Recaps
The Weekly Round-Up for Feb. 22 to 26
Here are the entertainment news items for this week:
NEWS
Congrats to all the winners of the British Academy Film Awards (aka BAFTA).
First Lady Michelle Obama invited the cast of Glee to perform at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on April 5 and they are going to do it. Congrats to the cast for receiving this honor.
TV SERIES NEWS
Adam Rodriguez is returning to CSI: Miami on a full-time basis next season.
The ABC Family Channel has renewed Greek for a fourth season.
Dina Meyer will return to NCIS as Holly Snow, the sultry DC madam. Her episode should air on April 6.
Neil Patrick Harris will definitely be appearing on a future episode of Glee, but he will be more Dr. Horrible-esque, playing a really funny but really mean character in the series.
Starz announced this week they are canceling their drama series Crash due to declining ratings.
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
D.J. Cotrona (Windfall) has joined the ABC drama pilot 187 Detroit, which is about a top homicide division as seen through the lens of a fictional documentary crew.
Zeljko Ivanek (Damages and Heroes), Laura Innes (ER) and Scott Patterson (Gilmore Girls) have joined the cast of the NBC drama pilot The Event about Sean (Jason Ritter), who is a regular man fighting his way through the mysterious circumstances of a conspiracy to assassinate the U.S. president.
Julian Morris (24), Daniella Alonso (Friday Night Lights) and Kelli Garner (Lars and the Real Girl) are have joined the ABC drama pilot Generation Y, which follows a group of young adults during a 10-year span in Austin.
Becki Newton (Ugly Betty) has joined the NBC drama pilot Love Bites, which is to be an anthology of love and sex.
Rachael Leigh Cook has joined the cast of the FOX comedy pilot Nevermind Nirvana, which is to be about two grown Indian-American brothers who clash with their controlling immigrant parents as they assimilate American culture.
Neal McDonough (Desperate Housewives), Leven Rambin (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), Vanessa Marano (Dexter) and Carlos Bernard (24) have will join Virginia Madsen in the ABC drama pilot Scoundrels. The series follows the matriarch (Madsen) of a family of criminals who decides it’s time for her brood to go straight after her husband is sentenced to a long prison term.
Charles Dutton, Lea Thompson and Jeff Davis are joining the TBS drama pilot Uncle Nigel, which stars Gary Cole in the lead role of a veteran Philadelphia homicide detective who takes on his inexperienced, incompetent nephew Ronnie (Matt Jones) as a partner.
Katee Sackhoff (24 and Battlestar Galactica) is set to star in the as-yet untitled ABC drama pilot, about a beautiful female detective who teams with a disgraced ex-cop to solve crimes and untangle the conspiracy that sent him underground.
Nicollette Sheridan has joined the cast of an as-yet untitled CBS pilot presentation about a British lowlife (Paul Kaye) who moves to L.A. to reconnect with his daughter, a precocious teen superstar.
Sean Faris, who was most recently seen in The Vampire Diaries, and newcomer Renee Smith have joined the as-yet untitled CW pilot about a horse trainer who becomes the patriarch of a Wyoming ranch and responsible for his three younger sisters – Dinah, Maggie and Bird – after their parents die.
The name of the Colin Hanks and Bradley Whitford FOX drama is being changed from Code 58 to The Five Eight.
Caroline Dhavernas (Wonderfalls) and Valerie Cruz (True Blood) have joined the ABC drama pilot Off the Map from Shonda Rhimes about three doctors who leave the comfort of the U.S. to work at an isolated tropical clinic.
Jay Harrington and Bill Pullman will star in the NBC comedy Nathan vs. Nurture that centers on successful and hardworking surgeon Nathan (Harrington) who was adopted as a child and reunites with his birth dad Arthur (Pullman) and his biological-brothers only to find them to be the underachieving type.
Jim Belushi is set to star in the CBS drama The Defenders that is to center on two charismatic and fiery Las Vegas defense attorneys who go to the mat for their clients. Jurnee Smollett (Friday Night Lights) has also been cast in this new pilot.
William Shatner will star in the CBS comedy pilot Shit My Dad Says.
Kelli Giddish (Past Life) will have a lead role in the NBC drama pilot Chase, which is about a U.S. Marshal who heads up a Texas unit devoted to hunting down the U.S.’ most dangerous fugitives.
British actor Ben Chaplin is the first to be cast in the NBC drama pilot Kindreds, which is to be about a curmudgeonly ex-patent lawyer and his group of misfit associates as their lives come together to form an unconventional kind of law practice.
Eric Lange (Lost) and Malcolm-Jamal Warner have joined the ABC drama pilot True Blue, which is about a group of San Francisco homicide detectives who reunite to solve the murder of one of their own.
Kelly Hu has been in cast in the CBS drama pilot The Odds about two Las Vegas cops (Donald Faison and Sullivan Stapleton) who are as outrageous as the crimes they solve.
NBC has decided to postpone production on the American version of the UK hit Prime Suspect until June.
A&E has ordered the pilot Sugarloaf to series. The show will star Matt Passmore as a homicide detective who’s run out of Chicago following a sex scandal and becomes wrapped up in a murder case in Miami.
Dennis Farina and John Ortiz have been cast in the HBO drama pilot Luck that is being billed as a provocative look at the worlds of horse racing and gambling told through a diverse group of characters surrounding a racetrack.
MADE FOR TV MOVIES NEWS
PBS and BBC Worldwide will co-produce new productions of the classic Upstairs Downstairs, a contemporary version of Sherlock Holmes and three Aurelio Zen mysteries, adapted from the best-selling novels by Michael Dibden set in Italy.
Upstairs Downstairs will air in three-parts and feature Jean Marsh in her Emmy award winning role of Rose, the parlor maid. The modern-day Sherlock Holmes will star Benedict Cumberbatch (Atonement) in the lead role with Martin Freeman (The Office UK) as Doctor John Watson and Rupert Graves is Inspector Lestrade. As announced last week, Rufus Sewell (The Eleventh Hour) will star as Italian detective Aurelio Zen.
Kimberly Williams-Paisley will star in the Lifetime Movie Network movie Amish Grace on March 28 at 8 PM. The movie is based on a true story about the aftermath that followed the 2006 schoolhouse shooting in the Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania with Williams-Paisley starring as the mother of one of the shooting victims. Matt Letscher (Eli Stone) will star as her husband and Tammy Blanchard (Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows) as the shooter’s widow.
The ABC Family Channel movie formerly known as The Business of Falling in Love has been changed to Beauty & the Briefcase and will air on April 18 at 8 PM. The movie stars Hilary Duff as a fashion journalist who pitches an article to Cosmopolitan magazine and gets the chance of a story of a lifetime. Matt Dallas (Kyle XY), Chris Carmack (The O.C.) and Jamie Pressly (My Name Is Earl) co-star.
BOX OFFICE NEWS
Charlotte Ross will appear in the thriller Drive Angry alongside Nicolas Cage, as a man who is driven by rage to chase the people who killed his daughter and kidnapped her baby.
Isla Fisher will star in the rom-com Kiss & Tell that follows a woman who learns she has the ability to kiss a man and instantly see how a long-term relationship with him will play out.
Kellan Lutz (Twilight), Ashley Tisdale (High School Musical) and Brittany Snow (Prom Night) have all joined the movie A Misfits’ Christmas that follows eight friends who spend consecutive Christmas Eve’s together during their four years of college.
Matt Damon is set to star in the Robert F. Kennedy biopic that will follow how the younger brother of JFK went from being in the shadow of his sibling to rising up as a strong national leader in his own right before his assassination in 1968.
Anjelica Huston and Philip Baker Hall have joined the cast of the untitled cancer comedy, starring James McAvoy as a young man diagnosed with cancer who successfully beats the disease. The story is based on the real life of Will Reiser who penned the script. Seth Rogen stars as his friend while Anna Kendrick and Bryce Dallas Howard also star as their love interests.
Vanessa Redgrave, David Thewlis and Rhys Ifans have joined the Shakespeare-themed royal political thriller Anonymous, which explores the theory that Shakespeare was not the author of his plays, but rather Edward De Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford; it will also explore the declining years of Elizabeth the First’s reign as her court devolved into feuding factions between the Cecils and the Essex’s.
Jennifer Garner and Anna Faris are teaming for the romantic comedy The Bachelorette Party, that is based on the novel by Karen McCullah Lutz and is described as a female version of ‘The Hangover’.
Leighton Meester (Gossip Girl) will appear in dramedy The Oranges with Hugh Laurie (House) and Catherine Keener. The movie follows a man who gets into a relationship with the daughter of a family friend.
CASTING SCOOP
Actress Ann-Margaret will guest star in the same episode of Law & Order: SVU as Jaclyn Smith. The episode is set to air on March 31 and will also feature Morgan Fairchild, Susan Anton, William Atherton and Renee Taylor and will be directed by actress Helen Shaver.
Actor Jake McLaughlin (TV series Crash) has been cast as the estranged younger brother of Alex Karev on Grey’s Anatomy. He is expected to appear in one episode in April.
Dichen Lachman (Dollhouse) will guest star in an upcoming episode of NCIS: Los Angeles.
Elon Gold, who starred in the short-lived sitcom Stacked, will join Bones in April as a new love interest for Cam (Tamara Taylor).
Wendy Raquel Robinson (The Game) will guest star on an upcoming episode of Grey’s Anatomy as a very tough patient who will get help from Owen, Teddy, Callie and Cristina.
Malcolm McDowell will guest star on an upcoming episode of The Mentalist, playing the leader of a twisted religious cult in which Jane (Simon Baker) gets entangled. McDowell will also guest star on the March 1 episode of CSI: Miami.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
The following movies, specials and new series will debut and/or air this weekend and throughout next week:
The Syfy movie Beauty and the Beasts: A Dark Tale will air on Saturday, February 27 at 9 PM. The movie stars Estella Warren.
The Winter Olympics come to a close over the weekend with the closing ceremonies on Sunday.
The new series Parenthood will debut on NBC on Tuesday, March 2 at 10 PM. The series stars Craig T. Nelson, Bonnie Bedelia, Lauren Graham, Peter Krause, Monica Potter, Dax Shepard, Sam Jaeger and Erika Christensen.
NEW EPISODES OF EXISTING SHOWS
Here are the new episodes of the dramas that will be airing this coming week:
Saturday, February 27:
Survivors on BBC America at 9 PM
NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will air a new episode in syndication this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.
Sunday, February 28:
Desperate Housewives on ABC at 9 PM
Brothers & Sisters on ABC at 10 PM
Big Love on HBO at 9 PM
NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will air a new episode in syndication this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.
Monday, March 1:
Life Unexpected on the CW at 9 PM
24 on FOX at 9 PM
Chuck on NBC at 8 PM
Law & Order on NBC at 9 PM (Two Hours)
CSI: Miami on CBS at 10 PM
The Secret Life of the American Teenager on ABC Family at 8 PM
Make It or Break It on ABC Family at 9 PM
Greek on ABC Family at 10 PM
Damages on FX at 10 PM
Tuesday, March 2:
Lost on ABC at 9 PM
NCIS on CBS at 8 PM
NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS at 9 PM
The Good Wife on CBS at 10 PM
Southland on TNT at 10 PM
White Collar on USA at 10 PM
Wednesday, March 3:
Criminal Minds on CBS at 9 PM
CSI: NY on CBS at 10 PM
Life Unexpected (reair) on the CW at 8 PM
Mercy on NBC at 8 PM
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on NBC at 9 PM and 10 PM
Nip/Tuck on FX at 10 PM
Psych on USA at 10 PM
Being Erica on SOAPNet at 10 PM
Spartacus: Blood and Sand (reair) on Starz at 10 PM
Thursday, March 4:
Grey’s Anatomy on ABC at 9 PM
Private Practice on ABC at 10:01 PM
CSI on CBS at 9 PM
The Mentalist on CBS at 10 PM
Burn Notice on USA at 10 PM (finale)
Friday, March 5:
Ghost Whisperer on CBS at 8 PM
Medium on CBS at 9 PM
Numb3rs on CBS at 10 PM
Caprica on Syfy at 9 PM
Spartacus: Blood and Sand on Starz at 10 PM
NOTE: Please check your local listings for the correct air dates and times for all of the above.
Have a great weekend!
Please note that I will feature a weekly round-up of sci-fi based (and similar genres) news items at our sister site located at http://scifitvzone.com/. Please visit there as often as you can. Thanks!
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