Just noticed this in The Hollywood Reporter: ABC has given the green light to the drama pilot "Football Wives," based on the popular British primetime soap "Footballers' Wives" which airs on BBC America in the U.S.
Hooray! I love this show for many reasons (the delicious character of Tanya Turner (Zoe Lucker) being the biggest one!)But here's a few queer reasons to cheer: the character of Noah Alexander (Marcel McCalla), introduced in season three, is gay. Not only is he gay, but he fancies the team's David Beckham-ish captain, Conrad Gates (Ben Price). Conrad is married and is carrying in various affairs with women but being the open-minded guy that he is, he also has an affair with Noah!
So here, the deal. How gay will the U.S. version, centered around the NFL instead of pro soccer, be? Football is such a homophobic sport so it will be interesting to see if the show will have a character like Noah and allow the captain to be bisexual.
There is reason to be optimistic though. Openly gay director Bryan Singer ("Superman Returns" and the first two "X-Men" movies) has come on board to potentially direct the project, which revolves around women whose lives are transformed when they marry NFL superstars. I also like the fact that the show is being produced by Touchstone TV for ABC which is behind hit primetime soaps "Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy" and promising new entries to the genre "Ugly Betty" and "Brothers & Sisters." All but "Grey's" have significant gay characters (provided Andrew gets utilized again on 'Housewives').
Openly-gay writer-director Marco Pennette penned the pilot script and is one of the executive producers.
I. Can't. Wait!