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"Precious" star eyes Showtime cancer comedy pilot
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-10-28 10:15

LOS ANGELES – Hot off her acting debut in the title role of the upcoming drama "Precious," Gabourey Sidibe is in talks to join Showtime's comedy pilot "The C Word."

Laura Linney stars as a suburban wife, mother and a teacher forced to face a diagnosis of cancer but who manages to find the lighter side of a dark situation.

Sidibe would play a student in her summer-school class. The role could be a recurring one for the newcomer, whose breakthrough performance in "Precious" is creating Oscar buzz. The film, in which Sidibe plays a pregnant teen who overcomes insurmountable odds, opens next Friday via Lionsgate.

Also in the cast of the pilot are John Benjamin Hickey ("Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen") as the brother of Linney's character, and Phyllis Somerville ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") as her neighbor.