By Romeo San Vicente
Laura Linney. Photo: Matt Nettheim




Linney and Condon reunite for 'C Word'


Her bitchy turns in "Mystic River" and "The Nanny Diaries" notwithstanding, Laura Linney usually plays nice, or at least pleasant, people. So what's she doing starring in a Showtime series called "The C Word"? Get your mind out of the gutter Рthe "C" is for "cancer." The "Tales of the City" and "Love Actually" star plays a suburban wife and mother coping with that life-changing diagnosis. It's an intriguing premise, made all the more so by the fact that the pilot will be directed by Bill Condon, the gay filmmaker behind "Kinsey," for which Linney snagged an Oscar nomination. (Condon's also the guy behind "Dreamgirls" and "Gods and Monsters," of course.) Expect some gallows humor and moving drama interspersed among the biopsies and chemo; the pilot shoots this fall and should air in 2010.


Spielberg's putting on a show! About a show!


With his "Catch Me If You Can" currently in the process of becoming a musical, Steven Spielberg clearly has Broadway fever. He's developing a dramatic series about the creation of a Broadway show, from writing the songs to getting the investors to opening out of town, and he's rallied some experts Рgay men, of course Рto help. Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who brought "Chicago" and "Hairspray" to the big screen, are in talks to produce the series, with songwriters Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (whose credits include "Hairspray" and "Catch Me") to create the tunes for the show-within-the-show. Oh, and the fictional Broadway show created over the course of the series is then planned to actually open on the Great White Way. So forget "High School Musical"; this is the real deal. The Showtime series is still in the early stages of development, but Romeo can't wait.


Lily's going to do some 'Damages'


Older actresses often have to struggle to keep working (witness, in recent years, the soap opera purge of anyone over 50). They wind up playing the Rappin' Granny or they simply retire from the business altogether. Meanwhile, pioneering comedian Lily Tomlin keeps moving full steam ahead. She's just signed on for the third season of the FX drama "Damages," where she'll play the matriarch of a wealthy, powerful family who causes headaches for Glenn Close's Emmy-winning, take-no-prisoners lawyer Patty Hewes. Campbell Scott will play Tomlin's son and fellow funny-man Martin Short will appear as the family's attorney. The new season has already begun production, so there's not much longer to wait until we get to witness the two strong women battle on basic cable. Go catch up on those first two seasons on DVD!


Will 'Kept' be Logo's 'Real Housewives'?



Since the shrill and tacky women featured on Bravo's hit "Real Housewives" franchise so often seem like drag queens, it was inevitable that someone would skip a step and create a similar show about actual gay men. And so we get "Kept," an upcoming Logo reality series about fabulous (in their own minds, anyway) Manhattan party boys and their glamorous (in their own minds, anyway) lives. And since it's almost impossible to do a show about fashion-twinks without some sort of sugar-daddy element to it, look for "Kept" to live up to its title by introducing us to the check-signers so often hiding unseen in the lives of no-job-having, club-hopping, designer-duds-wearing, substance-snorting, cosmo-spilling, hair-product-abusing gay boys. No word yet on when the show will premiere, but be prepared for a gay audience that despises the show while obsessively poring over every second of it.




