'Mistresses': Alyssa Milano returns to TV in ABC's sexy new soap

By Geoff Berkshire

    

January 10, 2013 6:49 PM ET

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ABC's upcoming midseason series"Mistresses" had two messages to deliver to the press at the TCA 2013 Winter Press Tour: The show will be different from its BBC inspiration and it will be sexy. Very sexy.

"Tonally the show is different from the BBC version," star Alyssa Milanosays. "There's a lightness and a fun to what we try to do that's different."

"The BBC format happened at a much slower pace," executive producer Rina Mimoun ("Everwood") adds. "We took a lot of what they had and front-loaded our show with that. We had to run in a whole other direction because we had to make a lot more episodes."

Executive producer Bob Sertner("Revenge") explains the decision to deviate from the original series was only logical: "We always said from the very beginning a show like this wouldn't be very fun to watch if you could go online and find out where it was heading."

Just like the British original, the American "Mistresses" will follow four longtime female friends each facing their own romantic crisis. And, as usual on soap operas, that means a lot of network-TV-friendly sex.

"For my scenes mostly the guys are naked," Milano deadpans. "I had just given birth when we shot the pilot. I was still breastfeeding, in between takes every two hours I would go into my dressing room and pump."

Co-star Jason George ("Grey's Anatomy"), who plays the man Milano's married character has a fling and starts to fall in love with, adds: "There are [good] things that come from pregnancy..."

As for any concerns that American audiences may be a little more uptight than Brits about the title and concept, the producers urge not to just a book by its cover. "The title is provocative," Mimoun allows. "As soon as people starting watching it, the way the mateiral is treated it's not glib. It's not a bunch of ladies whoring around. It's one mistake for each of them that has snowballed into a bigger mess."

"I also think the title encapsulates what we're trying to say," executive producer K.J. Steinberg ("Gossip Girl") adds. "At first blush it sounds salacious, but if you scratch the surface it's about so much more than an affair or the word."

"Mistresses," which co-stars Yunjin Kim ("Lost"), Rochelle Aytes ("Madea's Family Reunion") and Jes Macallan ("Shameless"), is expected to debut this summer on ABC.

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ABC’s Mistresses Flaunts Its 

Stuff

Actress Alyssa Milano is leading the cast of Mistresses for ABC. Today we 

can reveal a first look at the upcoming series. Is this one about to become your 

new guilty pleasure?

The summer flirtation will begin at ABC on June 3rd. The soapy drama series stars

 Milano, Jes Macallan, Rochelle Aytes and Yunjin Kim as four friends who are involved

 in “illicit and complex relationships”.

I see why ABC would order up 12 episodes and a pilot of Mistresses. It’s no secret

 that we love our prime time soaps. From Dallas to Desperate Housewives, tangled affairs 

are always worth a thrill. Right now one soapy drama in particular has my full attention,

 and that one is another ABC offering, the Kerry Washington starrer, Scandal. Of course,

 what makes Scandal unique is the divine political angle and a set up that makes it 

almost procedural in nature. The high priced “fixers” will always have a new client to 

keep things interesting. Can Mistresses promise the same level of continued interest?

When a soap goes bad, the way one can argue ABC’s Revenge has done, it runs out 

of other interesting elements and begins to devour itself. Twists get twistier. Everyone 

either turns on or sleeps with everyone else. The plot gets more and more convoluted. 

You can’t deny it had a terrific first season, though!

As for Mistresses, it has one ace in the hole. The American series is based upon the UK 

show of the same name. This tends to be a recipe for success because showmakers 

already have ideas from what worked on the previous incarnation of the series. Just look

 at The Killing or House of Cards, which also drew inspiration from forerunners from other

 countries.

So, what do you think? Can Mistresses become like the new Sex & The City or is the premise 

too weak? Aytes will play April, a widow and mother of two. Macallan is Josslyn, the youngest 

of the four friends. Yunjin Kim is Karen, a shrink who carried on an affair with a patient who 

has died. And Alyssa Milano is Savannah, a married, cheating lawyer, who is also the older 

sister of Josslyn.

Client Jes Macallan wins new series lead on ABC’s “Mistresses”

by Dee

Deidhra Fahey Clients: Who's Booking, News | 

Tagged: abc, deidhra fahey, jes macallan, mistresses

CONGRATS to Jes Macallan who booked a leading role on the upcoming ABC series, Mistresses. Jes will play Josslyn in the series due out this June!

HuffPo Chat Cheers on ABC’s ‘Mistresses’

Wives, mistresses 'have got so much in common.'

Published: 5/7/2013 8:55 AM ET

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Perhaps it’s to be expected from the website that had a divorce section before it had one on marriage. The Huffington Post, that repository of Hollywood morality, is cheering on a new show called, “Mistresses.” 

Huff Post Live hosted a chat on the series called “ Glorifying Mistresses.” Sarah Symonds from the U.K., a former mistress and founder of Mistresses Anonymous Foundation, began the discussion by applauding a “long overdue” series. “I think its brilliant timing,” she said. “I find it very astonishing it hasn’t happened before because in the States, you’ve got shows about everything from fat kids called Honey Boo Boo to how to take drugs, teen mums, you know, it’s time to talk about something so real.”

“Mistresses,” a new drama based on a U.K. show, follows four women and their complex extramarital relationships. ABC advertises the series as a “drama about the scandalous lives of a sexy and sassy group of four girlfriends, each on her own path to self-discovery, as they brave the turbulent journey together.” The show premieres June 3 on ABC and stars actresses Alyssa Milano, Jes Macallan, Rochelle Aytes, and Yunjin Kim. 

Tracy Schorn, blogger at chumplady.com, complained during HuffPost Live that the show is “making sociopaths sexy.” As a woman who was cheated on, she attacked the story, saying, “its the kind of fluffy soap opera stuff I could watch before I was cheated on, and anybody who’s experienced infidelity would find the premise of the show hugely offensive.”

Ricky Camilleri, producer at HuffPost Live, disagreed and interrupted, “Personally, you could find it offensive, but I think that, I think what’s interesting about this show is that we’re not necessarily celebrating women as mistresses, but you know we have so many shows where the male anti-hero is cheating and we talk about him but we rarely are able to talk about women’s roles in these affairs.” 

Symonds, not one to stay silent, stressed, “As women in the sisterhood, I think we should all be on the same page, because wives and mistresses have got so much in common. They’re both sharing half of a man who’s lying and getting the best of two women.”

She finished her spiel, enthusing, “I am so glad every show out there especially in America is about wives. We’ve got the good wife, the desperate housewives, we’ve got the real housewives … let’s have some mistresses!”