Nicole Richie cast in NBC comedy from 30 Rock alumni

Nicole Richie just got some great news. The actress has been tapped for NBC’s upcoming comedy series titled, well, Great News following a recasting, EW can confirm.

Inspired by the life of the show’s creator Tracey Wigfield, the series follows an overly-involved mom (Andrea Martin), who takes things a little too far when she gets an internship at her daughter’s (Briga Heelan) workplace, a cable news network. Richie will play Portia, the hip, young co-host of cable news show The Breakdown. She’s a shrewd social media genius who can sometimes be a clueless idiot, and she doesn’t care about her older co-host’s (John Michael Higgins) hard-hitting journalistic vision for the show. The role was originally played by Kimrie Lewis-Davis in the pilot. According to The Hollywood Reporter, which first reported the news, producers wanted to go in a different direction with the character.

Richie starred opposite Paris Hilton on the reality series The Simple Life. She has also appeared as herself on Empire and has guest starred on Chuck.

Great News reunites writer Wigfield with fellow 30 Rock alums Tina Fey and Robert Carlock. The series is written and executive produced by Wigfield, with Fey and Carlock executive producing as well. Beth McCarthy Miller, who directed almost two dozen episodes of 30 Rock, directed the pilot.