Maura Tierney returns to T.V. work having survived cancer
Maura Tierney, best known as Abby Lockheart from "ER", will return to our T.V. screens this evening for the second "Stand Up to Cancer" benefit which will be aired on ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and several others. Denzel Washington, Renee Zellweger and Gwyneth Paltrow will also join her on stage.
Tierney had been a cast member of the show "Parenthood" but was forced to quit the show last year to have a tumor on her breast removed. This September she'll join the cast of "The Whole Truth".
The legal drama will examine both sides of the legal system story. Tierney will play Kathryn Peale, the deputy bureau chief in Manhattan’s district attorney’s office.
The "Stand up for Cancer" gig this evening and the first pitch a t a Red Sox game have been her first public engagements since her illness and she's been happy to be involved.
She said "I’d go with my parents [to Fenway] when I was a kid…When I was in junior high, I’d go with my friends and we’d sit in the bleachers.”
In a recent press conference for her new show, "The Whole Truth", she was asked about her health. She said "I'm good". She also said that she was ready to go back to work. "I read the script, and I liked it…I’m glad it’s there.”
She admitted to the Herald that she finds personal questions about her illness and her job difficult. She said "I haven’t quite sorted it all out for myself yet…I took a job and I’m in a situation where I have to do publicity. It’s hard for me. I’m a private person, pretty much.”
The new show promises to be anything by formulaic. Tierney explained that "Sometimes the bad guys don’t get convicted and sometimes people are convicted wrongly.”
“This show isn’t going to be about their personal lives,” she said. “It’s about how they play the legal game.”