UPDATED: True Blood’s Rutina Wesley and Six Feet Under’s Lauren Ambrose to star in ABC’s Broad Squad

Broad Squad, the ABC pilot about broads who are also cops and the meatheads that we assume yell at them because it’s set in ’70s Boston, has found a broad worthy of donning the bellbottoms and stacked heels demanded by such a role. True Blood’s Rutina Wesley has been cast as Joanne, one of four main characters on the show; Joanne is described as a hard-working, professional rookie cop from a tough working-class background who is very guarded about her personal life, mostly to hide the fact that she’s a lesbian.

Wesley will join the already-cast Charlotte Spencer and Cody Horn, who will play Joanne’s colleagues Molly and Lisa. No character descriptions for Molly and Lisa have been released yet, but we’re going to assume that one of them is an ex-prostitute who set her life straight and joined the force after accidentally smoking a joint laced with PCP, and the other is actually an undercover CIA agent sent to uncover corruption at the highest levels of the Boston Police Department using her feminine wiles and expert karate skills. The last role, Eileen, has yet to be cast; we’re hoping they just say “fuck it” and cast Pam Grier, because this whole thing is basically a Pam Grier movie anyway.

UPDATE: Sorry, Pam Grier fans: The Hollywood Reporter brings word that Six Feet Under’s Lauren Ambrose has been cast as Eileen. The character is described as a Type-A, perfectionist wife and mother struggling to balance her work and home lives. The daughter of a city councilman, Eileen comes from a long line of Boston Irish cops, a unique and unexpected characterization that we’ve never seen on a cop show before, and frankly would serve as terrible joke fodder in the comments section of a pop-culture website like this one.

 
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