Mary-Louise Parker, Peter Sarsgaard to star in provocative NBC miniseries

NBC has enlisted two acclaimed actors to star in its provocative upcoming miniseries The Slap. Mary-Louise Parker and Peter Sarsgaard will headline the complex family drama about what happens after a man slaps another couple’s misbehaving child. “The seemingly minor domestic dispute pulls the family apart, begins to expose long-held secrets and ignites a lawsuit that challenges the core American values of all who are pulled into it,” according to the show’s official description.

Mary-Louise Parker (Weeds) will play Anouk, a close friend of Hector’s who’s the head writer on a TV show and is now dating the younger leading man. Sarsgaard (The Killing) will play Hector, a husband and father who “loves his wife and family but shows signs of weakness when he finds himself succumbing to the advances of his wife’s teenaged receptionist during his own party.”

NBC has ordered eight episodes of the event series from writer Jon Robin Baitz (Brothers and Sisters) and director Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right).