Fall TV update: Football Wives and Dirty, Sexy Money

Here's some hopeful news for a promising TV pilot. You may remember we were disappointed that Football Wives (directed by out filmmaker Bryan Singer and written by Marco Penette), the Americanization of the campy and subversive British soap Footballers' Wive$, didn't make it to ABC's schedule. Presumably, that meant we wouldn't see this pilot become a series, but that might not be the case.

The studio behind the show, has extended the cast's contracts, meaning that they're asking the actors involved to stay available in case they're needed for a Football Wives series. While ABC is reported as still being interested in the series, NBC and Fox have also shown interest.

As a fan of the original-flavor Wive$ I've been hoping this one would make it to screen. As you might know, the American version has Lucy Lawless as Tanya and Ving Rhames as the team manager with whom Tanya has frequent conflicts. Lucy Lawless vs Ving Rhames? You know that part has got to be good. The American adaption also stars Eddie Cibrian as Jason ... and if Football Wives is anything like Footballers' Wive$, that means plenty of shower scenes for the hunky Cibrian.

Now, after the networks announce their fall schedules, the rumor mill is always abuzz over a few unpicked pilots that could still make it to series. That rarely pans out, but there's a little more reason to have hope in this case since there's some action to go with the talk.

Meanwhile, I happened to catch a bit of Extra yesterday afternoon as the fluff-magazine started discussing one series I'm anticipating, the Greg Berlanti-produced Dirty, Sexy Money with one of its stars, Billy Baldwin. Baldwin teased his character's transgender storyline: "Let me put it this way, the question that will arise is whether my storyline is pre-operative or post ... and I'll leave it at that."

As you might recall, from our look at this year's TV pilots, one of Money's storylines involves a senator in a relationship with a transgender individual. Since it got a front-and-center mention in promotion for the series, I hope that signals that this story won't rest in the background.

The role of Baldwin's secret lover, Carmelita, was played in the pilot by none other than legendary NYC performer Candis Cayne (if you haven't seen Candis run out the front door and into 8th Avenue traffic in the middle of a number -- while still performing -- you don't know what you're missing). No official confirmation that Candis will be in the series proper, but I've heard some unconfirmed rumors that the talented beauty will appear in several episodes.