Nellie Andreeva

Allison JanneyComedy pilot Mom has solidified its status as frontrunner for the fall CBS schedule. The project, from the network’s biggest hit maker Chuck Lorre, already snagged Anna Faris for the lead. Now it has also scored Emmy winner Allison Janney. Mom, which Lorre co-wrote on spec with two members of his Two And A Half Men team — executive producer Eddie Gorodetsky and story editor Gemma Baker — centers on Christy (Faris), a newly sober single mom who tries to pull her life together in Napa Valley. Janney will play her mom Bonnie, who is the source of a lot of Christy’s previous problems, most likely because she wasn’t the best mother.

Mom landed Janney in a competitive situation, with three other pilots pursuing her. The project reunites Janney and Lorre. In 2007, Lorre and his Two And A Half co-creator Lee Aronsohn developed a CBS comedy pilot for her to star. The same year, Janney also guest starred on Men. Jenney just returned from the Sundance Film Festival, where she had two movies, Lynn Shelton’s Touchy Feely and The Way, Way Back, which was acquired by Fox Searchlight in a blockbuster $10 million deal. She is repped by Gersh, Thruline and attorney Peter Nelson.

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