‘The L Word’ Is Back With Sex, Glamour and a Wider Lens

Reported today on The New York Times

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SectionsSkip to contentSkip to site index'The L Word' Is Back With Sex, Glamour and a Wider LensA decade after the pioneering original ended, "The L Word: Generation Q" includes a group of new young cast members from across the L.G.B.T.Q. spectrum. Can the series still break ground in 2019?New decade, new castmember to join the old ones:Credit...Amy Harrity for The New York TimesLOS ANGELES - "Why aren't there any lesbian bars in L.A.?" the actress Jennifer Beals asked recently, perched in the center of a tufted sofa in her office. It was a good question - the kind her passionate, Ivy-educated character Bette on "The L Word" might ask, half in despair, half in hopes of rousing debate. Steps away, Los Angeles's newest lesbian hangout, a chic gastro pub, served cocktails and sliders under Edison lighting. The cocktails, however, were fake, the bar merely a set. Beals's co-star Katherine Moennig shrugged. "They all shut down," she said leaning on the plush sofa arm. In the years since "The L Word" had ended, The Palms, in West Hollywood, had closed in 2013. The Oxwood Inn, the city's last lesbian bar, closed in 2017. "Did you know I worked at Cubbyhole in, like, 1989 as a coat check girl?" Leisha Hailey, who plays Alice, chimed in, referring to one of New York City's few remaining lesbian bars. "The original Cubbyhole, the Henrietta Hudson location. That's how old I am.""I like it, Leisha," said Moennig, her foot twitching, sneakers unlaced - just the way her character Shane's would be. "And now they'll be watching you on a TV screen."Even if the bar isn't real, it wouldn't be the first way in which Showtime's "The L Word" put a fantastical sheen on lesbian life in Los Angeles. But that was always kind of the point. During its six-season run from 2004-2009, the series f

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