Well known for both her work on television and in film, Friends former star Courteney Cox stars in the FX drama Dirt, which will premiere its second season tonight.  Dirt is produced by Coquette Productions, a company owned by both Cox and her husband David Arquette.  The show, centered around Cox’s character, Lucy Spiller, the editor-in-chief of the tabloid magazine Dirt Now, focuses on Hollywood scandals ripped from the headlines.

The character of Lucy Spiller appealed to Cox because she is “…a character that is strong, that is very ruthless, but with a heart.”  The character; however, was not originally part of the show.  “When I originally pitched this show to FX it didn’t even have a woman character in it.  It was really about a Hollywood young actor who was willing to kind of sell his soul to a paparazzo to kind of keep up in the world of Hollywood; FX came up with the idea of making it centered around a female at a tabloid magazine.  And it sounded so good the way John Landgraff pitched it back to us that I was like, wow, maybe I should be playing this character, and that’s how it kind of happened.  I know this world, so I thought it would be a fun character to play, and it turned out it is.”

Cox takes being both the executive producer and star of the show in stride, not separating them into two different roles.  “…because I’m an actor I probably have a lot more, I mean I have probably not more compassion, but I definitely am for the actor always.  Just because I’ve been there and I understand, and trying to take care of their needs I think is really important to me.  But no, this job was something that I love every hat that I wear and it’s been fantastic.”

Being executive producer gives Cox a lot of control over the storylines, and using more “ripped from the headlines” stories this season was a conscious choice.  “We thought that would be a good way to just start the season, and it is absolutely ripped from the headlines.  We usually do a hybrid of celebrities and then add to the story like maybe what happened to cause this to happen to them or sum it up in a different way just for fun.  But yes, it’s definitely relatable this year and I think it makes for just a more exciting television show.”

Often truth is stranger than fiction and it is not a problem keeping the storylines and characters relatable.  “If you just look at any magazine or follow any celebrity that people are fascinated with, they seem to do the outrageous things on their own.  We’ll come up with something that we think “okay, now what’s really shocking,” because we want to make good television.  So obviously we want to shock people.  But then, lo and behold, it ends up happening or something.  Life is outrageous enough.  I don’t think that we have to worry about making anything seem crazy, because through time if you look at all the tabloids from the last whatever many years it pretty much speaks for itself…I think that the world of magazines, and I think it’s so competitive that you do have to go to great lengths to get the exclusive story or the perfect picture.  It’s just so competitive.  So I think that that’s what great about this show and the subject matter, because there are no limits.  You could go anywhere and it wouldn’t be—yes, last year we did some things, which I really loved, where Don Konkey (played by Ian Hart), he cut off his finger to get a story, but that’s because he really was loyal to Lucy.  He’s also a schizophrenic and wasn’t on medication.  I want to be as kind of outrageous but within the realm of reality as possible, and so far it hasn’t proven to be something that’s hard to come up with.”

Shocking the audience may be a goal, but there is always a fine line in deciding what is used in a show.  “Well, I think that there’s a fine line in deciding what is appropriate, what’s just good entertaining television, and what is exploitive and hurtful.  But I feel like what’s been really interesting is that we come up with these story lines, and sometimes we think wow, no way this could happen, but man would it make for a good episode, and then you find out after you filmed it, you’ve written it, that something even more outrageous has happened, or they’ve done exactly what you thought they were going to do.  When you sit in a writer’s review you go okay, what is the wildest thing that you could imagine this character doing?  Sometimes it actually happens, because people are just really unpredictable.  So it doesn’t scare me, but I definitely feel sometimes that people will see things on our show and say oh my God, they just took that right from what happened, and we actually may have filmed it before it even happened.”

They also have to be sure not to hurt anyone.  “I think there’s a fine line that the producers, even me as a producer, will take.  We don’t ever intend to hurt anyone.  And as a matter of fact sometimes we make the characters sympathetic just by showing our creative version of what their life must be like or how they got to the place where they did something outrageous.  It’s all in fun.  It’s much lighter this year and it’s funnier, and I don’t think anyone’s going to get upset.  And if they do, that I guess, it wasn’t intentional.”

The characters and storylines this season will be more recognizable.  “In almost every episode you’ll see something that you will recognize, and that’s kind of hopefully the fun of it that you’ll be able to guess who this person we might be talking about, even though it’s not really about them.  It could be about, like I said before, just a couple of people or a couple of situations.  But yes, every episode there is that relatable.”

One of these recognizable characters, which will be a recurring character this season, is part of Cox’s favorite storyline.  “We have this character on the show this year that will definitely resemble someone that’s in the press all the time, but she’s a recurring character.  And I won’t say who she’s portraying, because you’ll be able to figure it out relatively early on, but what I like about it is it kind of shows a side to this person’s character like what could have happened or maybe there’s a different side to the story that we don’t know about.  And we give another version and I think it’s been really interesting.”  The character in question is Sharlee Cates, played by Ashley Johnson.

To keep the show relatable, it was decided that this season would be lighter and funnier.  “Last year I thought was really interesting, and we had kind of the subject was about the Apocalypse and it was heavier.  This year we just want it to be a little bit more of a broader appeal.  I think the people who loved Dirt last year will hopefully love it this year, but there will be just more of an audience because the people who read US and In Touch and all those tabloid magazines I think will get a kick out of the show.”

There are other changes of the show, including the setting and dynamics.  “Well, I think the whole show this year takes place, not solely, but much more, well maybe solely, in the offices of Dirt Now and what it takes to run this magazine.  So we have new cast members that are enriching that world.  And I think that it’s great.  It just kind of keeps it all within the office, and you’ll see love triangles and personal issues and stuff.  We have a new character named Farber, and his name is Ryan Eggold, and he’s just a great actor and a great asset to the show.  He’s got a little love thing going on with another character.  I think it just makes for a much more enriched world within the walls of Dirt.”

Some other upcoming character changes include a new “Kenny,” played by Kevin Wheatley, as well as changes to the character of Willa McPherson, played by Alexandra Breckenridge, who is becoming savvier and more ruthless like Lucy, as well as Don Konkey, who is on medication this season.

Along with new characters of course come new actors.  “We have great guest stars this year.  We don’t have any cast members of Friends, but we do have, Tom Arnold was on and Rosanna Arquette, my sister-in-law, and Vicki Lewis and Sharon Lawrence and Richard Karn, all just really great actors.  And we have recurring role characters and new characters on the show that work in the office.  I think it’s been a great season for just really good actors being on the show.”

As the tone of the show changes the characters will also evolve.  At the end of last season, Lucy Spiller was stabbed and almost died.  “She is ruthless, but she definitely has a different outlook on life.  She doesn’t take it quite so seriously.  I think she’s a little more appreciative of what she has and how great—I think she just likes her job more as opposed to needing to tell the truth for some personal reason.  It’s more like hey, I’ve got a great job.  This is fun.  I want to be the best I can be at it.  And I think that she’s a little more daring in certain ways, but for a better reason, just for a more fun outlook as opposed to for, like I said before, some personal vendetta against people.”

Lucy’s relationships will evolve as well, including the romantic relationship between her and Holt, who in the second season is extremely famous.  “That’s definitely something that we were going to explore, and we did…I think it’s really interesting.  Two kind of lost souls trying to make it, and the way they come together.  I think that’s kind of what we were going to explore and we started to.  And we’ve continued to explore it in season three, if we get picked up.  So she definitely has her fears and intimacy issues, as many of us do…and I think we’re going to explore it more.”

With the writers strike the second season of Dirt will only have seven episodes, however it worked in the show’s favor, as each episode is self-contained.

The second season of Dirt will premiere tonight, March 2, 2008  on FX.