Lifetime announces ‘The Client List’ series starring Jennifer Love Hewitt
The Lifetime network has announced that actress Jennifer Love Hewitt will reprise her role as Texas housewife-turned-prostitute Samantha Horton from the 2010 film The Client List as part of a new television series with the same title. Lifetime has given the greenlight to ten one-hour episodes in which Hewitt will not only star as an actress, but will also executive produce.
New Lifetime President and General Manager Nancy Dubuc spoke highly of Hewitt, who received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in the original movie, in an official press release issued by the network: “Beloved by viewers, Jennifer Love Hewitt is an amazing talent on and off the screen and we are very excited about continuing our relationship with her on The Client List. This project falls in line with our strategy to expand Lifetime’s slate with unapologetic programming that will surprise audiences.”
Dubuc recently took over the reigns at Lifetime after completely overhauling it’s masculine counterpart, The History Channel. The successful exec has been candid with critics about the changes she made to The History Channel and how she plans to be equally aggressive with Lifetime:
The critics who say we shouldn’t have done what we did to History – we’d be where Lifetime is now [if we hadn’t]. Viewers are incredibly promiscuous people – they don’t watch networks, they watch TV shows.
History had to be able to run away from the black and white, World War Two [stereotype] – switch that off. Lifetime has to do that with [its] ‘women in peril’ [stereotype].
Hewitt’s character in the client list certainly fits the bill of not being a “woman in peril!” Best case scenario is it will become Lifetime’s version of Breaking Bad – and that could be pretty good or really horrible depending on how successful Dubuc is at redefining what the Lifetime brand means. (You can read more about the fascinating Dubuc, who is still president of The History Channel too by the way, in my article on the new season of Project Runway.)
Either way, I’m tuning in! I came out of the closet a long time ago with my affinity for J-Love and even if the show falls a little short I’ll be there just for the glorious PG-rated lingerie scenes! Just check out the images in this post, which are some of the promotional pictures from The Client List movie. (You can see more HERE)
Below is the complete press release issued by Lifetime, and in it it mentions that the deal is even better for Hewitt than it appears on the surface. In addition to starring in and executive producing The Client List, the contract between Lifetime and Hewitt’s production company, Fedora Films, also stipulates she will be directing a movie for the network! All of this and she might be dating Ben Flajnik from The Bachelorette?!? Congratulations to Jennifer Love Hewitt!
Official press release:
JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT TO STAR IN AND EXECUTIVE PRODUCE NEW LIFETIME SERIES THE CLIENT LIST FOR 2012 LAUNCH
Network Enters into First Look Development Deal with Hewitt’s Fedora Films for Series and Original Movies
LOS ANGELES, CA (August 10, 2011) – Golden Globe® Award nominee Jennifer Love Hewitt will star in and executive produce Lifetime’s new original one-hour series The Client List. Based on the network’s hit 2010 original movie, The Client List will launch on Lifetime in 2012 with 10 episodes. In addition, the network has entered into a first look development deal for both series and movies with Hewitt’s production company Fedora Films, it was announced today by Nancy Dubuc, President and General Manager of Lifetime Networks. Hewitt’s deal also includes her directing a future movie for the network.
^ The Client List promotional photo of Jennifer Love Hewitt topless
The Client List is about a Texas housewife (Hewitt), who, after being deserted by her husband, is left in deep financial straits and takes a job at a seemingly traditional day spa in a neighboring town. When she realizes massages aren’t the only services on the menu, she quickly grabs the opportunity to relieve her financial hardships by partnering with the parlor’s feisty and disorganized owner to run the business. The series will follow her as she delicately balances two starkly different lives — one as a single mom in a conservative town struggling to provide for her family and the other as a savvy and ambitious businesswoman working with a rowdy, sexy and unpredictable group of women.
Attached as executive producers on The Client List are Hewitt, Dannielle Thomas, Howard Braunstein, Michael Jaffe, AJ Rinella and Jordan Budde (Good Christian Belles, 90210), with Fedora Films producing.
Regarding the announcement, Dubuc said, “Beloved by viewers, Jennifer Love Hewitt is an amazing talent on and off the screen and we are very excited about continuing our relationship with her on The Client List. This project falls in line with our strategy to expand Lifetime’s slate with unapologetic programming that will surprise audiences.”
“I am thrilled to be working with the fantastic team at Lifetime again,” said Hewitt. “Jordan Budde has written a show that truly reflects the spirit of the movie and I am looking forward to an amazing partnership with Lifetime as both a producer and actress. After hearing Lifetime’s vision for the new direction of the network, as well as the amazing level of talent they are working with, I knew I wanted to partner with them in making quality television.”
In its July 2010 world premiere, the Lifetime Original Movie The Client List, for which Hewitt received a Golden Globe nomination in the Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television category, averaged 3.9 million Total Viewers. The movie was produced by Fedora Films and Jaffe-Braunstein Entertainment (Lifetime’s The Hunt for the I-5 Killer, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, Bond of Silence, Double Wedding).
Most recently, Hewitt appeared in the drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and sitcom Hot In Cleveland, and produced and starred opposite Betty White in the highly-rated CBS TV movie The Lost Valentine. She will next be seen in the independent feature, “Café,” opening in Los Angeles on August 19th. She’s currently shooting the feature comedy Jewtopia, based on the critically acclaimed off-Broadway play. Prior to The Client List, Hewitt portrayed “Melinda Gordon” on the hit drama series, The Ghost Whisperer, in which she played a young woman who delivers messages from the dead to the living. (Hewitt also served as a producer on the series and directed a number of episodes.) Her first book, The Day I Shot Cupid, published by Hyperion, quickly became a New York Times best-seller. Hewitt has amassed numerous feature film credits throughout her career. She starred in Twentieth Century Fox’s live action/CGI features, Garfield and Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties; the DreamWorks action/comedy The Tuxedo, opposite Jackie Chan; MGM’s Heartbreakers, with Sigourney Weaver, Gene Hackman and Ray Liotta; I Know What You Did Last Summer, for which she won a Blockbuster Entertainment Award and the film’s sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer; as well as the comedies Can’t Hardly Wait and The Suburbans. Hewitt also starred in two independent features, The Truth about Love and If Only, which she produced with her production company Fedora Films. She received critical acclaim as the title role in the ABC Original Movie The Audrey Hepburn Story, based on the life of the iconic Academy AwardÒ-winning actress. Hewitt is also known to television audiences as “Sarah Reeves” from the award-winning drama series Party of Five.
ABOUT LIFETIME TELEVISION
Lifetime Television is committed to offering the highest quality entertainment and information programming, and advocating a wide range of issues affecting women and their families. Lifetime Television®, Lifetime Movie Network®, Lifetime Real Women® and Lifetime Digital™ are part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, LLC, a subsidiary of A+E Networks. A+E Networks is a joint venture of the Disney-ABC Television Group, Hearst Corporation and NBC Universal.
