Confirmed

The Senate yesterday confirmed Christine Fox to be director of the Pentagon's Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation shop. Fox, who recently stepped down as president of the Center for Naval Analyses, has nearly 30 years of experience as an analyst and research manager focused on defense issues.

And get this: She was also the inspiration for Kelly McGillis' character Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood in "Top Gun."

The original script called for McGillis’s character to be a Navy officer. “The admiral assigned by the Navy to oversee the production had script approval,” Fox recalls, adding that of course, the officer–officer romance was a no-go. “Then ((Bruckheimer)) suggested that the character could be an aerobics teacher at the Officer’s Club,” Fox says. “((The admiral)) replied, ‘How about ((modeling the character after)) my CNA rep?’” . . .

“I later read a review panning ‘Top Gun,’ as being completely unrealistic that a civilian woman would work in such a macho environment,” Fox says, laughing. “I thought about writing that reviewer a letter to set him straight.”

The Senate also confirmed Gladys Commons to be the Navy's comptroller. From 2002 to 2004, Commons served as comptroller of Military Sealift Command where she directed the programming, budgeting, and execution of a $2.4 billion annual budget that provided resources to operate a fleet of 131 logistics force, special mission, strategic sealift and prepositioned ships.