Shirley MacLaine in Talks to Join Melissa McCarthy in 'Tammy' (Exclusive)

Shirley MacLaine might be riding shotgun with Melissa McCarthy.

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The Oscar-winning veteran actress is in talks with New Line to star opposite McCarthy in Tammy, the road-trip comedy co-written by McCarthy.

MacLaine has been offered the role and is scheduled to have a face-to-face with McCarthy Thursday night. 

Tammy was set up by McCarthy last year in her Bridesmaids glow. McCarthy co-wrote the raunchy comedy with husband Ben Falcone. The story centers on a woman who is laid off from her job at Hardee’s, discovers her husband is having an affair and decides to go on a road trip with her alcoholic, foul-mouthed, diabetic grandmother.

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Comedy director Beth McCarthy Miller was on board to helm the movie but now has boarded Mail Order Groom, the Warner Bros. comedy to which Tina Fey and Steve Carell are attached to star.

The move arose from Tammy being delayed due to McCarthy’s schedule this past summer, in which she shot Heat with Sandra Bullock for Fox. Warners was keen to capitalize on the director’s talents, so the studio plucked the director and put her in Groom, a project it has been developing since 2009.

The logline sees a naive single woman (Fey) looking for love who winds up with a husband (Carell) from Eastern Europe. Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, currently one of Warners’ go-to scribes, wrote the most recent draft based on an idea by Fey's husband, Jeff Richmond,   and   Robert Carlock and Scott Silveri.

The stars’ respective production banners are producing.

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The pairing of McCarthy Miller with Groom makes sense to the parties involved. She is a prolific television director who previously worked with Fey on 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live.

And now, instead of Tammy being her feature debut, Groom is the one likely to be consummated.

And while Tammy might be looking for a new helmer, it's clearly not standing idle, as the talks with ICM Partners-repped MacLaine attest.