HBO is taking an unusual direction for the pay-cable service known for mobsters and “Sex and the City” with its new show, “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency,” which focuses on an optimistic African private eye named Precious, the Wall Street Journal reports. HBO committed to co-financing the venture last spring, about a year after longtime chairman Chris Albrecht had been ousted and the network was viewed as hitting a cold spell, the Journal says. “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” “has nothing to do with AIDS or pestilence or problems. Of everything I’ve ever done in this industry, nothing makes me prouder than this television show, of all things,” producer Harvey Weinstein tells the newspaper.
—Aimee Picchi