As much as Orange is the New Black is very much about the inmates of Litchfield Prison, it does a decent job of making the corrections officers who oversee these women just as complex and sometimes even relatable (except for Pornstache—he can jump in a well). Now it looks like the Netflix show is picking up a new cast member to to play one of Litchfield’s COs. Plus, there’s some pretty awesome stuff happening with the OITNB crew off-camera, too.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Marsha Stephanie Blake has been tapped to play a new recurring character on the drama—or comedy? Whatever Netflix decides it wants to be during awards season, I guess. Anyway, Blake is probably better known to theater fans for her Off-Broadwat work in Luck of the Irish and Hurt Village, but TV fans and filmgoers might also remembered her feature roles in HBO’s Girls and Django Unchained. Also, one time she recited a monologue from a Yelp Review about Outback Steakhouse and it was the best thing ever:
She joins Mary Steenburgen, Blair Brown, and Mike Birbiglia as new members to the cast for season 3, which according to showrunner Jenji Kohan will be about “faith.”
Meanwhile in exciting lesbian news (is there any other kind of lesbian news, though?), OITNB writer Lauren Morelli has officially come out and filed for divorce against her producer husband Steve Basilone. In an essay for Identities.Mic published in May, Morelli explained how writing for the show and being around “what has to be at least 64% of lesbians in the New York City metro area” on a daily basis allowed her to come to terms with her own sexuality:
Mourning the end of my marriage and the identity that I’d known for my entire life, I hadn’t yet stopped to consider that I was now a part of this community. I’d been qualifying my own gayness as if it somehow counted less or might be judged if I embraced it fully. After lugging around a basket full of shame and guilt for the last year, there was a lightness that came with realizing that I could choose to replace my negative framing with honesty and grace.
While this can’t be easy for Basilone, either—finding out that the person you’re in love with isn’t actually  attracted to you after all is a pretty terrible punch in the gut—it’s good that Morelli chose to break off the marriage rather than continue to live in the closet and further damage their relationship with one another. Plus, it appears that she’s now dating Samira Wiley, AKA everyone’s favorite gutwrenchingly tragic lady heartthrob, Poussey Washington. And they are adorable.
If that isn’t a happy ending, I don’t know what is.
(via The Hollywood Reporter)
Previously in OITNB
- 16 Women on Television Who Challenge The Male Gaze
- Orange Is the New Black Among Early Emmy Winners
- Laverne Cox Discusses Her Emmy Nomination and Its Significance
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Published: Sep 15, 2014 11:37 am