Valerie Plame on female spies in movies and TV

Our colleague David Beard asked Valerie Plame — now promoting her new espionage novel, “Blowback” — for her thoughts on the portrayal of various lady spies in popular culture. She’s skeptical of Claire Danes’s brilliant-but-skittish loner Carrie Mathison on “Homeland”: “If you’re going to be in human intelligence, having a high EQ is kind of essential.” But overall, she gets a higher grade for realism, than, say, Jennifer Garner in “Alias.”

Best and worst female spies in pop culture, by Valerie Plame

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Claire Danes as Carrie Anderson in Homeland - Photo: Ronen Akerman/SHOWTIME - Photo ID: homeland_100_4990p (Ronen Akerman)

Best and worst female spies in pop culture, by Valerie Plame

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Claire Danes as Carrie Anderson in Homeland - Photo: Ronen Akerman/SHOWTIME - Photo ID: homeland_100_4990p (Ronen Akerman)

Earlier: Valerie Plame pens a spy novel about (surprise!) a covert CIA agent, 9/19/13