Ahead of the series debut in December 2003, a reporter from the PR Newswire wrote that Tammy Lynn Michaels had been cast as Shane's "jilted lover" Lacey, who proceeds to stalk her. Rosanna Arquette had signed up to play Cherie Jaffe, the wife of a studio head Steve Jaffe (James Purcell) who arrives as Shane's new client. The writer revealed that Shane would change "more than her haircut". Shane and Cherie's relationship was Moennig's favourite to work on and she attributed successful scenes to Arquette's acting techniques. Moennig believed that the relationship was so "fucked up" and it was fun to portray because it was also dysfunctional.