After ending her tenure as Secretary of State back in 2001, Madeleine Albright, the first woman to hold the office, moved on to a career of pop culture-related diplomacy. (In addition to, you know, founding the Albright Group and serving as the chairwoman of the Council of Women World Leaders Women’s Ministerial Initiative.) Just after her White House tenure ended, she visited the set of Star Trek Nemesis, giving the world both this awesome photo and this adorable Twitter exchange in which she called the experience “one of the highlights of my life.” A few years later she popped up on Gilmore Girls in a trippy dream sequence where she snuggles in bed with Alexis Bledel.
Her latest pop culture venture brings Albright full circle: According to Variety, she’ll be playing herself on an upcoming episode of Madam Secretary, the CBS drama that stars Téa Leoni as fictional Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord. While the show most closely parallels the career of Hillary Clinton, it was likely inspired somewhat by Albright, who wrote a memoir of the same title.
In the episode, Albright is called in to advise Elizabeth on navigating a tricky situation involving National Security Advisor Craig Sterling (guest star Julian Acosta) that is causing tension in her relationship with President Conrad Dalton (Keith Carradine). Hopefully the show will find some way to let Albright recreate her real-life pop culture-related political proclamation, “I’ve never been to New Zealand before. But one of my role models, Xena the warrior princess, comes from here.”
Madam Secretary returns for a second season on October 4, although it’s not yet known when Albright’s episode will air.