-daily injections necessary for her to undergo in-vitro fertilization and to keep the matter secret. In Season 3, Cuddy confesses to the hospital's Head of Oncology and House's best friend Wilson ( Robert Sean Leonard) that she has made a total of three attempts at impregnation, one of which was miscarried. She is hurt when House, who was going through Vicodin withdrawal, tells her it is a good thing she has failed to become a mother, as she would suck at it. When House's career is threatened by Detective Michael Tritter (David Morse), Cuddy falsifies documents and perjures herself in court to cover up his wrongdoing.

Cuddy questions whether House has a romantic interest in her when he interrupts her repeatedly during a blind date. When Wilson takes Cuddy to the theatre and later to an art exhibition, House intervenes in an attempt to prevent Cuddy from becoming Wilson's fourth wife. In Season 5, Cuddy reveals that she is adopting a baby girl, to be named Joy, and then is devastated when the birth-mother decides to keep the baby. House consoles her, and the two share a passionate kiss. Cuddy professes not to want a relationship with House but is touched when he has her old desk from medical school brought out of storage for her when her office is renovated. In episode "Joy to the World", Cuddy becomes a foster mother and potential adoptive mother to a baby girl she names Rachel. She initially struggles with motherhood, revealing to Wilson that she feels nothing for Rachel but soon begins to bond with her. In episode " Under My Skin", Cuddy helps House detox from Vicodin; and the two sleep together. In the following episode, the Season 5 finale "Both Sides Now", this is revealed to have been a hallucination on House's part: in reality, he spent the evening alone and is suffering from psychiatric problems as a result of Vicodin and emotional trauma.

Throughout Season 6, Cuddy is busy with her adopted daughter and is in a relationship with a private investigator, Lucas, who was hired by House to spy on Wilson at the start of Season 5. She cared for House after he goes through rehab for Vicodin. After sensing romantic feelings from House, Cuddy tells House that she would like to be friends; but he refuses, quoting that is the "last thing he wants". In the Season 6 finale " Help Me", House gives Cuddy an antique medical text written by her great-grandfather, which prompts her to confess that she and Lucas were engaged. Cuddy, House and House's team go to Trenton to help victims where a crane collapsed on a building. House finds a woman named Hannah who is trapped under a mountain of rubble. The first responders and Cuddy both tell House that Hannah's leg needs to be amputated for a chance of survival. House and the girl refuse for this to happen. House and Cuddy later get in an argument over it. Cuddy claims that the reason why he is refusing is because he is bitter over her engagement and what he went through with his leg years ago. During their argument, Cuddy tells him that she doesn't love him and to move on. House then decides to amputate Hannah's leg. Afterwards she is sent to the hospital but on the way she dies due to a fat embolism, caused by the amputation. With the pain he is dealing with, Hannah's death, and what Cuddy said to him earlier, when House arrives home he rips the bathroom mirror off the wall to get his stash of Vicodin. As he gets ready to take the pills, Cuddy arrives just in time. She reveals to him that even though she was moving on with her life she can't stop thinking about him. She broke off her engagement to Lucas and tells House that she loves him and they kiss. He asks her if he is hallucinating this and she asks if he took the Vicodin. He says no and drops the pills on the floor. They smile and kiss again.

Cuddy's relationship with House progressed throughout most of Season 7. In Episode 15, "Bombshells", Cuddy discovers blood in her urine. After several tests, Wilson finds a mass in Cuddy's kidney and schedules a biopsy to take place later in the episode. Further "imaging shows enhancing masses across multiple lobes of Cuddy's lungs", of which Foreman points out "That's what kidney cancer looks like when it metastasizes". Finally, just before surgery to have the tumor removed, House shows up to support his girlfriend through this tough time. Cuddy realizes at the end of the episode that the only reason House was able to overcome his selfishness was because he had taken Vicodin before visiting her in the hospital. It is here that Cuddy breaks off the relationship with House after confronting him regarding her suspicion of his relapse.

In the Season 7 finale, an angry House rams his car into her house. She resigns as Dean of Medicine after this event with Eric Foreman eventually replacing her.

Characterization

Cuddy was created by executive producer Bryan Singer, who had enjoyed Lisa Edelstein's portrayal of a high-priced call girl putting herself through law school on ''The West Wing'', and sent her a copy of the pilot script. Edelstein was attracted to the program's "smart writing", and was cast in the role. The character has been described as "tough-as-nails" by ''Salons Lily Burana, a woman who "clicks through the halls of the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital in low-cut sweaters and pencil skirts, bringing incredible Jewy glamour to prime time". ''The New York Times'''s Alessandra Stanley has similarly referred to her as the hospital's "comely but by-the-book chief administrator ..who, like all heads of prestigious teaching hospitals, wears plunging necklines to work." Edelstein, questioned on whether she felt Cuddy's typical attire of tight-fitting, low-cut outfits was appropriate for her position, responded: "She doesn't care what people say ..She's a television character, and I'm an actress playing a hospital administrator, and I don't want to be in frumpy clothes. I want to be a ''hot'' hospital administrator." ''TV Guide'''s Nina Hämmerling Smith calls Cuddy a foil for House, who "doesn't take isnonsense and knows how to keep him in check — more or less." ''The Washington Post'''s Tom Shales has deemed Cuddy House's "nagging nemesis", whose role is "to make House miserable". Discussing Cuddy's characterization in terms of her relationship with House, Edelstein has opined:
Co-executive producer Garrett Lerner has praised Edelstein's versatility in the role when asked to summarize Cuddy, stating:

Development

During the early fourth season of ''House'', Cuddy received reduced screen time as the show focused on House's new fellows. Edelstein revealed that the show would return to its regular format after the season's ninth episode. However, production was halted by the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, which delayed the remainder of the season. Edelstein commented: "Cuddy won't be sleeping with House unless we get the writers back. So I'm out there picketing." As a result of the strike, storylines involving Cuddy had to be pushed back into the show's fifth season, as the fourth season ran for a reduced number of episodes.

When Edelstein heard she had to do a strip scene in the episode "House's Head", she called actress Sheila Kelley, wife of Richard Schiff (with whom Edelstein had worked previously on ''The West Wing'' and '' Relativity''). Kelley had worked on a movie about strippers long ago and Edelstein asked her for her advice on the choreography of the striptease. On the episode itself, Edelstein commented: "It is very interesting what happens in the first half of the finale in terms of learning about how House sees people and getting the world from his point of view entirely". Before the filming of the scene started, Edelstein showed the dance to Hugh Laurie, who, according to Edelstein, was "incredibly supportive, like a cheerleader". Edelstein commented that after the scene was filmed she, "felt beautiful, and it ended up being a really lovely experience".

Cuddy's desire for a baby paralleled Edelstein's personal life, with the actress explaining: "When the show started, I told the producers that at some point during the run of the show, if it was successful, that I was going to get pregnant one way or another. So they planted that seed in the character's story so it would be possible for me as a woman to experience that." When Cuddy became a mother to Rachel in the show's fifth season, executive producer Katie Jacobs discussed the need for Cuddy to find a balance between her personal and professional life, as well as the impact motherhood would have on her relationship with House:

The tension and chemistry are still there. Neither one of them is actively fessing-up to looking for a relationship, but they are drawn to each other. None of the flirtatiousness is going to go away. The stakes are very high for them. The attraction is still there. We are absolutely going to continue that. It's real and it's palpable. And it's who they are.

Cuddy had a difficult relationship with her mother (played by Candice Bergen) after her father passed away. Although they are cordial, they tend to hide things from each other: Cuddy had misgivings about House meeting her mother for a long time; her mother hid an affair she was having for five years.

"Huddy"

The relationship between House and Cuddy is known by the portmanteau

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases