Academy Award(R)-nominated actress Joan Cusack has joined the cast of SHOWTIME's new one-hour drama series SHAMELESS. Cusack, who will appear in all 12 episodes of the new series, will play the role of Sheila, an agoraphobic Chicago housewife with a sexually active teenage daughter who strikes up a special friendship with William H. Macy's character, Frank Gallagher. Production on the first season begins in mid-September, with the series premiering on SHOWTIME, Sunday, January 9th at 9:00 PM ET/PT.
SHOWTIME, Warner Bros. Television and acclaimed Emmy(R) Award-winning television and film producer John Wells (ER, THE WEST WING, SOUTHLAND, WHITE OLEANDER, FAR FROM HEAVEN, SHOWTIME's AN AMERICAN CRIME) are bringing an adaptation of SHAMELESS, the long-running British series, to American premium television starring Emmy(R) Award winner and Oscar(R) nominee William H. Macy (Door to Door, Fargo, Pleasantville, The Cooler), Golden Globe(R) nominee Emmy Rossum (The Phantom of the Opera) and guest starring Emmy(R) Award winner Allison Janney (The West Wing) in a recurring role. SHOWTIME has ordered 12 episodes of the hour-long drama tracing the lives of a very unconventional family which will be executive produced by Wells and the series' original creator and Emmy(R) Award-winner Paul Abbott. The announcement was made today by Robert Greenblatt, President of Entertainment, Showtime Networks Inc. The series will start production at the end of summer 2010.
Following the Sunday, December 3rd performance of Dark Matters at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, director Trip Cullman and actors Elizabeth Marvel, Justin Chatwin, and Michael Cullen will participate in a talk-back with the audience
