HBO picks up White House comedy from In The Loop writer, possibly starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Deadline reports that HBO has added Veep to its ever-growing list of possible new original series, this one a comedy about a former female senator who becomes the first female Vice President. Then she has sex with a string of emotionally immature commitment-phobes. No, just kidding; it actually sounds very smart. Veep comes from British comedian Armando Iannucci, whose popular series The Thick Of It is the BAFTA-winning political satire of the British government that spawned the brilliant In The Loop (which Iannucci co-wrote), and he’s expected to bring that same acerbic sensibility to this show, which will explore all the ways that being the Vice President kind of sucks. Also promising is the fact that Julia Louis-Dreyfus is in talks to play the lead—and since it’s on HBO she’ll get to say “fuck” all she wants, as she once pointed out on Curb Your Enthusiasm. If it goes to air, it’ll be interesting to see how Veep stacks up against ABC’s own in-development comedy about the Vice President, which already sounds way lamer.