Weekly Round-Up (June 8 to 12)

NGTV is proud to announce we will be providing a weekly round-up of entertainment news each Friday.  Here are some of the highlights for June 8 to 12.

CASTING SCOOP

Tom Amandes (Everwood and Eli Stone) will appear as Jordan’s father on the ABC Family series Greek.

Producers at Burn Notice are courting Tyne Daly to appear opposite her former Cagney & Lacey co-star Sharon Gless in an episode to air in 2010.

Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) will be joining 24 next season.

Kathy Bates will co-star in Sci-Fi’s upcoming mini-series Alice alongside Colm Meaney (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Tim Curry (The Rocky Horror Picture Show), Alessandro Juliani (Battlestar Galactica), Philip Winchester (Crusoe), Matt Frewer (Eureka), and Andrew Lee Potts (Primeval).

Matt Letscher (Eli Stone), William Fichtner (Prison Break), and Scott Caan (Ocean’s Eleven) have been cast in multiple-episode story arcs on HBO’s Entourage.

Rachel Melvin (Days of Our Lives) will guest star on Heroes this fall.

Rufus Sewell (Eleventh Hour), Ian McShane (Kings), Matthew Macfayden (Pride and Prejudice), Sarah Parish (The Holiday), Eddie Redmayne (The Other Boleyn Girl), Hayley Atwell (Brideshead Revisited), and Donald Sutherland (Dirty Sexy Money) will star in the 8-hour mini-series Pillars of the Earth, based on Ken Follett’s novel. A network has yet to step up to broadcast, though.

Michael Kenneth Williams (The Wire), Dabney Coleman (Heartland), and Paz de la Huerta (Amsterdam) have been cast in Martin Scorsese’s HBO period drama pilot Boardwalk Empire.

Adam Jamal Craig (The Office) has been cast on NCIS: Los Angeles as a regular.

Robert Buckley (Lipstick Jungle) will be joining the cast of One Tree Hill this fall.

Viola Davis (Doubt) will guest star in 7 episodes of Showtime’s The United States of Tara.

Poppy Montgomery (Without A Trace) will star in a Lifetime movie called Cinderella Pact.

Michael Shanks (Stargate: SG-1) will appear in one episode of Sanctuary this fall.

Eric Roberts (Heroes), Dana Ashbrook (Twin Peaks), Julie Warner (Doc Hollywood), Linda Park (ST: Enterprise), Tess Harper and Jake McLaughlin (In the Valley of Elah) will appear in season 2 of Crash on Starz.

Actor James Brolin (father of Josh Brolin) will guest star in an episode of Pysch.

Sarah Lancaster (Chuck) will guest star in an episode of HawthoRNe.

Brendan Fehr (Roswell) is expected to make more appearances on Bones next season.

NEWS

Are you attending Comic Con in July? If so, here are just some of the shows that will be featured with panels at this year fete: The Big Bang Theory, Past Life, Chuck, Pysch, Ghost Whisperer, Flash Forward, Fringe, Lost, V, True Blood, Dexter, Vampire Diaries, Smallville, Supernatural, Warehouse 13, Caprica, Sanctuary, Stargate: Universe, Eureka and Eastwick. Dollhouse is reportedly going to have a 2-hour panel that will include the screening of the 13th episode of the 1st season that didn’t make it to the air.

Nurse Jackie, starring Edie Falco, received a 2nd season pick-up on Showtime after airing only two episodes.

FX has ordered a pilot for one-hour dramedy Terriers, revolving around a former cop turned private eye who forms a partnership with a younger hotshot who solve crimes while trying to avoid danger and responsibility.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

Kings will return to NBC for the airing of the remaining 7 episodes starting on Saturday, June 13 at 8 p.m./7 CT.

Leverage will return to TNT on Monday, June 15 at 9 p.m./8 CT.

The new series Dark Blue, starring Dean McDermott, will premiere on TNT on Monday, June 15 at 10 p.m./9 CT.

The new TNT series starring Jada Pinkett Smith and Michael Vartan (Alias) HawthoRNe will debut on Tuesday, June 16 at 9 p.m./8 CT.

The NBC mini-series Merlin will begin its run with a 2-hour premiere on Sunday, June 21 at 9 p.m./8 CT.

RUMOR PATROL

Dominic Monaghan appeared in a recent ABC commercial for the network that had rumors running rampant online and it now appears it is because he COULD be playing a part in the new ABC series Flash Forward.

Sources claim that Ghost Whisperer might attempt a ‘time wrap’ (a la Desperate Housewives) for next season, jumping five years in the future to allow Melinda and Jim’s baby to be a pre-schooler rather than a newborn.