Wendell Pierce at the inauguration.

You probably know him as Bunk, a k a Detective William Moreland, who teamed with Detective Jimmy McNulty in HBO’s The Wire. Or maybe music’s your thing, and you know him as Antoine Batiste, the trombonist who fronts Antoine Batiste and his Soul Apostles on Treme, another HBO hit.

As the star of two shows that have earned cult followings, plus memorable appearances on Law & Order and Third Watch, it’s likely you know New Orleans native Wendell Pierce from somewhere.

Mr. Pierce was on hand Monday for the inauguration of President Barack Obama, and while he was there to celebrate the country’s leader, he had plenty of time for the dozens of fans who stopped by to pay homage. He was exceedingly gracious, smiling through autographs and handshakes and making time for anyone with a camera.

Though his job likely puts him in a tax bracket most can only dream of, Mr. Pierce seemed to identify with Mr. Obama’s populist message, joining in the applause when the president spoke of the “shrinking few” who do very well and the “growing many barely making it.”

Bunk proved he’s not just another bobblehead in pancake makeup when one well-wisher asked what he was up to these days. Pierce rolled through the on-screen projects he’s part of, before the fan interrupted to ask about the “real work.”

“That’s the acting. What about the things you’re doing in New Orleans?” asked the man, who was in from New Jersey.

“We’re trying to rebuild,” Mr. Pierce said. “Always trying.”

Since Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Pierce has made rebuilding the battered city his cause. To that end, the actor and two partners are opening a chain of grocery stores in the city designed to serve “food deserts”—low-income neighborhoods that have been without access to quality fresh food since the storm. Mr. Pierce was also instrumental in the construction of a green community in Pontchartrain Park, the neighborhood where he grew up.

It’s no surprise Mr. Pierce trekked to D.C. for the inauguration. He served as a surrogate for Mr. Obama during his campaign and was a visible presence at the Democratic National Convention last fall. He also raised at least $50,000 as one of Mr. Obama’s team of celebrity bundlers. What was a nice surprise, however—and possibly a very early sign of the harmony the president said he would seek in his second term—was seeing a Hollywood star stand in the cold for as long as it took his many fans to wrangle their iPhones into Instagram mode.

Speakeasy talked to Simon about the next season of his HBO series "Treme," which has already begun filming, and about the relationship between the development of a show and the process of focusing his reporter's eye for a story.

Now the institutional gravitas of these news organizations has leeched away. The Baltimore Sun used to have 500 reporters, morning and evening editions, and now they have 120. And the product reflects that, and these cuts were made before the Internet. They were made because some Wall Street analyst decided that you could make much more money putting out mediocre newspapers with less coverage and less reporters. And they were right in the short term. But in the long term, they were showing contempt for their readership and contempt for their own roles in society. Rather than papers of record, they became half-hearted attempts to provide a surface level of coverage. 

Well, David Simon, your HBO contract for "Treme" only lasts through the second season. So if you get canceled due to middling reviews and and minimal audience, we're sure The Sun would love to have you back in the newsroom.

nfreeman [at] observer.com | @nfreeman1234

Mr. Simon hasn't said exactly how he'll use the money, but he is not going to give it away. He's interested in advocating more seriously for the issues that he writes about in his shows. “One overt argument that The Wire was making is that the drug war is amoral and untenable,” Mr. Simon told The New York Times ahead of the MacArthur Grant announcement.

But Mr. Simon hasn't said anything about improving the state of journalism. Maybe that's a lame cause by now? It would be nice if he put some of this money where his mouth is. Mr. Simon, who worked as a crime reporter at the Baltimore Sun in the '80s and '90s where he drew a lot of inspiration for The Wire, spoke on the Senate subcommittee hearing about the Future of Journalism in 2009. "The day I run into a Huffington Post reporter at a Baltimore zoning board hearing is the day that I will be confident that we've actually reached some sort of equilibrium," Mr. Simon told the subcommittee, chaired by Senator John Kerry. He was sitting next to Arianna Huffington. "You know, the next 10 or 15 years in this country are going to be a halcyon era for state and local political corruption. It is going to be one of the great times to be a corrupt politician, all right?"

Mr. Simon expressed his disgust with old and new media companies alike, saying that they were colluding in a way to end some of the most important journalism (namely reporting at a local level). "Well, a plague on both their houses," he said. (Mr. Simon echoed these thoughts in an interview with Capital's Josh Benson in June.)

In his recent interview about the grant with The Times, Mr. Simon expressed a lack of confidence. “Obviously, I’m very grateful but I have a vague sense of not belonging,” he said. Mr. Simon lamented that past winners had done “tangible things to improve conditions.” But it seems like Mr. Simon already has a great idea about how to improve conditions. Go to work on a new model for local reporting. $500,000 might not pay for a newsroom, but Mr. Simon must have ideas about how to put the money to work. Other people have tried, and it's defnitely not an easy problem to solve. It might even take a genius.

It's a Reunion!

With Mr. Simon's involvement, it should come as no surprise that Treme as like a de facto reunion of The Wire. As such, the cast features many familiar faces that disciples of Mr. Simon's former series will surely recognize: Wendell Pierce ("Bunk") and Clarke Peters ("Lester"), both veterans of The Wire, are part of the new series' sprawling ensemble.

When the Levees Broke...

Wanting to keep things as real as possible—and simultaneously help with the economy of New Orleans—Mr. Simon shot the series locally and even hired many non-actors from the area to take roles. Included in this local flavor is Phyllis Montana LeBlanc, a New Orleans native and Hurricane Katrina survivor whom Spike Lee memorably showcased in his documentary, When the Levees Broke.

R.I.P. David Mills.

One of Mr. Simon's longtime friends and co-writers, David Mills, died on the set of Treme at the end of last month from brain aneurysm. He wrote two of the episodes from this season of the show, the third and seventh.

How Do You Say...

There's no accent over the second "e" in the title -- but Treme is indeed pronounced "truh-MAY" and not "Tream." This may not seem like a big deal, but it's essential information if you skip the show but can't resist pretending you saw it on Monday morning.

Treme premieres Sunday at 10 p.m. on HBO.

Mr. Simon spent a good chunk of his career as a crime reporter at The Baltimore Sun. He set much of the fifth season of The Wire in the post-Tribune newsroom of The Sun.

At one point during the lunch, Rebecca Dana of The Daily Beast asked Mr. Simon how much of a role, if any, The New Orleans Times-Picayune would play in the new series.

Mr. Simon said that while shooting the first season of Treme, he spent one day at the Times-Picayune offices where the bosses struck him as a touch nervous about his presence (the portrayal of The Baltimore Sun executives in The Wire was something less than sunny).

But it sounds like the Times-Picayune brass have little to worry about. From what he said today, Mr. Simon didn't sound like a man interested in devoting another season of TV to plumbing the sad dramatic depths of today's daily newspaper culture.

"Never tell the same story twice," said Mr. Simon.

That said, Mr. Simon did put one group of media types on notice--namely, the judges of the Emmy awards.

Mr. Simon said that if Wendell Piece, who stars in Treme, doesn't win an Emmy for his work in the series that Mr. Simon would travel to L.A. personally to slash the tires of the no-good judges.