Katherine Moenning plays role as Shane McCutcheon in the film, The L Word for 6 seasons. Shane was born in Austin, Texas. Her mother, who was a drug addict, put her into foster care when she was nine years old. She never knew her father. Shane has known she was a lesbian from a young age, remarking that her very first crush was when she was eight, on a girl she met on the playground. She dropped out of high school and was once a prostitute on Santa Monica Boulevard. She pretended to be a boy in order to service gay men, but would never go farther than to give handjobs. She quit when one of her johns paid for her to get into hairdressing school. Shane was homeless for at least six months, and slept in her truck. Shane struggled with a drug problem, and also slept with between 1000 and 1200 people.
Shane is living in a one-bedroom apartment with three lesbians at the beginning of season one. She is working as a hairdresser at Lather, a trendy salon that services many Hollywood personalities. Shane is being stalked by one of her ex-lovers, Lacey (Tammy Lynn Michaels) who is bitter that Shane will not commit to a relationship with her. After several confrontations with Lacey, including the stalker's distributing flyers all over gay bars "exposing" Shane's promiscuity, Shane is able to settle the conflict by talking with Lacey about her fear of abandonment. Ultimately, it is implied that Shane makes a deal with Lacey for her to stop stalking her and posting flyers if she has sex with her one last time.
Shane later runs into Clive, a friend she once turned tricks with. He is in need of a place to stay. Shane reluctantly agrees, but kicks him out when she discovers he has been stealing from her and her roommates. One of Clive's high-profile johns, Harry Samchuck, sends his business partner's wife to Shane's salon as an opportunity for Shane to network with Hollywood clients. Shane begins to make a name for herself as a hairdresser. She meets Cherie Jaffe (Rosanna Arquette), a married woman with whom she begins an affair and eventually develops deeper feelings for. Cherie convinces her husband Steve to invest in Shane's own salon, but this plan falls through when Cherie's daughter Clea falls in love with Shane. Steve, who at first believed Shane is sleeping with his daughter, learns of her affair with Cherie and tells Shane he will have her killed if she ever goes near his family again. Cherie tells Shane that even if she loved her, she can't leave her high-class lifestyle.
Shane moves in with her friend Jenny Schecter (Mia Kirshner). They find a third roommate, Mark Wayland, whom Shane befriends until Jenny discovers he has been secretly taping them for an exploitative documentary on lesbians. Shane gets a job doing hair for Arianna Huffington at a TV studio, where she hooks up with production assistant Carmen de la Pica Morales (Sarah Shahi). She tells Carmen that she's not interested in relationships, though Carmen continues to pursue her, convinced that she can win Shane over. She is hired by Hollywood producer Veronica Bloom, who makes Shane use her empathy to manipulate others, such as convincing a woman to sign away the movie rights to her life. Shane quickly becomes fed up with using people and quits. Meanwhile, Carmen has hooked up with Jenny in a bid to stay close to Shane and make her jealous. Shane claims to be fine with the situation. It soon becomes clear that Shane has deeper feelings for Carmen but is afraid to get close to another person so soon after being dumped by Cherie. In the season finale, Shane tells Carmen she loves her while they are having sex.
Carmen moves in with Shane and introduces Shane to her family as a "friend." They take a liking to Shane and she becomes very attached to them. Shane and Carmen's relationship becomes very close. When Carmen's mother tries to hook Shane up with a family friend, Carmen comes out to her family, causing them to cease contact with her. Shane is hired at Wax, an alternative hair salon in a skateboarding shop. Cherie shows up as one of her appointments. She tells Shane that she's now divorced from her husband, and offers to pick up where they left off. Carmen witnesses this happening and gets upset. Shane later sees Carmen flirting with some Def Jam employees who are investigating her DJing. Shane is hurt and reacts by sleeping with Cherie.
Carmen finds out and confronts her. Shane says that Carmen can't understand that her life has made monogamy difficult for her, but she is willing to try for Carmen. Carmen accuses Shane of avoiding sex to punish her for forcing her into monogamy, and later admits that she cheated on Shane with a woman named Robin in response to Shane's infidelity. After the death of Dana, a grief-stricken Shane asks Carmen to marry her. Carmen does not respond at first but accepts after Dana's memorial. Through an article in a magazine on Wax, Shane meets her father, Gabriel McCutcheon (Eric Roberts). He is married to a woman named Carla, and Shane gets to meet her half-brother, Shay. The season finale takes place on Shane and Carmen's wedding day, which is financed by Helena Peabody and takes place in Whistler, British Columbia, where same-sex marriage is legal. Shane witnesses her father picking up another woman. He tells her "I'm not proud of this, it's just who I am. You know what I'm talking about," which scares Shane into thinking she will ruin Carmen's life by being unfaithful in marriage. She leaves Carmen at the altar.
Severely depressed after her failed wedding, she goes on a drug binge with Cherie. Gabriel dumps Carla, she leaves Shay in Shane's care. Shane first does not want to take responsibility for him, but decides that she does not want to condemn him to a life in foster care like what happened to her. When Shay breaks his arm skateboarding, she takes a job modeling underwear for Hugo Boss AG in order to pay the health bills. She enrolls Shay in school, where he befriends a boy named Jared Sobel. Shane becomes close to Jared's mother, Paige, who is also a lesbian, and they eventually consummate their budding romance with sex. Gabe returns to take Shay back, and though Shane tries to fight it, she realizes she is unlikely to win in court and lets Shay go home. The season ends with Shane proposing the possibility of buying a house with Paige and raising Jared with her. However Paige later walks in on Shane sleeping with their realtor in the apartment they are planning on renting. Paige tells her that she can deal with Shane sleeping around. Shane responds by turning her down and ending their relationship. Later, Wax is set on fire, Paige is blamed but secretly Shane does it.
While working as a hairdresser at the wedding of Jenny's boss' daughter, Shane has sex with the bride's two sisters and her mother. The ensuing jealousy and chaos prompts Shane to declare a moratorium on sex. However, Shane soon returns to her old ways and has a three-way with Shebar nightclub owner Dawn Denbo and her lover Cindi. She later has a tryst with Lover Cindi, without Denbo's knowledge or permission. Denbo crashes the party where Shane and her friends meet their Lez Girls actor counterparts, and vows to ruin the lives of Shane and all her friends. This escalates into a turf war between Denbo and Shane's group of Planet patrons. Meanwhile, Shane deals with a "straight girl crush" from Molly Kroll, daughter of Phyllis Kroll. Shane and Molly eventually have sex, but soon afterwards, Shane overhears Molly and Phyllis talking about her. Molly refers to Shane as "a little bit uneducated", "easy and simple" and "maybe she's not the smartest person in the world". Shane attends the Subaru ride for breast cancer in honor of Dana, where Molly chases after her. Molly declares her love for Shane, but the relationship does not work out after all because Phyllis has a talk with Shane about Molly's future. Shane and Molly end the relationship.
Shane cheats with Niki Stevens, (Kate French), then ex-girlfriend of Jenny at the wrap party for the film. Jenny walks in on this and tells her that she has broken her heart. Jenny then storms off into the night, immediately Nikki and Shane chase after her. Shane and Niki ask Jenny to forgive them, but she does not. Molly comes to see Shane, Jenny agrees to pass on a letter for her, but hides it in her attic. Shane tries to get Jenny to forgive her by doing things around their house. She washes Jenny's car, installs flower boxes on the windows, and even sends over an elaborate breakfast when they run into each other at The Planet, which Jenny throws into the garbage. Finally Shane gives up and comes to collect her things. In the hallway, Jenny admits that it was Shane who had broken her heart, not Niki, because Jenny had fallen in love with Shane.
Jenny forgives Shane and the two become lovers. Alice overhears them the morning after they hook up and texts all of their friends. Although everyone knows, Jenny and Shane try to keep their relationship a secret. However, Jenny begins to behave more erratically and becomes clingy and possessive towards Shane, while alienating their other friends for various reasons. Despite their protests, Shane feels obligated to remain in the relationship due to her loyalty to Jenny and their friendship, and to avoid setting her off. Jenny buys Shane a dark room for her photography, but Shane eventually uses this space to have a brief fling with Niki. Jenny is aware of this and makes Shane feel guilty about it. Eventually though, she claims to accept this nature of Shane's, and offers Shane the chance to pursue Niki. Shane runs into Molly while buying a housewarming present for Bette and Tina, who are moving to New York. Molly tells a stunned Shane about the letter, but Shane does not admit to having not read it. On the night of Bette and Tina's farewell party, Shane searches for the letter and finds it in the attic along with the Lez Girls film negative that had been mysteriously stolen from Tina's studio. Jenny's dead body is discovered in Bette and Tina's pool.
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