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From the mind of Gina Gershon springs the new Starz show, Harem, about an ambitious slave girl during the Ottoman Empire. I don’t have to tell you that if they miss the multitude of possibilities for Sapphic interaction in period clothing circa the 1540’s then they’ve done it wrong!
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe scribe Ann Peacock is slated to pen the potential six-hour series that derived from an idea of Gershon’s and will focus on Roxelana, a slave girl whose eventual marriage to Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent launched what became known as “The Reign of Women,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Sultan Suleyman was the longest-reigning sultan of the Ottoman Empire who reconstructed its legal system and presided over the fleet's annexation of most of the Middle East.
Starz has become known for its “Sword and Sandal” type over-the-top series that feature shirtless men and women with heaving cleavage, including Spartacus: Gods of the Arena and Spartacus: Vengeance, which featured the always-welcome Lucy Lawless engaged in a Sapphic tryst last season.
Still, the best part about what promises to be a magnificently campy-lesbo series – in my mind anyway – is that Gina Gershon thinks about these things in her free time.
Image via Getty.
Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP, Executive Producer of Entertainment for the Advocate Channel. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.
Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP, Executive Producer of Entertainment for the Advocate Channel. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.
