Selma Blair in the Hellboy sequel

LOS ANGELES -- Kath and Kim could be this year's The Office. Or its Coupling.

No wonder Selma Blair, who stars in the Americanization of the Australian hit comedy Kath and Kim, sounds hopeful but guarded about her show's chances.

"Some of it may or may not translate," she says. "We're trying to do it on our own terms. But it's a different show. This one has a little more heart than the Australian one. I really fought to do it. No one really wanted me, but it was great material. I really wanted to be on the show and stay put (in Hollywood) for a while. I think it will really work."

Premiering this fall, the NBC version casts Blair as one half of a dysfunctional mother-and-daughter duo. Molly Shannon plays her mom. Did we mention Blair is 36 and Shannon is 43?

"No, the math does not make sense," Blair says. "I'm probably older than her in real life, but it doesn't matter -- we're actresses."

In the meantime, Blair can be seen in tomorrow's Hellboy sequel, reprising her role as pyrotechnic Liz Sherman.

Four years after the first film, she says, "We all stayed like our characters -- this underground group of misfit actors."

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