laura linney

When I first heard the title of Laura Linney's new show for Showtime, I thought it was going to be something salacious. Well, I was wrong. It's about cancer. And now Showtime has greenlit The Big C, placing an order for 13 episodes.

The title, actually, is altered from the original announcement. Instead of The C-Word, it's now The Big C. Linney's character is a wife and mother who is diagnosed with cancer and her life is dramatically altered.

That sounds like a simple -- perhaps obvious -- situation. However, cancer is something that has touched nearly everybody's life in some way and The Big C should have instant universal appeal.

Showtime is about to tackle the C-word.

The Live Feed reports that the cable network has picked up 13 episodes of the show, which stars Emmy winner Laura Linney as a suburban mother who, when diagnosed with cancer, changes her priorities and reshapes her world, inspiring hope and humor.

Joining Linney in the series will be Showtime alum Oliver Platt, who worked on 'Huff' and also appeared alongside Linney in the 2004 film 'Kinsey.' That film was directed by Oscar winner Bill Condon, who is on tap to direct the pilot.

Laura Linney has 'The C Word,' TNT renews 'Leverage,' 'American Idol' picks another guest judge and more of today's top TV headlines.

Following in the tradition of ... The L Word, I guess? Let's call it the naming tradition, but this on is a lot more provocatively entitled. Showtime has ordered a Laura Linney pilot called The C-Word. But it's not about Linney being a-- It's about cancer, people! It's a dark comedy about cancer.

That itself is enough to probably stir up some controversy. Not that the focus will be on cancer, but that the show is supposed to be a comedy. Sure, Breaking Bad tackles cancer as one of its main subjects, and they call it a dark comedy, but it's more dark than comedy in almost every way. I doubt this series would go that dark.

Playing a housewife and mother, Linney's character will explore the ups and downs of this very real situation she finds herself in. The show itself is, according to Showtime's press release, "A metaphor for the way we all should live, yet rarely do, this is a journey about how to seize the day." Which I doubt has anything to do with going out and cooking meth.

The Golden Globes really is one of the more interesting award shows. Oscar has mostly movie people, Grammy has mostly music people, and Emmy has mostly TV people. It's rather fun and a different dynamic to have the movie and TV people all mixing together on one place. That's how we can have an E! red carpet scene like The Dark Knight's Aaron Eckhart asking Desperate Housewives' Eva Longoria if she's been drinking. TV-wise, it was also great to see Miley Cyrus come up to talk to Ryan Seacrest right after that Jonas kid and see them not talk to each other. Funny to see dad Billy Ray talk to him though. I think he said "stay away from my daughter."

The awards show is over. I'm sure the drinking and eating and dancing and fornicating is still going on as I type this, but the show itself is now history. Here's a list of the major TV winners, some notes on who got snubbed, as well as a few observations on what went down tonight.

CBS is rounding up some A-listers to appear at The Tony Awards this year. Alec Baldwin (30 Rock), Kristin Chenoweth (Pushing Daisies), Glenn Close (Damages), Richard Griffiths, Laura Linney (John Adams), John Lithgow, Liza Minnelli, Mary-Louise Parker (Weeds), Daniel Radcliffe, Brooke Shields (Lipstick Jungle) and Marisa Tomei will be presenters at this year's award show. As previously announced, Whoopi Goldberg of The View, a Tony-winner herself, will be this year's host.

Also, the Tony Award-winning productions The Lion King and Rent will make rare encore performances at this year's gala.

The 62nd Annual Tony Awards will be broadcast live from Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, June 15th from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. ET (delayed PT) on CBS. Here's my issue with the Tonys. It's long and it's usually a snore. Do you think this effort to spice up the show will pay off? Does it make you want to tune in?