Eternal Philebrity hatecrush Jennifer Weiner is used to bossing people around, making them shill for her and humiliate themselves in the workplace. It’s just how she rolls. But who could have ever known that those skills — alternately known in the Weiner household as simply “Things Mommy Likes To Do” — would one day have real-world applications? Um, all of us. All of us could have known that. Anyway, Weiner is currently applying her skill set to her fans, encouraging them to shame ABC into airing the pilot for the TV series she’s been working on, Jane And Dick. (Even the title upsets the dominant paradigm!) In Weiner’s own words, the show is:

[...] about a smart, funny female attorney who’s turned her father’s law firm into a version of career Utopia – an all-female, kid-friendly law firm where the formerly mommy-tracked lawyers can have it all. Jane’s life looks perfect: she’s engaged to Steve, a handsome doctor, she works with her best friend Ellie, and, when we meet her, she’s up for a big promotion.

Into this paradise comes the man she’s secretly loved since she was an awkward, insecure fourteen-year-old – her beautiful big sister’s old boyfriend Dick. Now a cutthroat litigator with an active social life, Dick’s been hired by Jane’s Dad to bring a little balance into the firm. Jane knows she shouldn’t have feelings for him – she’s engaged, he’s a colleague, and he might still have a thing for her big sister – but one look at him and all those old feelings come bubbling back.

So it’s like Mr. Desperate Ugly McBeal Mom, or something? I don’t know. I must confess: I did not read that whole description after the first sentence because that alone conjured a rainbow parade in my mind’s eye, filled with dancing babies, old Cathy cartoons, that Swiffer commercial with the sad mop and stock footage of chocolate syrup pouring from a golden jug.

We have to stop posting about this woman. We just have to.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 at 1:12 pm.