So it seems my little campaign to get Lauren Graham to play the lead in Amy Sherman-Palladino's new comedy pilot, The Return of Jezebel James, didn't exactly get off the ground.

But no matter. While Graham's recently been upped to producer over on Gilmore Girls (making the possibility of her signing the contract to do Season Eight more likely), Sherman-Palladino has found a different leading lady for Jezebel James, one that you wouldn't ordinarily expect to sign on to a multi-camera half-hour comedy.

Yes, ladies and gents, I am talking about the one and only Parker Posey.

Posey (Best in Show, Party Girl, and a zillion other films I love) will play Sarah, a successful children's book editor who, after learning that she can't conceive a child, tries to convince her hellion sister to carry the baby for her. She joins the already cast Scott Cohen, who plays her boyfriend (and lifelong bachelor), Marcus.

"I can't believe it's happening," Sherman-Palladino told the Hollywood Reporter. "Because it's a comedy, the character runs the gamut of emotions from laughing to flipping out to breaking your heart in 22 minutes, and only one in a zillion people has enough skill and charm to pull that off. Parker Posey is that person."

Sherman-Palladino says she and hubby Daniel sent the script for Jezebel James to Posey despite the indie actress turning down every other pilot script she'd ever been offered over the years. The rest, as the say, is history.

Personally, I think it's fantastic casting and Posey will definitely bring the character of Sarah to life. But I am still trying to work my head around how this layered, brilliantly nuanced script will work in the vein of a multi-camera, laugh track-enhanced sitcom. (Ouch.)

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Jace is an LA-based television development and acquisitions junior exec who watches way too much television for his own good and would love a TiVo for every room in the house. (He’s halfway there.) His blog, Televisionary, can be found at televisionary.blogspot.com.

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