The original Bond was a representative of patrician snob Britain, which may be why he has always been white and driven Austen Martins and whatall. (Although his choice of drink is distinctly declasse.)

His choice of drink was dictated, in the movies, by a deal with Smirnoff, I believe it was. In the books, he'd drink whatever was appropriate to the situation.

A martini, shaken, not stirred? I had no idea it was declasse.

There's a great bit in West Wing where President Bartlett explains that the reason you stir a martini is so as not to chip the ice, and thus Bond is ordering a watered down martini, and doing it in a snooty way.

Couple things. First, a martini is traditionally gin. You never, ever shake gin (i.e., put it in a shaker with ice), because that "bruises" the gin (dilutes it). You might serve a gin martini in a cold glass, but you never add ice in any way. Vodka martinis are newfangled, and part of the reason they exist is that you can do whatall to vodka and it doesn't affect the taste much. So, shaking or stirring a vodka drink is no beans either way.

Second, President Bartlett was talking out of his hindparts. You stir a martini to mix the gin and vermouth (or vodka and whatever), especially, as with gin, if you cannot shake the two ingredients together.

So, movie-Bond was ordering a vodka martini -- newfangled, declasse -- and ordering it in whatever way floated his boat, as is appropriate with vodka, but also kind of silly.

Second, President Bartlett was talking out of his hindparts.

On an Aaron Sorkin show? Never! Next you'll be saying that Joss likes to tear out our hears and stomp all over them.

I wonder if Aaron Sorkin thinks that Superman is the costume, or Clark Kent.

A traditional martini is iced, because traditionally you don't keep your vodka/gin in the freezer, so you have to ice it to cool it. You remove the ice from the mixed drink as soon as possible, generally by straining it.

See The Straight Dope: [link]

Off-topic, is anyone else horrified by the wastefulness of Flexplay?

Yes. I hated the idea the last time it was suggested, too, by whatever-the-weird-DVD-company was. "recycle" my great Aunt Savannah.

On an Aaron Sorkin show? Never!

Snerk. You know, this almost ruined Thespis for me this time 'round.

I was torn out of the story by my mind going, "But... why is the script using symptoms typical of an abruption and calling it previa?"

It's been bugging me for a week.

traditional martini is iced, because traditionally you don't keep your vodka/gin in the freezer, so you have to ice it to cool it. You remove the ice from the mixed drink as soon as possible, generally by straining it.

My experience is that people use a chilled glass for gin. I've seen vodka have the ice strained out of it to go into a martini glass, but not gin.

My experience is that people use a chilled glass for gin.

Again, that's a modern thing. Cocktails date from the early 1900s, when it was very unlikely that a bar would have the facilities to pre-chill glasses.