Cybill Shepherd Makes 'L Word' Work For Her

Cybill Shepherd, who plays a married woman in her 50s who comes out of the closet in the season of Showtime's "The L Word" that debuts Jan. 7, is also at a crossroads in her personal life.
With her daughter Clementine now 26 and 19-year-old twins Ariel and Zack starting college, Cybill is caught up in empty-nest syndrome — and it's hitting her big time.
"It squeezes your heart. You can't believe the silence," she says of home sans family. To cope, she's moved many of her things into the twins' bedrooms, "and I hang out there — it helps," she says.
The role of mother is so important to Shepherd that she refrained from signing on for "The L Word" until her schedule could be adjusted to accommodate her personal obligations.
"They wanted me on location in Vancouver the same day the twins were graduating high school in Los Angeles. I was very torn. I didn't want to miss an extraordinary work opportunity but needed be there for my children. I explained to the producers that I had to be free to help the twins select their colleges, to move them into college, to attend parents' weekends ... It worked out beautifully. The show bent over backward, I bent over backward — I made 14 rounds trips to Vancouver in three months to shoot my 11 segments."
Daughter Clementine plays her daughter in an episode of "The L Word" that brings out the heartache that hits home hard when Cybill's character comes out of the closet. "There's an incredible family struggle," says Shepherd, and her daughter — playing her L Word' daughter — declares, "Mom, you can't just decide one day you're a lesbian."
Actually, Cybill and her children are strong supporters of gay and lesbian causes — her daughters have even taken part in human rights marches in Washington, and she says, "You can't decide that someone is less of a human being because of any leanings.".
from The Long Beach Press Telegram