#Caitlyn Jenner sets acting return in Dick Van Patten sitcom

Jenner, who will turn 71 on Wednesday, will co-star in “Duke of the Valley,” a scripted sitcom based on the memoirs of “Eight Is Enough” star Dick Van Patten, who died in 2015. The Wrap reported Monday that the show was created by Dick’s son, Vince Van Patten, and grandson, Duke Van Patten.

The series will document the lives of people in an apartment building in California’s San Fernando Valley, with Duke playing himself as a struggling Hollywood actor. The Wrap reported that among the apartment residents will be Heather, a “white trash” transgender perfume salesperson played by Jenner, who came out as trans in April 2015 to much media hype.

Jenner last acted — though playing herself — in a 2016 episode of the Amazon Prime series “Transparent.” Pre-transition, she appeared in a number of TV shows, including “The Love Boat,” “Murder, She Wrote” and “CHiPs,” as well as the Village People-centric 1980 film “Can’t Stop the Music.” In 2018, she said she would love to expand her acting résumé with a turn as a cinematic comic-book villain.

“In a Marvel movie, I want to play the baddest-ass lady you’ve ever seen in your life,” Jenner told Variety. “They got the wicked queen or the wicked lady. Just do the makeup and the outfit. And I got the deep voice.”

Meanwhile, Bravo host and bigwig Andy Cohen earlier this month shot down conjecture that Jenner and her rumored girlfriend, Sophia Hutchins, 24, could be joining “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.” Even casting Jenner as just a “friend of the Housewives” was a stretch, said Cohen, adding, “No, I just don’t see it.”

Other actors signed on for the Van Patten project include Thai Fong as Heather’s roommate, Fong, and “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” alum Eileen Davidson — who is married to Vince Van Patten and Duke’s stepmom in real life — as a washed-up actress.