Entertainment

Laverne Cox's TV Pilot Gets A 2nd Chance

As if we needed another reason to be in love with, and thankful for, Orange Is The New Black. The show may have just been the thing that got Laverne Cox another chance to pitch the pilot for her show Doubt . Or, I guess it isn't quite a show yet, because it's still in the early stages where tons of things can go wrong, but I think I speak for everyone when I say we'd certainly like it to be. The show being pitched here is a legal drama starring Cox as a lawyer who begins a relationship with one of her clients. And not just any client — one accused of an especially brutal crime. Because, of course. Why anyone would be attracted to a non-murderer is beyond me.

The original version of the pilot was pitched to CBS, and also starred Teddy Sears, whom you might recognize from the original American Horror Story or Masters of Sex, KaDee Strickland from Private Practice, Dule Hill from The West Wing, Psych, and all my fantasies, and Elliott Gould, whom I'll never stop thinking of as Ross and Monica's dad, Jack Geller, from Friends. However, it didn't get picked up for a series order in May, so many people were worried it would be completely scrapped. But that doesn't seem to be the case, as it's being reported that the pilot will be reshot this fall after some rewrites from married couple Tony Phelan and Joan Rater, who wrote the first iteration and also collaborated on Grey's Anatomy.

So, long story short, it sounds like director Adam Bernstein has his best people on it, with the pilot allegedly being fast tracked for consideration in the future CBS lineup, so there are good odds we'll see the finished product here. And, from my perspective, I can't imagine that that didn't have at least a little to do with star Laverne Cox's stunning performance as Sophia Burset on OITNB. There's no proof of it, of course, but I like to imagine that the producers saw her kicking ass in the newly-released Season 3 and just knew they couldn't pass up an opportunity to work with her.

So props to you, Orange Is The New Black, for highlighting (get it?? it's a hairdresser joke!) our gal to perfection, and giving her the chance she deserves to take it to the next level. It's so hard to imagine our lives without Cox as an activist, as an entertainer, and as an inspiration, and, while she's been in lots of projects before, it was OITNB that really made her a household name. Let's keep our fingers crossed that the second incarnation of Doubt is the one that gets picked up for a full series, because I can't wait between seasons of the popular Netflix series to get my Laverne Cox fix!

Image: Giphy