GUESS WHO'S COMING TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD... SHOWTIME TO PREMIERE THE REAL L WORD: LOS ANGELES

New Reality Series Will Showcase Real-Life L.A. Lesbians

LOS ANGELES, CA (September 11, 2009) � Roll out the welcome mat because the ladies of THE REAL L WORD: Los Angeles are moving in to show the world how it's really done -- sexy, sophisticated, Sapphic style. The nine-episode, one-hour reality series comes from the preeminent chronicler of lesbian stories, Ilene Chaiken, who served as creator and executive producer of the long-running SHOWTIME drama series, THE L WORD, and will executive produce the new series along with reality producers Magical Elves (Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz) who made runaway successes of Project Runway, Top Chef and Last Comic Standing. The series will premiere on SHOWTIME in 2010.

THE REAL L WORD: Los Angeles will follow a group of real-life, high-profile, left coast lesbians as they go about their daily lives, at work and play. Chaiken and the Elves plan to show viewers that they can be every bit as glamorous, fashionable, fabulous and even as cutthroat as those hetero housewives.

"THE L WORD is a powerful franchise for us and we became very excited when creator Ilene Chaiken came up with the idea of doing a reality version of this iconic show," says Showtime Networks President of Entertainment Robert Greenblatt. "Not only are we thrilled to be working with her again, we're also very pleased to get into business with venerable reality producers like Magical Elves as we expand into a form of programming that is new for us. Unlike the plethora of reality shows out there that simply follow people around, we promise that THE REAL L WORD: Los Angeles -- like the fictional version -- could only be found on premium cable."

"Even though we concluded our 6th season of the THE L WORD on SHOWTIME this past March, I believe we are not nearly finished telling our L WORD stories," says Chaiken. "SHOWTIME has yet again come forward to continue with us this mission to entertain and enlighten and bring more "L" to the world, and I am so excited to be back at it with them, this time joining with the Magical Elves to tell the real life stories of THE REAL L WORD." Chaiken is no stranger to controversial subjects -- she also wrote the SHOWTIME Original film Dirty Pictures, about artist Robert Mapplethorpe, which won a Golden Globe� Award for Best Television Movie in 2000.

The Magical Elves team joins Chaiken in their enthusiasm for the new series. "We love to tell authentic stories about complex characters and feel like this is an area that has yet to be explored in reality television," says Lipsitz. �We've always believed that truth is stranger than fiction, so this promises to be a compelling and exciting series. We're ready to take on the challenge of living up to the groundbreaking drama of the original L WORD," concludes Cutforth.

Magical Elves is the production team behind some of the highest quality reality programming on television. Since their partnership began eight years ago, The Elves, Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz, have been nominated for eleven Primetime Emmys. This year Project Runway and Top Chef are both nominated in the Outstanding Reality Competition category for the third year in succession. Magical Elves are the recipients of the first-ever Peabody Award presented to a reality television program for Project Runway and they produced four of Entertainment Weekly's "20 Best Reality Shows" of all time. Notable credits include Bands on the Run, Project Greenlight and Last Comic Standing and the Elves have several shows in production including Top Chef, Top Chef Masters, The Art Show and Kell on Earth for Bravo.

Chaiken and Magical Elves are represented by William Morris Endeavor (WME), who packaged the series.

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