Poll shows Smits with lead over Alda in ‘West Wing’ race

Utica, N.Y. — It’s Jimmy Smits over Alan Alda in a landslide.

Pollster John Zogby, who often asks Americans who they think will be elected president, surveyed viewers of “The West Wing,” asking which candidate they prefer for the NBC political drama’s next president — Democratic Rep. Matt Santos of Texas, played by Smits, or Republican Sen. Arnold Vinick of California, played by Alda.

The second term of Democratic incumbent President Josiah Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen, is coming to an end on the show.

Smits’ character leads Alda’s character 44 percent to 28 percent among “West Wing” viewers contacted by computer for the interactive poll.

Vinick, it seems, has a gender problem.

“While he and Santos are tied among men, each getting 35 percent of the vote, Santos holds a commanding lead among women, where he outpolls Vinick 53 percent to 22 percent,” Zogby said.

The poll was conducted Feb. 18-25 and the results were based on the answers of 5,505 American adults nationwide who said they were viewers of the show. The poll has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 0.7 percentage points.

Pregnant Richards seeks divorce from Charlie Sheen

Los Angeles — “Two and a Half Men” star Charlie Sheen is suddenly minus a woman.

Denise Richards has filed for divorce from Sheen after almost three years of marriage.

According to the divorce petition filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Richards cites irreconcilable differences for the split.

The couple have a daughter, Sam, who turns 1 next week, and Richards is six months pregnant with the couple’s second child, who is due in early June. The “Wild Things” actress wants custody of the children and is seeking spousal support payments from Sheen.

In happier times, Sheen, 39, and Richards, 34, were inseparable, costarring in projects and gushing about their mutual admiration. The couple first shared credits in 1993’s “Loaded Weapon 1.”

They married in June 2002.

New York sees tourism boom thanks to ‘The Gates’

New York — “The Gates” was “a daring labor of love,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg says, and the 7,503 pieces of saffron fabric being dismantled this week leave a financial imprint: $254 million spent by visitors to the Central Park installation.

Bloomberg boasted Thursday during a news conference that the event’s intent was to provide “a big, bold project that would set our city apart. We showed the world that New York is safe and exciting.”

The installation featured a series of door frames or “gates,” hung with fabric, along 23 miles of Central Park’s footpaths. It drew an estimated 4 million visitors , including 1.5 million out-of-towners, between Feb. 12 and Sunday. The same period in a typical February usually sees 750,000 visitors.

The artists — Bulgarian-born Christo and his Moroccan-born wife, Jeanne-Claude — picked up the entire tab for the construction and dismantling of the exhibition, financing the project with sales of their drawings and other works.

Birthdays

Actress Patricia Heaton is 47. Actress-singer Barbara McNair is 71. Singer Bobby Womack is 61. Chastity Bono is 36. Jazz musician Jason Marsalis is 28. Actress Jenna Boyd is 12.