NBC has committed to a comedy produced
by Ellen DeGeneres and starring her wife Portia de Rossi, Nikki
Finke's Deadline
Hollywood reported.
All four major broadcast networks
reportedly vied for the comedy from Warner Bros TV and DeGeneres'
nascent production company A Very Good Production.
The unnamed comedy will be about
dueling sisters, one of whom will be played by de Rossi. DeGeneres
will executive produce.
De Rossi, 38, is best know for playing
lawyer Nelle Porter on Ally McBeal and inept activist Lindsay
Bluth Funke on Arrested Development. Both shows were early
successes for Fox. She also played Olivia Lord on the FX medical
drama Nip/Tuck.
DeGeneres, 53, and de Rossi married in
California in 2008. The couple was among the 18,000 who married
during the period of time after the California Supreme Court
legalized gay marriage but before Proposition 8 overruled the court's
ruling. De Rossi, born Amanda Lee Rogers, changed her name to Portia
Lee James DeGeneres last year, but is known professionally as Portia
de Rossi.
The series will be written by Samantha
Who? co-creator/executive producer Don Todd.