‘Will & Grace’ Has Cast Comedian Chelsea Handler as a ‘High-Powered Lesbian’ for Next Season
When the second season of Will & Grace‘s television revival returns in October, one of our favorite funny ladies will be part of the cast. Entertainment Weekly today announced a Chelsea Handler Will & Grace stint in which the comedian — who rose to fame with her own E! late-night talk show Chelsea Lately from 2007–2014 — will play a “high-powered lesbian.”
EW reports that this Chelsea Handler Will & Grace character will be named Donna Zimmer, and she’s a client of Grace’s (and now also Will’s) design firm. The character will reportedly start dating Grace’s sister Janet (played by Mary McCormack).
The sitcom shoots in Burbank, a suburb of Los Angeles, and Handler began production on the show today.
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Conservatives were fuming after one particular Will & Grace joke from last season made about Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham having “sexual tension.” The joke happened when Eric McCormack’s character Will and Megan Mullally’s Karen were looking at a computer screen to spy on her household staff when Will noticed a smoldering look between two male employees. “I think they’re in love. That’s sexual tension. It’s the same look Lindsey Graham gives John McCain,” Will says.
The upcoming Chelsea Handler Will & Grace stint — seeing as how the comedian is a noted despiser of the Trump administration — isn’t likely to appease conservatives, but that’s never been the show’s modus operandi anyway.
The second season of the Will & Grace return premieres Oct. 4. There will be 18 episodes, and the series has already been greenlit for a third season of 18 eps as well. The show’s return was so buzzed-about and has fared so well with audiences since the start that it famously had a second season ordered before the first even premiered.
