Cherry Jones plays the new U.S. president on Fox's 24, but she wouldn't dare try to advise the real president-elect Barack Obama, no matter her admiration for him. "I don't have one shred of advice for that brilliant man," says Jones, a two-time Tony Award winner who is front and center in 24's seventh season.  "How this country manages in its greatest moments of adversity to come up with extraordinary leaders I do not know. I'm an agnostic, but it almost makes me believe in divine intervention. Between Lincoln and Roosevelt and now, Obama.  Those are the three because the country has never been as challenged as it has been in those times. I just marvel ... it makes me cry to think that once again, out of the blue — we didn't see this one coming — we have the leader that we need."

Jones tells our Nancy Mills that she didn't become a fan of 24 until she was invited to become a cast member, but she quickly discovered, "The show is like popcorn. You start watching, and you can't stop. It gets your blood pumping." As for being commander-in-chief, Jones says, "When you step into the Oval Office to play at being the president, you feel a tremendous bond with all the men who have served in that office before you." So will she be back next season? Jones isn't saying. "They're at a real turning point," she says of the 24 team. "Kiefer Sutherland has signed for an eighth season. I get the sense that they're looking to shake things up, just for themselves. They need new challenges."

Photo by Joseph Viles/Fox