There was a lot of confusion last week when The West Wing's John Spencer passed away. Every single newspaper, magazine, and web site (including this one, but in our defense we missed the opening scene and were just repeating the news sites) reported that the character of Leo had appeared in a three years later flash forward in the first scene of the season opener. And that would pose a problem, since Spencer passed away and couldn't have been in a scene three years in the future.

But NBC is repeating the episode right now and it's official: Leo was not in the scene. So some of the speculation we talked about last week is still valid.

The West Wing star John Spencer, who played Leo McGarry, died today in a Los Angeles hospital of a heart attack, according to his publicist. Spencer played Chief of Staff to Martin Sheen's President Jeb Bartlet. On the show, ironically, Spencer's character suffered a heart attack that forced him to give up his White House gig. In a main storyline this season, though, his character had been tapped as a vice-presidential running mate for Democratic hopeful Matt Santos, played by Jimmy Smits.