NEW MAN: Will Chase
Life doesn’t imitate art any better than this.
“Will & Grace” actress Debra Messing, who stars in the upcoming NBC series, “Smash,” about the backstage drama at a Broadway musical, is at the center of her own sizzling soap opera that is the talk of the cast and crew on her new show.
Messing, 43, is reportedly having an affair with one of her co-stars — after leaving her husband of 10 years, TV producer Daniel Zelman (“Damages”).
Her new love interest is actor Will Chase, 41, who — yes — plays her ex-boyfriend on the show.
Chase, too, is recently separated from his spouse, actress Stephanie Gibson.
According to US Weekly, Messing — who has a 7-year-old son, Roman, with Zelman — has been dating Chase for about six weeks and the relationship is already “serious.”
Annett Wolf, Messing’s publicist, could not be reached yesterday for comment.
“Smash” is probably the most talked-about show of the new winter season.
Messing receives top billing as Julia Houston, one half of a Broadway writing team.
But the backstage drama is playing out like “All About Eve” in reverse. Instead of ingenue Anne Baxter pushing star Bette Davis out of the spotlight in the immortal catty classic, it’s “All About Debra” and Messing is muscling glamorous “American Idol” runner-up Katharine McPhee out of the headlines with the shocking news of her new, on-set relationship.
On “Smash,” which debuts Feb. 6, McPhee plays Karen Cartwright, a knockout singer auditioning to play Marilyn Monroe in a musical.
She and singer Megan Hilty, as rival Ivy Lynn, receive the lion’s share of close-ups in dazzling musical numbers.
Messing is saddled with the less-glitzy storyline of the older career woman whose husband (Brian d’Arcy James) doesn’t want her commitment to the musical to interfere with their plans to adopt a baby.
With the news that she has taken up with a co-star, Messing’s real-life storyline is 10 times sexier than the one producers have given her on “Smash.”
The series has all the markings of a big hit — one that NBC badly needs.
The show is full of music and sports a huge cast — much like the Fox hit “Glee.”
Messing is not the only cast member on the new NBC drama with a flair for backstage romance. Her co-star, Christian Borle, famously ditched his wife, Tony winner Sutton Foster, several years ago for the charms of “Legally Blonde” Broadway star Laura Bell Bundy.