The Weekly Round Up (June 26 to July 2)

Here are the highlights from the entertainment world for the week of June 26 to July 2:

CONDOLENCES

Rest in Peace: Karl Malden passed away today (July 2) at the age of 97. He is best known for his Oscar winning role in A Streetcar Named Desire and his television work with Michael Douglas in The Streets of San Francisco (among many others).

Rest in Peace: Gale Storm, best known for her work in the 1950’s series My Little Margie and later had her own show – The Gale Storm Show – passed away on June 27 at the age of 87.

Rest in Peace: Impressionist Fred Travalena and TV pitchman Billy Mays passed away this past week. Mr. Mays was 50 years old and Mr. Travalena was 66 years old.

NEWS

Lost will increase to 18 hours for its sixth and final season with both a two-hour premiere and two-hour finale.

Lea Thompson (Caroline in the City) and director Howard Deutch (My Best Friend’s Girl) are teaming to develop dramedy pilot A Town Called Malice, about a former rock star who returns to her hometown with her estranged teen daughter after her husband melts down on stage during a concert and the duo must rebuild their lives together. No network is attached.

Showtime confirms that Brotherhood, the Irish-American mafia family drama set in Providence, R.I., will not be renewed for a fourth season.

Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni will return for Law & Order: SVU‘s 11th season.

ABC has acquired Fox’s 13-episode international drama Defying Gravity, which will air on Canada’s CTV, Germany’s ProSieben, and the BBC. It stars Ron Livingston (Standoff), Laura Harris (Dead Like Me), Christina Cox (Blood Ties) and Malik Yoba (New York Undercover). The story follows eight astronauts from five different countries in the near future who are on a six-year mission through the solar system. (Try not to get it confused with FOX’s own 2-hour movie (back-door pilot) Virtuality.) Defying Gravity will air on ABC this summer.

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Transformers 2 has earned $419 million globally since it’s opening on June 24.

Christina Applegate (Samantha Who?) has signed on for a role in Going the Distance, a romantic comedy starring Drew Barrymore and Justin Long as a couple in a long-distance relationship. Applegate is expected to play big sister to Barrymore’s character.

CASTING SCOOP

Mark Pellegrino (Lost and Dexter) has been cast as the Devil in a recurring role in the fifth, and likely final, season of Supernatural.

Jana Kramer (90210) will have a recurring role on One Tree Hill this fall, playing a model who becomes the new face of Brooke’s (Sophia Bush) fashion line

90210 has tapped Abercrombie & Fitch model-turned-soap star Trevor Donovan (Days of Our Lives) to play Teddy, West Beverly’s own version of JFK Jr.

T.J. Ramini (Desperate Housewives) has been cast in Day Eight of FOX’s 24, where he will play Tarin Karoush, an associate of the character played by Anil Kapoor.

Chris Vance (Mental and Prison Break) will appear in four episodes of Burn Notice’s second half of the season. These episodes should air in early 2010.

Drea de Matteo (Sopranos and Sons of Anarchy) will join Desperate Housewives next season, playing an “Edie-like replacement with a son and husband, except she’s Italian”.

Christine Lahti (Chicago Hope and Jack and Bobby) will join Law & Order: SVU, playing the new assistant district attorney for the first four episodes of the season.

T.R. Knight will star in the upcoming Broadway revival of Lend Me a Tenor, which will be directed by Stanley Tucci.

Wentworth Miller (Prison Break) will guest star in Law & Order: SVU‘s season premiere, playing a cop who saves a rape victim.

Rachel Miner (the former Mrs. Macaulay Culkin) (Guiding Light and Californication) will appear on Supernatural this fall, playing the role of Meg, the sassy demon with a huge grudge against the Winchester brothers, who was previously portrayed by Nicki Aycox.

Liza Minnelli and Delta Burke are set to play dueling sisters on Lifetime’s upcoming legal dramedy Drop Dead Diva. Rosie O’Donnell will appear in the same episode as a judge; and Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) will guest star as an offbeat office temp who discovers that she was switched at birth. And, Paula Abdul (American Idol) will star as a judge who hears a case about a store that refuses to carry plus-sized clothes. Tim Gunn is also expected to guest star in this new series.

Callum Keith Rennie (Battlestar Galactica and Due South) has been added to the cast of Fox’s 24, joining fellow Battlestar alum Katee Sackhoff.

Hilary Duff is joining the cast of the CW series Gossip Girl for a multi-episode guest arc. She will play a girl named Olivia, Vanessa’s (Jessica Szohr) new roommate at NYU.

Christian Slater will replace Rupert Penry-Jones in the lead role of ABC’s new Bruckheimer-produced series The Forgotten, which will start Sept. 22.

NCIS star Rocky Carroll will appear in at least 6 of the first 13 episodes of spin-off series NCIS: Los Angeles.

MADtv’s Michael Hitchcock will be appearing alongside Eve as the director of a different rival choir in an episode of the yet-to-air FOX fall series Glee.

Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly) has been cast as the lead in USA Network’s espionage drama pilot Covert Affairs, which has yet to receive a firm greenlight from the cabler (though a pilot order is expected in the next few weeks). Perabo will play Annie Walker, a CIA trainee who joins the agency while still recovering from a relationship with an ex-boyfriend who is of special interest to her spymasters.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Merlin will air another episode on NBC on Sunday, July 5 at 8 p.m. (7/CT).

Warehouse 13 will have its 2-hour debut on SyFy on Tuesday, July 7 at 9 p.m. (8/CT).

The half-hour comedy 10 Things I Hate About You will premiere on the ABC Family Channel at 8 p.m. (7/CT).

Eureka will be back on SyFy on Friday, July 10 at 9 p.m. (8/CT).

RUMOR PATROL

The Sci-Fi Channel is developing another spin-off series based on the 1988 film Alien Nation with Tim Minear (Angel, The X-Files and Firefly) doing the writing. This new version is set in the Pacific Northwest of the 2020’s, two decades after the first alien ship crashed on Earth. The newcomers now number several million and live a segregated existence. The show will use a serial mythology as well as exploring racial and cultural assimilation issues much like the previous show.

The BET Network could possibly be picking up the CW half-hour comedy The Game. Details are not clear yet if this will happen, but it seems to be roaming the industry rumor mill of late.

It looks like at least one new character may be joining the CSI: NY ranks. The new series regular role’s name is Kaye Sullivan. She is a young, attractive risk-taker whose personality has elements of Lindsay, Dr. Peyton Driscoll and ADA Natalie Greer. No other specifics are known at this time.

It appears that Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog) will be hosting the Emmys. The final announcement should be made sometime next week.

The awaited-with-baited-breath Veronica Mars movie looks like it won’t be happening so please exhale before you permanently turn purple. It seems neither Warner Bros. nor Joel Silver are interested.

Have a safe and happy 4th of July!!