Combining its abiding interests in movie adaptations and opportunities for nudity, Starz has ordered 13 episodes of a series based on Steven Soderbergh’s 2009 experimental drama, The Girlfriend Experience. Like that film, the cable version of The Girlfriend Experience will follow a high-priced courtesan who provides the sort of intimacy afforded by more traditional romantic relationships, only with the transactional aspects right out on the table and the expectation of sex, amIritefellas? Unlike the film, it won’t have the prurient curiosity factor of starring porn star Sasha Grey: It’s being described as an anthology series, following an as-yet-uncast different woman in an as-yet-unspecified different city. However, you will still probably see this woman’s breasts, as this is Starz.
The small-screen Girlfriend Experience will be co-written and directed by independent filmmakers Lodge Kerrigan and Amy Seimetz, with Soderbergh once again emerging from semi-retirement to executive produce—a favor that Soderbergh performs, for a fee, for cable channels who seek the pleasure of his company.