Feb 23, 2007  |  By: BRIAN MOYLAN  | COMMENTS     

Gay men and lesbians both have reason to rejoice with ABC’s upcoming casting moves.
 
ABC is planning a remake of the campy British soap “Footballers Wive$,” a gay cult hit on BBC America and DVD about professional athletes and their devious women. The network just announced that the role of lead diva will be played by none other than Xena herself, lesbian icon Lucy Lawless, who will portray Tanya Turner, the coke-snorting, bed-hopping, man-eating ringleader.
 
Thankfully, ABC has changed the ludicrously lettered title to “Football Wives” and the sport is going to be American football rather than soccer.
 
Gabrielle Union is going to play Chardonnay Lane, a model-turned-singer engaged to a hot wide receiver (Brian J. White).
 
Gay “X-Men” and “Superman Returns” auteur Bryan Singer is filming the pilot, which will air this fall, if the network picks it up. Still no word on which other characters from across the pond will make the trans-Atlantic journey. May we suggest that they cast Renee O’Conner, who played Gabrielle on “Xena” as lesbian sports agent Hazel? Then maybe she and Lawless can share some screen time again.
 

 
IN OTHER CASTING NEWS, everyone was worried that Tim Gunn, the gay design mentor on Bravo’s “Project Runway,” wouldn’t be back for the fourth season of the gay hit when he disclosed he had yet to sign a contract to appear. When Bravo announced that Gunn would be getting his own style show, and he issued a release that he was leaving his job as head of the fashion department at Parsons School of Design (where the show was taped) for the offices of Liz Claiborne, things seemed even bleaker.
 
Not to worry, however. Gunn recently told Entertainment Weekly that he was on the verge of signing for the fourth season, and that the show would still be filming at Parsons, which is right across the street from his new office. Heidi Klum, gay designer Michael Kors, and Elle magazine’s Nina Garcia are all signed up for the next go-round, but casting still hasn’t been finalized.
 
So be patient “Runway” fans, it might be a long way before those sewing machines start purring and those designers start bitching.
 

 
“BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER” fans won’t have to wait much longer for the return of their beloved huntress. Joss Whedon, the creator of the hit show that had a huge gay following even before Buffy’s best friend Willow the witch (Allyson Hannigan) came out of the closet, is working on an eighth season of the series.
 
But wait, it’s not going to be on television; it’s going to be coming to a comic book store near you. Whedon – who has been busy writing “The Astonishing X-Men” and “Runaways” for Marvel Comics – is penning the first four issues of a monthly “Buffy” comic book for Dark Horse Comics. There will be about 30 issues in the new saga penned by different writers, which picks up some time after the 2003 series finale.
 
In this “season,” Buffy has left Sunnydale and is the head of a squadron of Slayers that she trained. Artist Georges Jeanty draws the main character to resemble actress Sarah Michelle Gellar without looking exactly like her.
 
All the major characters from the show will be back — including Willow — even though they’ll be introduced slowly, as the action unfolds. Look for the first issue on March 7.