Through all of The L Word's ridiculous six seasons, Kate Moennig played Shane, the character that put butterflies in the tummies of men and women alike, gay, straight or otherwise. Hey. No use in deny it. We all felt it.

And watching this behind-the-scenes video of Three Rivers, it just seems like Shane decided to clean up her womanizing act and throw on some scrubs. There was a similar effect when Moennig played a small part in Art School Confidential. Is Moennig going to be able to convince viewers that Shane is in her past?

Showtime's upcoming fifth season of The L Word will premiere first on OurChart.com, a lesbian-focused social community, according to BusinessWire.com. The OurChart.com premiere is slated for December 30, 2007 followed by the Showtime premiere on January 6, 2008. The choice is no coincidence, as co-founder and CEO of OurChart.com, Ilene Chaiken, is also the creator/producer of The L Word.

This is, regardless of anything else, another example of how technology and the new online media is becoming more and more intertwined with traditional television viewing.

Marlee Matlin is joining the cast of Showtime's The L Word. She'll play "a fiery artist who catches the attention of Jennifer Beals' character, Bette Porter," according to Showtime execs. In 1986, Matlin won an Oscar for playing a deaf student in the movie, Children of a Lesser God. Lately, though, she has been doing all sorts of (great) guest appearances including Desperate Housewives and Law and Order: SVU, and she has had a recurring role as 'Joey Lucas' on The West Wing.

Season four of The L Word is set to premiere sometime early next year.

Writers of The L Word are including the show's fans in a very unique way. They've started a 'fanisode' contest where fans team up with writers to script an episode one scene at a time. Each week, the writers will announce a scene mission on their website and fans create it. Then fans vote on which submissions they like the best. It's a process that repeats itself each week until an entire episode is created out of fan-chosen and fan-created scenes. However, writers are not guaranteeing that the particular episode will air.

The fans whose scenes are elected will receive prizes, mostly in the form of gift certificates or a piece of schwag from The L Word set. At the end of the competition, which is March 31, one of the previous winners will be randomly chosen for e-mail mentoring from one of The L Word's writers and a $1,000 gift certificate to Saks.