REX USA/Richard YoungNow this is one on-screen face-off we can't wait to see.
The Royals has appointed soap legend Joan Collins as Elizabeth Hurley's mother, E! News has confirmed. Best casting ever or best casting ever? (We think you all know the answer!) Let's take a moment and start a slow-clap for the casting director of The Royals, because as you can see in the photo above, Hurley and Collins may just be one of the most perfect mother-daughter pairings to hit the small screen in quite some time!
Hurley takes on the role of Queen Helena in E!'s first-ever scripted series, centering on a fictional royal family in modern-day London, with the 81-year-old Dynasty star playing the Grand Duchess of Oxford. her formidable mother who comes to the castle with an agenda.
The juicy drama was created by One Tree Hill's Mark Scwahn, who also wrote and directed the pilot, and stars William Moseley, Alexandra Park and Vincent Regan.
Regan and Hurley play King Simon and Queen Helena, with Simon acting as the family's moral compass, though he's always quick to place his family over the people he rules over. The Chronicles of Narnia's Moseley plays their youngest son, Liam, who finds himself in the spotlight when he becomes heir apparent to the throne just as he enters a relationship with—gasp!—an American woman who is the daughter of the fam's head of security (aka a peasant). And taking on the role of couple's wild child daughter Eleanor, a tabloid favorite, is Park.
"The Royals will offer a fictional look behind the very public gilded façade of the palace gates to imagine the private, lush, fun, sexy world of the most-watched celebrity family on the planet," Jeff Olde, executive vice president of original programming & development for E!, said in a statement when the show was announced. (We bet you a dollar The Royals is your next guilty pleasure!)
The Royals is set to premiere in early 2015.