NICK LACHEY - LACHEY TO PLAY RETIRED BASEBALL STAR IN NEW SITCOM

Pop hunk NICK LACHEY is hoping to become a bona fide comedy star, after recruiting KING OF THE HILL writer ETAN COHEN to pen and executive produce a new sitcom for him.

Lachey will play a retired baseball player returning home to his dysfunctional family in the upcoming show.

While Lachey is still best known on TV for his collaboration with wife JESSICA SIMPSON on the MTV reality series NEWLYWEDS, he is slowly branching out on his own.

Recently, he's guest-starred on CHARMED and HOPE AND FAITH and will soon show up on his own MTV reality show, currently called THE NICK LACHEY PROJECT.

And while an earlier ABC TV pilot that Lachey shot didn't get picked up, he was still able to put in a cameo in the movie version of BEWITCHED, with NICOLE KIDMAN and WILL FERRELL.