Brad Pitt Producing Series About Transsexual Sportswriter

When LA Times veteran sportswriter Mike Penner made the shocking announcement yesterday that he would be switching genders and changing his name to Christine, the response was enormous. His emotional 823-word personal essay--humorous, touching, honest, courageous--has become one of "the most heavily viewed storys on latimes.com in the past year," according to the paper, and had industry observers wondering which studio was going to option the poignant tale and make it into a movie. Well, it seems Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy and Brad Pitt's Plan B have already beaten them to the punch. In a strange coincidence of life imitating art, Murphy had already made a deal with FX for a new drama called 4 oz, about the transsexual metamorphosis of a married sportswriter, with Pitt's Plan B executive producing with Dede Gardner (who produced the adaptation of Augusten Burroughs' Running With Scissors with Pitt). Murphy had even mapped out a five-season arc for the series. "The first season deals with the revelation of his secret," he told Variety back in September of 2006. "In the second season, he begins dressing like a woman. The third covers the surgery, and his inherent doubts anout going through with it, and by the fourth season, he's living as a woman and attempting to find love." So why is the show called 4 oz? It's actually a reference to the average weight of the male penis. Remarkably light given the havoc it creates for men, Murphy said.

[Photo credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images]