Edie Falco to star in comedy series

LOS ANGELES, July 21 (UPI) -- Edie Falco, the U.S. actress best known for portraying mob wife Carmela on "The Sopranos," will play a New York City nurse in a new TV comedy, Showtime said.

The network said it has ordered 12 half-hour episodes of the Showtime- and Lionsgate-produced, dark comedy series "Nurse Jackie."

In the show, the three-time Emmy Award-winning actress will play "a strong-willed, iconoclastic New York City nurse, juggling the frenzied grind of an urban hospital and an equally challenging personal life," Showtime said.

The series is to go into production in New York late this year, and is slated to premiere in 2009.

"Nothing is more thrilling for us than bringing Edie Falco to Showtime in this unique, quirky, touching comedy/drama," Robert Greenblatt, president of entertainment for Showtime, said in a statement. "If you suddenly found yourself in the hospital and fighting through our healthcare system, you would want no one other than Edie Falco -- or 'Nurse Jackie' -- by your side. This show will illuminate the complex and often heroic people who devote their lives to healing the sick while simultaneously trying to make sense of their own complicated personal lives."