"Will & Grace" season seven premiere sneak peak!

A sneak preview of "Will & Grace"

by Christine Champagne

What can we expect from "Will & Grace" as the show kicks off its seventh season (Thursday, September 16 at 8:30 p.m. EST on NBC)? For starters, big-name guest stars.

Jennifer Lopez, who made a cameo last season, will appear as herself in the season opener, which is titled "FYI: I Hurt, Too." The episode has Lopez returning to New York after wrapping up her summer concert tour, with Jack -- who served as one of her backup dancers -- in tow. Karen immediately pounces on Jack, recruiting him to get Lopez to take an interest in a song she has written titled "I Hurt, Too."

Meanwhile, Janet Jackson will play herself on an episode airing Thursday, September 23. In "Back Up, Dancer," Jack finds himself dancing for Miss Jackson on her tour. Jackson's appearance on "Will & Grace" is particularly notable, by the way, in that it marks the first time in more than 20 years that the singer, who was a regular on "Good Times" and "Diff'rent Storkes," has appeared in a sitcom.

It is a treat, of course, to have the likes of J.Lo and Janet on "Will & Grace." But some fans have complained that the stunt casting has been overdone in recent years, with everyone from Matt Damon to Madonna putting in an appearance. Executive producers Dave Flebotte and Alex Herschlag, who have taken over the reins of the show from Jeff Greenstein and Jhoni Marchinko, promise that this season the spotlight will be on the sitcom's main characters -- Will (Eric McCormack) and Grace (Debra Messing) in particular. "We are going back to Will and Grace stories because we're lucky to have Grace coming back," Herschlag said, referring to the fact that Messing was off the show on maternity leave for part of last season.

"This is going to be a year of tremendous growth for Grace because we're going to be dealing with her relationship [with Leo, played by Harry Connick Jr.] not having worked out," Flebotte previewed. "At the same time, Will will be in a relationship [with Vince, played by Bobby Cannavale]. We've never had that dynamic before on the show."

As for Jack (Sean Hayes) and Karen (Megan Mullally), "We are going to have different sorts of adventures for [them]," Herschlag said. More specifically, Jack, who changes careers as often as some people change sweaters, is going to become a television executive. "Not on LOGO but the other new gay network," Herschlag divulged. "That will be an arc for his character this year."

"He'll still be broke all the time, even though he is making good money now," Flebotte added with a laugh.

Meanwhile, like Grace, Karen will deal with single life. "We've never had the opportunity to have Grace and Karen single at the same time," Herschlag said, "and I think we'll have some interesting stories about them setting each other up or falling for the same guy or things like that."

So does this mean that Leo is truly out of Grace's life for good? "Harry Connick will be back for at least one episode," Flebotte teased.