LOS ANGELES — Courteney Cox starred in one of television's most popular sitcoms and another that became a cult favorite. But she will be the first to tell you that, these days, people haven't exactly been clamoring to get her to do their TV shows. About five years ago, she was tapped to star in and executive produce a Fox comedy called "Charity Case" that fizzled. It was the first time she'd done a TV pilot that didn't go to series, and, she says, it made her cautious — maybe too cautious — about pursuing another.
So when she got her hands on a script for a new TV show about a woman in her 50s trying to rediscover herself, the "Friends" star, 57, picked up the phone to pitch the perfect actor for the role: Courteney Cox. The show's co-creator, Jeff Astrof, who had worked on NBC's beloved sitcom but hadn't much kept in touch with Cox, remembers the actress declaring, "It's the only thing I've ever done that has been written for me" — even though it wasn't actually written for her.
On the page, "Shining Vale's" central figure, Pat Phelps, is a former wild child and an author who gained notoriety with a bestselling romance novel. Seventeen years later, she's feeling unfulfilled: in a creative rut and struggling to complete her second novel; her marriage on the rocks since cheating on her husband with a handyman; connecting with her two teenage kids seemingly futile. In an attempt to fix things, her family moves from Brooklyn to an old house in the suburbs of Connecticut. (Greg Kinnear plays Pat's husband, Terry, and Mira Sorvino plays a ghost only Pat can see.)
