Chelsea Handler to tackle role of her sister in new NBC sitcom

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Chelsea Handler was honored at the Hollywood Reporter’s 20th annual Women in Entertainment breakfast in L.A. earlier this month. | Chris Pizzello~AP

Updated: January 29, 2012 8:04AM

In her upcoming NBC sitcom, the in-your-face host of “Chelsea Lately” won’t be playing herself.

Chelsea Handler plays her sister, Sloan, on “Are You There, Chelsea?,” debuting Jan. 11.

“For obvious reasons, I wanted to do something a little more challenging than playing me,” she says. “I’ve been playing myself for 35 years. I’m not really getting that much of a challenge out of it.

“It’s much more fun to put on a wig,” she says. “It’s fun to dress schlumpy and have a completely different attitude. It’s also nice to play against someone who is playing me.”

Laura Prepon of “That ’70s Show” has the title role. “As soon as we met her, I knew she was perfect,” Handler says. “She’s very salty, yet she’s a normal, cool, laid-back girl. There is not a lot of drama.”

Handler is hands-on when it comes to the show, which is based on her best-selling books, Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang and Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me Chelsea.

“They brought me some writers and we really hit it off,” she says. “I’m still heavily involved in the process, but I let them come up with the stories from the books and mine the material. It’s a fun process and much more collaborative than anything I’ve ever done.”

She adds, “The whole thing with my books and my life is drama is always around me. It gives me an excuse to look like the sanest person in the bunch even when my actions are ridiculous.”

An example of the drama: The title of the show, originally “Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea,” needed a little tweak.

“I learned you can’t put vodka in the title of a network show,” she gripes. “But the whole anti-vodka situation doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of drinking on the show. You just can’t have it in the title.”

Or give it away as a gift. Handler says that when Prepon was cast, she sent a little good cheer. Literally.

“I sent her a case of Belvedere to start the project.”

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