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THEY'RE THE MOST DYSFUNCTIONAL DUO IN SUBURBIA. — SERIES PREMIERE, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 9:30/8:30c

Kath Day is the mom. She's a foxy, 40-something divorcée who finally has time for herself and her valiant search for love. Kim Day is the daughter. She's a self-absorbed princess, recently separated from her husband, who finds consolation in stuffing her face. When Kim decides to move back home, Kath reluctantly agrees. But to Kim's chagrin, Kath is not about to cater to her daughter's every whim like she has in the past. Based on the most successful comedy in Australia of the same name, Kath and Kim are two brassy women who prefer the finer things in life like acrylic nails, big hair and faux diamond chips.

"I just really wanted to play someone that was different than me. Now, I find that she's not that different from me. So that's weird," Blair says with a smile. "My character's really in a state of arrested development. Which I see all the time. People don't want to grow up.

"So it's part of the humor that my character could be 20, she could be 30, she could be 40, and she's in her clothes from when she was in seventh grade and thinks that that's hot."

July 14, 2008
New York-based media firm Horizon Media has analysed the new shows for the all-important American autumn TV season to see what series will be hits and what will be quickly axed.

It named NBC's version of Kath & Kim - starring top US comedienne Molly Shannon and big screen star Selma Blair - as weak.

June 30, 2008
NBC has ordered seven additional episodes of "Kath & Kim," bringing the total order for the new series to 13 half-hours.

The pickup comes shortly after the mother-daughter comedy starring Molly Shannon and Selma Blair shot the first episode of its six-episode order. The show is scheduled to go back into production next month on the remaining segments.

"This is Kim," the NBC promo announces. It shows Blair, squeezed into an undersized pink crop top, tight green shorts and, with muffin top showing, standing with suitcases in the foyer of her mother's suburban Florida home.

An alarmed Shannon rushes around a corner wearing a green jumpsuit with a black vinyl belt.

The promo ends with the show's motto: "Kath and Kim — apparently you CAN go home again."

I was in Budapest for six months shooting Hellboy II, getting tired of being away on location so much," she told the new issue of Los Angeles Confidential magazine. "My life seemed really fragmented. I wanted to stay in one place longer. So I thought it might be nice to go and do a TV show.

You're selling soap!" she apparently said. "I'm not a good soap salesman. I'm not a good anything salesman. So it's like, 'Oh, God, they might not be happy that I'm on their team.' I'm not good with the forced smile.

"The tone might take a minute to get used to, It is kind of a sophisticated show for a show about some common people. We think we are fabulous. We are not. I think of myself as a trophy wife. My husband works at the Best Buy, I wear rhinestones on my nails. This is new thing for me because I have to wear these nails in real life. So I am always apologizing for them. Then I realize I am apologizing to people who have these nails. So I am insulting people every day. And as for her fashion sense as Kim, Blair says the clothes she wears on the TV series are "very tight."

Actresses play different people all the time. It's weird. It's this thing called acting, and so you just, like, play different characters that aren't your age or anything. I mean, I think. I don't know.

"This is probably the most boring answer to a question you've ever had. They will be extensions probably. Hopefully they will be done correctly. I think I'll be getting Russian hair instead of the Indonesian done last time. Tell me when you want me to stop answering." But wait, there's more. "I know. It's thrilling. If I get a wig, it will be a three-quarter wig because apparently I have a very low forehead line, which a lot of people comment on all the time. I am apparently from the monkey family. I hear that all the time. People are either rats or monkeys. I'm a monkey. I know. Look at your friends. You're all either a rat or a monkey. It's true. [Analyzing audience]t: "Monkey. Monkey. Rat." [Looking at her boss, executive producer Michelle Nader] You're kind of monkey-rat.

"Kath & Kim," the U.S. version, is coming to NBC in October --

That's what I hear, Oct. 9, NBC, at 9:30, after "The Office." I can be a salesman! And I'm smiling while I say it! Ben Silverman would be so proud of me. I'm a good team player. See, I can work for a network. My career is still going strong, exclamation, exclamation!

Were there ever doubts that you could be, as they say, on the team?

Doubts in my head, for sure. Well, I had done a TV show years ago . . . a show on the WB called ["Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane]." It was a thrill, to me and I was giddy and new. So I was on the WB, and it was the second-to-worst-rated show in the United States. There were things you had to do -- affiliate dinners, cocktail parties, and you had to sell the show, especially because the WB was a fledgling network. . . . It was very difficult for me, and I thought, "Never again. I'm not cut out for this." I get bored doing something more than a couple months. That's why I like film. [But] I was away shooting "Hellboy 2" in Budapest and I thought, "I don't know if I want to be on location so much at this point in my life. One day I'll have a family or a child, or I could get to know my house!" So I really fought for it. It wasn't handed to me. When I went to the up-fronts and realized I had to talk to people and smile, I was like, "Oh, no! I don't know how to be this affable. I need to go to the dentist and put veneers on my teeth." I'm so grateful to be here. I want to do it well! But I think I have to put a disclaimer: "This does not come naturally to me. Please don't be angry with me." You have to try to charm people. I'm not dripping with that said charm. That thing they call charm I do not know.

Did you, uh, get fat for "Kath and Kim"?

I let myself go a little. I didn't get fat, because that would sound wrong. I'm never going to be a big girl -- I'm just a little floppy. It's hard going to the gym. It hurts. And it hurts when you don't see results. There's mirrors all over the gym!

Some bad things are happening underneath my clothing, There are a lot of wobbly bits hanging around, but that's fine.'

Do you have some monster putting you through the paces?

I have two very good-looking guys putting me through the paces. That's right, I need two: Ryan and Matt. They text me and tell me to eat every two hours, to keep my metabolism up. Little do they know I'm eating macaroni and cheese.

That is like a Demi Moore routine!

I'm trying, baby, I'm trying. I had my birthday on Monday, and I went surfing for the first time. I'm making this year about being active.
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It was rumored that she was dating her male co-star while filming the show, but Selma denied the affair via a rep, statint they were "very good and affectionate friends, but not seeing eachother romantically".

Selma admits she struggled to enjoy herself on set when she was forced to squeeze into her character's tight-fitting clothes.

She says, "(It was) unpleasant. I'd have lacerations on my body from my shorts being so tight. They'd yell 'Cut!' and people would come over with a bathrobe because I was so embarrassed about the flab rolling over. It was so ugly. That and my double chin."

And Blair was constantly trying to avoid seeing photos of herself in character in the press - because the brightly-coloured outfits were so cringe-worthy.

She adds: "The character's fashion sense is really horrific. I'm wearing a lot of bright clothes and I don't wear anything except black and white in real life. I'm wearing orange and blue together. It's horrible. And wedge flip-flops all the time, toe rings, and an anklet. I have long hair, too, so I have these horrifying extensions and these long nails. It's so embarrassing."

The star has now slimmed down again, but insists it was a hard task: "I've lost the weight but it's difficult to get it off as you get older."

They made the actress fatten up AND dress like a trailer trash dropout for the NBC remake of Aussie sitcom Kath And Kim.

Selma said: “A fan asked me for an autograph. “I was wearing this ridiculous tube top with a big rhinestone star on the side and these little shorts. “It was visually appalling.

"I said: ‘Don’t pay attention to my nails, they’re hideous!’”

But things didn’t go to plan, as Selma joked: “I gave her the autograph – and saw she EXACTLY the same nails.”