laura-linney

Finally, someone else around here is gonna start making some cancer jokes:

Laura Linney is tackling terminal illness for Showtime. [Linney] will star in and exec produce a dark comedy tentatively titled “The C Word,” in which Linney’s character is diagnosed with cancer.

A pilot has been ordered and production will begin in the fall. [Variety]

Big thumbs-up to Showtime for this; I can only hope it makes the world a more welcoming place for cancer jokes.  I can barely wish ass cancer or terminal lymphona on someone without getting a bunch of emails saying that I ought to be ashamed and how would I feel if someone in my family got cancer blah blah blah.  So then I write back and I’m all, “My sister died of breast cancer, actually. I miss her terribly, but I have enough perspective in my life to not let that tragedy keep me from laughing.”  And I go on and on — really lay the guilt on thick, talk about how long and painful the chemo process was, how I’d do anything to have her back, et cetera.  None of it is true, of course.  But that’s not the point.  The point is that EVERYONE knows that cancer is a big-time A-hole, and people who can’t laugh at death are missing out on life.