Ilene Chaiken
For those of us still mourning the end of The L Word, creator and executive producer Ilene Chaiken is back with the reality show version of the groundbreaking lesbian series. Premiering this month on Showtime, The Real L Word follows six Los Angeles lesbians as they live and love. As with the original series, Chaiken would like the show to have a far-reaching impact. “When I tell stories, especially about gay people, I don’t want them to be just for gay people. I want them to be about gay people, and for gay people and straight people and everyone in between. I hope that my stories are telling some truth about us that both enlightens and entertains,” she told GO in an interview. “I do believe that our stories are of interest to people who aren’t necessarily gay, and I believe it also makes the mission part of it much more significant. The mission part is representing us in a world in which we’ve been marginalized, telling our stories and putting forward the notion that there’s some kind of universality of experience.” For more, read GO‘s feature on The Real L Word in this month’s issue. -CB
