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Shane McCutcheon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Shane McCutcheon | |
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| First appearance | Pilot (episode 1.01) |
| Information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Occupation | Hairdresser |
| Family | Gabriel McCutcheon (Father) Shay McCutcheon (Brother) |
| Portrayed by | Katherine Moennig |
| Created by | Ilene Chaiken |
Shane McCutcheon is a fictional character on the Showtime television network series The L Word, shown nationally in the United States. She is played by the American actress Katherine (Kate) Moennig. Shane is a hairdresser and lives in Los Angeles, California, and mostly hangs out in West Hollywood.
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Shane was born in Austin, Texas. Her mother, who was a drug addict, put her into foster care when she was only nine years old. She never knew her father. Shane has known about her sexuality since she was very young, remarking that her very first crush was when she was ten, on a girl she met in the playground. She dropped out of high school and was once a homeless prostitute on Santa Monica Boulevard. She pretended to be a boy in order to service gay men, but would never go farther than a hand job. This put her in danger of hate crime if her gender was discovered. She quit when one of her johns paid for her to get into hairdressing school. In The L Word companion book, it was revealed that Shane was homeless for at least six months, and slept in her truck. Shane struggled with hard drugs, and still slips back into using in times of depression. Shane is introduced as being uninterested in relationships, and claims to have slept with between 950 and 1200 women.
Shane is living in a one-bedroom apartment with three militant lesbians at the beginning of season one. She is working as a hairdresser at Lather, a trendy salon that services many Hollywood personalities. Shane is being stalked by one of her hook-ups, Lacey (Tammy Lynn Michaels) who is bitter that Shane will not commit to a relationship with her. After several confrontations with Shane, including distributing flyers all over gay bars "exposing" Shane as a player, Shane is able to settle the conflict by talking with Lacey about her fear of abandonment.
Shane later runs into Clive, a friend she once turned tricks with. He is in need of a place to stay. Shane reluctantly agrees, but kicks him out when she discovers he has been stealing from her and her roommates. One of Clive's high-profile johns, Harry Samchuck, sends his business partner's wife to Shane's salon as an opportunity for Shane to network with Hollywood clients. Shane begins to make a name for herself as a hairdresser. She meets Cherie Jaffe (Rosanna Arquette), a Hollywood wife, with whom she begins an affair. Shane eventually develops deeper feelings for Cherie. Cherie convinces her husband Steve to invest in Shane's own salon, but this plan falls through when Cherie's daughter Clea falls in love with Shane. Steve believes Shane is sleeping with his daughter, and tells Shane he will have her killed if she ever goes near his family again. Cherie tells Shane that even if she loved her, she can't leave her high-class lifestyle.
Shane moves in with her friend Jenny Schecter. They find a third roommate, Mark Wayland, whom Shane befriends until Jenny discovers he has been secretly taping them for an exploitative documentary on lesbians. Shane is now a hairdresser for a TV studio, where she hooks up with production assistant Carmen de la Pica Morales. She tells Carmen that she's not interested in relationships, though Carmen continues to persue her, convinced that she can win Shane over.
She is hired by the obnoxious Hollywood producer Veronica Bloom, who makes Shane use her empathy to manipulate others, such as convincing a woman to sign away the movie rights to her life. Shane quickly becomes fed up with using people and quits. Meanwhile, Carmen has hooked up with Jenny in a bid to stay close to Shane and make her jealous. Shane claims to be fine with the situation. It soon becomes clear that Shane has deeper feelings for Carmen but is afraid to get close to another person so soon after being dumped by Cherie. In the season finale, Shane tells Carmen "I love you," the first time in the show she has said these words.
In the six months between seasons two and three, Carmen has moved in with Shane. Carmen introduces Shane to her family as a "friend." They take a liking to Shane and she becomes very attached to them, having never had a family of her own. Shane and Carmen's relationship becomes very close, as they get matching tattoos which Carmen's grandmother notices are tattoos of matrimony. When Carmen's mom tries to hook Shane up with a family friend, Carmen comes out to her family, causing them to disown her.
Shane is hired at Wax, an alternative hair salon in a skateboarding shop. Cherie shows up as one of her appointments. She tells Shane that she's now divorced from her husband, and offers to pick up where they left off. Carmen witnesses this happening, and out of jealousy, later flirts with record executives who are checking out her DJing in front of Shane. Shane is hurt and reacts by sleeping with Cherie. Carmen finds out and confronts her. Shane says that Carmen can't understand that her life has made monogamy difficult for her, but she is willing to try for Carmen. Their relationship continues to be troubled though, as Carmen accuses Shane of avoiding sex to punish her for forcing her into monogamy, and later admits that she cheated on Shane with a woman named Robin in response to Shane's infidelity, though it is unclear if Carmen was telling the truth or merely wanted to see how Shane would react. After the death of Dana, a grief-stricken Shane asks Carmen to marry her. Carmen does not respond at first but eventually accepts.
Through an article in a magazine on Wax, Shane meets her father, Gabriel McCutcheon. He is married to a woman named Carla, and Shane finds out she has a half-brother named Shay. The season finale takes place on Shane and Carmen's wedding day, which is financed by Helena and takes place in Whistler, British Columbia where same-sex marriage is legal. Shane witnesses her father flirting with another woman. He tells her "I'm not proud of this, it's just who I am. You know what I'm talking about," which scares Shane into thinking she will ruin Carmen's life by being unfaithful in marriage. She leaves Carmen at the alter.
The fourth season begins with Shane, severely depressed after her failed wedding, going on a drug binge with Cherie Jaffe. She attempts to get back in touch with Carmen to talk it over, but is beat up by two of Carmen's male cousins, who tell Shane that Carmen never wants to see her again. She arrives home to find Carla there, having fallen back into drug addiction now that Gabe has left her. She abandons Shay at Shane's house. Shane first does not want to take responsibility for Shay and tries to find his parents, but decides that she does not want to condemn him to a life in foster care like what happened to her. When Shay breaks his arm skateboarding, she takes a job modeling underwear for Hugo Boss in order to pay the health bills. She enrolls Shay in school, where he befriends a boy named Jared. Shane becomes close to Jared's mother, Paige, and eventually hooks up with her. Gabe returns to take Shay back, and though Shane tries to fight it, she realizes she is unlikely to win in court and lets Shay go home. The season ends with Shane proposing the possibility of buying a house with Paige and raising Jared with her, with Shane strongly implying that she wants to fight to get Shay back.
Shane has an amazing gift for creating new and exciting hair styles and is slowly getting a reputation in Hollywood as being the next big thing.
She claims to have slept with over a thousand people, abuses hard drugs and is impulsive. Shane has a way of destroying relationships when they are going well (Moennig has called Shane 'a self-sabotager'). An example of this is when she becomes involved with the wife of an influential Hollywood business investor named Cherie Jaffe, who takes a chance on bankrolling a salon for her. The investor thinks she has also slept with his daughter but this turns out to be a fantasy on the part of the daughter. In the third season, Shane cheats on her then-girlfriend Carmen when Cherie makes a reappearance.
Shane is basically a caring person, however, and is always there for her friends in a crisis. In fact, she is so adept at assessing other people's moods and feelings that obnoxious Hollywood producer Veronica Bloom hires her to do her dirty work, such as coaxing reluctant potential clients into signing their life-rights over so that she can turn their life story into a movie.
Shane claims to have slept with between 950 and 1200 people. In episode 4.01:Legend in the making reports on Alice's Chart indicate 963 connections. Because many of these people are nameless one-night stands, the re-creation of Shane's chart would be impossible. Here are the names listed in the series:
- Official Character Website (only available within the United States)
- Katherine Moennig at the Internet Movie Database
- Katherine Moennig France - Fansite
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| Characters | ||||
| Main characters: Carmen de la Pica Morales • Dana Fairbanks • Tina Kennard • Jodi Lerner • Shane McCutcheon • Papi • Helena Peabody • Alice Pieszecki • Bette Porter • Jenny Schecter • Moira/Max Sweeney • Tasha Williams | ||||
| Minor characters: Gabby Deveaux • Marina Ferrer • Tim Haspel • Angelica Kennard • Phyllis Kroll • Angus Partridge • Peggy Peabody • Lara Perkins • Kit Porter • Other Characters | ||||
| Episode List | ||||
| Season 1 • Season 2 • Season 3 • Season 4 | ||||