Kirstie Alley sets A&E show, NBC hires a 'Marriage Ref'

Kirstie Alley is letting cameras follow her for another TV series, presumably one more realistic than "Fat Actress."

The former "Cheers" and "Veronica's Closet" star is set to star in an unscripted show for A&E that would chronicle her life as the mother of two teenagers and a celebrity whose struggles with her weight have been tabloid fodder for years. The cable channel has ordered 10 half-hour episodes of the show.

"Kirstie is exactly the kind of star A&E is drawn to," A&E's Robert Sharenow tells Variety. "Her personal life has been playing out in the media for years, but this will be the first time she'll be opening up her home to reveal her real life for the cameras."

Alley's most recent TV series was Showtime's "Fat Actress," a "Curb Your Enthusiasm"-esque show that lampooned her weight issues, her career and Hollywood in general.

- "The Marriage Ref," the Jerry Seinfeld-produced unscripted show due on NBC next year, has found its referee in comedian Tom Papa.

Papa, a stand-up comic who has opened for Seinfeld in the past, will officiate marital disputes on the show, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The series, which begins filming in January, will have couples bringing their marital beefs before a panel of comedians and other celebs, who will then choose up sides and take their cases to the Ref.

Here's hoping for Papa (who co-stars in "The Informant!") that the show goes better than his last series at NBC: "Come to Papa" was picked up for the 2003-04 season and then basically abandoned save for a four-episode burnoff in the summer of 2004.

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