Tea Leoni gets go-ahead from kids for TV return

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Tea Leoni got the go-ahead from her kids to get back to work.

The 48-year-old actress has worked sparingly in recent years while being at home with 15-year-old daughter, Madelaine, and son, Kyd, whose father is actor David Duchovny.

"I turned to my 12-year-old son and I said, 'It's going to be a little tricky. I'm not going to be around as much. Are you cool with that?"' Leoni said Thursday at the summer TV critics' meeting.

"He said, 'Yeah, I was getting kind of sick of you,"' she said. "So I'm back."

Leoni plays the U.S. secretary of state with Tim Daly as her husband in the upcoming CBS show "Madam Secretary." Her last movie role came in "Tower Heist" in 2011, and she starred in TV's "The Naked Truth" in the 1990s.

Morgan Freeman serves as an executive producer of the new show. The 77-year-old actor said there are currently no plans for him to appear on camera, but he noted that Daly's character is a professor of religion.

"I have a little experience playing God," joked Freeman, referring to his role in the film "Bruce Almighty."

Creator and executive producer Barbara Hall said former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright - the first woman to serve in the job - is excited about the show and has met with Leoni and Daly.

"She's very eager to weigh in and help us," Hall said.

She said the show was inspired by actual events and will attempt to "pull back the curtain on how the State Department works."