Weeds Dealer Paired Up with Call Girl Billie Piper

It's Billie Piper, charging by the hour. Doctor Who's former Companion is coming to Showtime June 16, playing a legal secretary by day/high-priced hooker by night in Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Pegged as a cross between Sex and the City and Californication, the half-hour comedy will follow Weeds, which launches its fourth season that night. At a Wednesday press conference, Showtime also announced that in April it would start filming Hollywood "It" writer Diablo Cody's (Juno) The United States of Tara. The half-hour pilot, which was produced by Stephen Spielberg and stars Toni Collette as a mom with multiple personality disorder, "should be on sooner rather than later," says Showtime entertainment chief Robert Greenblatt. Despite Cody's burgeoning film career, Tara will "be her No. 1 priority," Greenblatt promises. Lastly, for those who can't get enough of David Duchovny cavorting with nubile young beauties, Californication will return after the Olympics. — Ileane Rudolph

TV GuideNews Feb. 13, 2008 at 2:59 p.m. PT