L Word reality spin off in the pipeline
by Death by Chocolate
The L Word may be over and initial plans for a spin off based around Alice (Leisha Hailey) shelved, but Ilene Chaiken is far from done. Rumour has it that Showtime has commissioned nine episodes of Chaiken’s new brain child “The Real L Word: Los Angeles”. Yep, you guessed it, a show focusing on the lives of ‘real’ LA lesbians. According to Variety, the show will follow six LA lesbians as they go about their everyday lives.
Chaiken commented:
“Even though we concluded out sixth season of The L Word on Showtime this past March, I believe we are not nearly finished telling our L Word stories … Showtime has yet again come forward to continue with us this mission to entertain and enlighten and bring more ‘L’ to the world.”
Chaiken will produce the show along with Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz of reality production company Magic Elves. According to Cutforth:
“We’re ready to take on the challenge of living up to the groundbreaking drama of the original L Word.”
Somehow, I don’t see any real lesbians creating as much drama as Shane, Alice and co. However, I am willing to be proved wrong.
Reaction from certain quarters hasn’t been too positive, with some predicting the end result to be “more boring and a lot less attractive” than the original version, with others forecasting a concept involving “picking the prettiest lesbians, styling them according to designer sponsorship”. Err, I know which I’d prefer.
In any case, we can at least rely on one certainty: there is no WAY the producers will manage to unearth a real life lesbian as annoying as Jenny. That alone is surely reason enough to watch.
The show is expected to air in the US in 2010, so watch this space. Oh, and if we have any LA readers out there, I hear they haven’t cast the lucky six as yet. Now’s your chance …
This could be you.
Reality television is a contradiction in terms – the minute you put someone in front of a camera and say ‘act natural’ you can be assured nothing of the sort will happen. This sounds like another way for Ilene Chaiken to make money in my opinion. I can just see this being disastrous for everyone involved and making all (or most) of the cast look like fools.
“with some predicting the end result to be “more boring and a lot less attractive” than the original version, with others forecasting a concept involving “picking the prettiest lesbians, styling them according to designer sponsorship”. Err, I know which I’d prefer.”
– haha i think i’d agree with your preference