Regularly seen talking politics on Fox News Channel, Morton Kondracke has a much more personal story to tell.

The Washington, D.C.-based journalist first recounted his late wife's health struggle in his best-selling book "Saving Milly: Love, Politics and Parkinson's Disease." She died in July 2004, and now, the couple's shared struggle is being dramatized. Madeleine Stowe and Bruce Greenwood ("Double Jeopardy") star as Milly and Mort in the new CBS movie "Saving Milly" Sunday, March 13.

Kondracke reports that before her death, Milly knew the film was in the works. He says, "Right after the book came out in 2001, talk about a movie version began, but she didn't know it was a done deal. That didn't happen until last October. For the last year of her life, I would say, she had pretty much faded out; it was hard to tell what she knew or what she didn't."

The movie's director, television veteran Dan Curtis ("The Winds of War," "Dark Shadows"), kept Kondracke involved throughout the production process. All the film's makers "wanted my input from the beginning," Kondracke says. "I probably averaged three phone calls a week on it, then I was on the set for two of the four weeks it took to film it. I didn't have any veto rights, but I was allowed to suggest anything I wanted to."

Seen weeknights on "Special Report With Brit Hume" and weekends on "The Beltway Boys" on Fox News Channel, Kondracke hopes CBS' version of "Saving Milly" will help prompt increased government funding of medical research. For now, he's grateful to Parkinson's-afflicted personalities -- especially Michael J. Fox -- for being willing to keep the illness in the spotlight.

"He has transformed the landscape" of awareness of the disease, Kondracke believes. "There is no end to the amount of attention he can draw, and it's not just because he's so famous; it's also because he's so beloved. He puts a face on Parkinson's that no one else possibly could."