Catherine Zeta-Jones to star in beauty pageant comedy Queen America

Catherine Zeta-Jones is about to appear as a beauty pageant coach in the darkly funny comedy Queen America.

Catherine Zeta-Jones takes on the world of beauty pageants in the upcoming series Queen America.

According to Deadline, the series will premiere Nov. 21 on Facebook Watch and will also feature Victoria Justice and Judith Light, who recently received an Emmy nomination for her role on American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace.

Zeta-Jones plays Vicki Ellis, your typical sadistic pageant coach who leads ingénues through the world of pageants while giving some darkly funny running commentary.

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The role shares a few similar themes to her role of Velma Kelly in Chicago, which she won a well deserves Oscar for. Zeta-Jones’ character was an accused murderer who used infamy to her advantage before being upstaged by rival accused murderer Roxie Hart.

Like any good pageant contestant, Velma Kelly could do it all; sing, dance, and especially act. It’s hard to imagine Catherine Zeta-Jones not giving a good performance in the series, as she’s given solid performances in a wide range of roles over the years.

Queen America seems like it will also share the satirizing of competition and fame that was the main theme of Chicago. Beauty pageants can be extremely brutal in terms of competition so the fact that it shares common themes with a musical about a femme fatale is appropriate.

Making the main character a pageant coach instead of a contestant fits with this, as pageant parents and coaches have become notorious in recent years for being even more competitive than the contestant they are there to assist.

As entire reality shows have been made on this premise, turning it into a comedy shouldn’t be difficult.

The series also has a lot in common with the movie Miss Congeniality, which featured Sandra Bullock as an FBI Agent who goes undercover in a Beauty Pageant and is massively out of her element. The film was a massive box office hit and helped raise Sandra Bullock’s profile as an actress to watch.