Tag Archives: showtime

Kate Moennig Addresses Those L Word Reboot Rumours

The groundbreaking show, The L Word – which followed the lives and loves of a group of Los Angeles lesbians – ran for six seasons from 2004 and 2009.

In recent months speculation has be sparked talk of a reboot, with executive producer Ilene Chaiken tweeting, apparently out of the blue: “So excited! Can’t wait…!”

As if that wasn’t enough, Chaiken – who is now an executive producer for hit Fox show Empire – was then joined in her Twitter conversation by some of the cast.

Kate Moennig, who played the inimitable, irreplaceable Shane McCutcheon, replied to the post.

And Sarah Shahi, who played Carmen de la Pica Morales in seasons two and three, added

The prospect of seeing some of the best, most fleshed-out characters – let alone lesbian characters – interact again was almost too much.

 

Now talking to Liz Feldman on This Just Out with Liz Feldman, Moennig has said she would totally be down for an L Word comeback. (Watch below)

Are We Finally Getting ‘The L Word’ Reboot We’ve Longed For?

With one tweet, The L Word creator Ilene Chaiken managed to send queer women everywhere into a twitter frenzy.

Former cast members Kate Moennig, Jennifer Beals and Sarah Shahi were all quick to respond:

So what does this mean? Are we really finally getting The L Word reboot we’ve longed for? Or are they just all meeting up for a casual catch-up?

Fans we’re quick to respond

Signs are looking promising. Over the years many of the cast has said they’d be up for a reunion.

Chaiken told Entertainment Weekly;

I would love to revisit The L Word. We talk about it from time to time. I talk about it with some of my colleagues who were in the cast who would love to reboot it.”

Jennifer Beals has even had a few ideas about how the series might be different now.

So is a reboot on the cards?

Showtime Picks Up Lena Waithe New Drama ‘The Chi’

Showtime has given the greenlight to a drama series called The Chi, created by Dear White People producer, Lena Waithe.

The Chi is a relevant, timely and distinctive coming-of-age story and follows a half dozen interrelated characters in the South Side of Chicago.

Waithe explained

I want the opportunity to tell stories that are not just about violence, but more about what is life like in a city that is riddled with violence. To follow multiple black men from different walks of life, with different goals, and different ideas of what it means to be a man — and what it looks like trying to survive the South Side of Chicago.”

On writing the pilot, she said,

I wasn’t really focused on the cops. I wanted to do a show about the people sitting in the back seat of the squad car and how they got there. I want to see them eating breakfast that morning before they left their house. If you see that, you have a different perspective on what he looks like now. You feel a connection to him because you saw him sitting at a table with his mom or his brother or whatever, just being a normal human being. You can actually sympathize with him and his journey, no matter what that journey looks like — and that journey may not always be pretty.

But to me, that’s what art is supposed to do. It’s supposed to make you see a side of humanity that you otherwise didn’t pay attention to.”

Straight Outta Compton’s Jason Mitchell play’s Brandon, an ambitious and confident young man who dreams about opening a restaurant of his own someday, but is conflicted between the promise of a new life and his responsibility to his mother and teenage brother back in the South Side.

Rick Famuyiwa will executive produce and direct the premiere episode.

In addition to her writing and producing credits, Waithe also plays Denise on the Netflix series “Master of None.”

No start date has yet been announced.

Jennifer Beals Talks ‘The L Word’, Progression and Lesbian Visibility

Jennifer Beals has worked in a variety of leading roles, but most memorable for us is her starring role in the TV series The L Word.

In a recent interview with A.V Club, she discussed the importance of the show to herself:

That series was really very, very important for me as an actor and as a human being in the world, because it introduced me to this whole new world of badass people who were unapologetic as to who they were and who they loved.”

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She went on to say:

I made some really lovely friends on the show, like Ilene Chaiken, who was just fantastic. She would encourage me to speak at these different LGBT events as to my experience of playing the character, and as a result, I was able to meet so many incredible activists who really kind of modelled for me how activism at its root is truly about speaking truth to power and getting as many people to speak that truth until power can no longer ignore what is righteous. That was hugely important for me to witness, because it engaged me in a very different way with social-justice issues, and it created this bridge eventually in my life to environmental-health issues, which is, in fact, a social-justice issue.

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And on visibility and progression:

For me, when I started playing the character, when I saw the script for the pilot, I thought, “This would be amazing to have some girl somewhere in the middle of nowhere, who has no access to her tribe, really, see herself represented as a multiplicity in a mainstream media.” I thought that would be incredible.

To touch just one person with this story, I would’ve been happy. But for the show to have had – and to still have – the kind of following that it does is incredibly gratifying. There are no fans that are more loyal than The L Word fans. They’re so engaged and present.

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And in regards to portrayal of Bette and her storyline, she added:

I got to play really, really interesting things, and it’s funny because before I received this script, I remember I was on a hike by myself—I’m always on a trail somewhere – and I was thinking, “What do I want to play?” I said, “I really want to play a great love story.

I want to play a great, profound, and beautiful love story.” Then this script arrived. [Laughs.] I hadn’t specified if it was going to be a heterosexual love story. I wasn’t specific in that request because it didn’t occur to me.

I wasn’t living in that mind set. But it was perfect: I got to play this great love story as this amazing character, and I got to be introduced to art in a different way, particularly contemporary art. I got to work with really great people, and I got to work with a group of women, which… You know, women don’t often get to work with other women. It just doesn’t happen very often.

 

 

Jennifer Beals Discusses her New Show ‘Proof’ and Chances of a ‘L Word’ Reboot

Jennifer Beals has a new TV show coming to TNT, which is produced by Kyra Sedgwick and called Proof.

In a recent interview with ETonline, Beals talked about her new character, and whether she is open for The L Word return.

When ETonline asked about reviving her famous role in Flash Dance, Beals replied with promising nod to The L Word instead.

Who knows! Maybe! But you will probably sooner see another L Word!

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She went on to say…

… people ask me quite often, “Is The L Word coming back?” You keep seeing shows like The X Files and Full House now being revamped and coming back to television, so you never know!”

The L Word was a landmark Showtime drama, which depicted the lives of a group of lesbian and bisexual women in West Hollywood. It ran for six seasons from 2004-2009. Beals appears as one of the main characters, Bette Porter, for all six seasons.

In her new show, Beals plays Dr. Cat Tyler, a brilliant yet arrogant surgeon who is struggling with the death of her son and the dissolution of her marriage.

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Approached by a cancer-stricken wealthy inventor (Matthew Modine), he promises Cat his financial empire, funding all her side projects, if she examines the connection between life and death. She is then drawn into investigating cases of near-death experiences and reincarnation, hauntings and other phenomena.

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Save the Date – New Mississippi L Word Documentry due August

The Showtime announced Wednesday that it will debut L Word Mississippi: Hate the Sin, a documentary from series creator Ilene Chaiken, in August. The L Word Mississippi will be a 90-minute documentary that unites Chaiken with Real L Word executive producers Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz’s Magical Elves.

Directed by Emmy nominee Lauren Lazin, the new show will explore the daily struggles of a group of Southern lesbians. Chaiken and the Elves will visit Bible Belt towns like Laurel, Gulfport and Hattiesburg to tell the stories of a dozen women, including a newly out-and-proud former pastor banished from her church who later regains her self-esteem by launching a program to support her local LGBTQ community; a white mother who would accept her daughter’s black lover, if only she were a man; a couple who grapples with both infertility and female-to-male gender transitioning; and a former life-long lesbian who struggles to “pray the gay away” and hopes to do the same for her openly gay son.

After The Real L Word was canceled last year, Showtime said they weren’t completely done with the L Word brand and that, instead, they’d put together a documentary about identifying as lesbian in a small town community.

“I’ve been talking a lot with Dan, Jane and Ilene about exploring L Word culture – lesbian culture in places not New York, L.A. – where the subculture is not so defined and it’s not so easy. I think we’re likely to make a documentary that will feel like a Real L Word documentary,”

David Nevins, Showtime Entertainment President

L Word Mississippi will premiere Aug. 8 at 9 p.m. on Showtime. The news comes a day after Showtime announced it would air the entire series runs of Queer as Folk and The L Word to celebrate Gay Pride Month in June. Chaiken, meanwhile, will segue from showrunning ABC’s The Black Box to Fox’s hip-hop drama Empire.

From a press release:

What is life like for lesbians living outside more progressive metropolitan areas in America today where gay women endure hardships, bigotry, bullying, sexism and racism while trying to live among their predominantly straight neighbors? Chaiken and the Elves journey deep into Bible Belt towns like Laurel, Gulfport and Hattiesburg to tell the stories of a dozen such women, including a newly out-and-proud former pastor banished from her church, but who later regains her self-esteem by launching a program to support her local LGBTQ community. A white mother would accept her daughter’s black lover, if only she were a man. A couple grapples with both infertility and female-to-male gender transitioning. And a former life-long lesbian struggles to “pray the gay away,” and hopes to do the same for her openly gay son.

…Against the backdrop of the burgeoning gender and marriage equality debate, L WORD MISSISSIPPI: HATE THE SIN spotlights those loving, living, working, parenting and forcing change from within places where entrenched, conservative values have resisted the progress the LGBTQ community has worked hard to achieve elsewhere.