The Weekly Round-Up for March 22 to 26

By Rueben | March 27, 2010

Here are the entertainment news items for this week:

CONDOLENCES

Actor Robert Culp, best known for his in the hit 1960s television series I Spy passed away this week after a fall at his home. He was 79 years old. Mr. Culp was also known for his role in the TV series The Greatest American Hero. Condolences are extended to his family, friends and fans.

TV SERIES NEWS

Alan Cummings will be joining the cast of The Good Wife as a series regular next season.

Showtime has picked up both series Nurse Jackie and United States of Tara for a third season each.

The new Alyssa Milano comedy Romantically Challenged will debut on ABC on April 12 at 9:30 PM. The series co-stars Kyle Bornheimer, Josh Lawson and Kelly Stables. Milano plays a lawyer/mother recently divorced after 15 years of marriage. Stables plays her wild sister, Bornheimer her longtime, soft-hearted best friend and Lawson his roommate (a struggling novelist).

The Closer will return to TNT in July and viewers can expect Battlestar Galactica star Mary McDonnell to reprise her role as Captain Sharon Raydor in at least 5 episodes.

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Michael Rapaport, Terry Kinney (The Unusuals), Sean Patrick Thomas (Lie to Me) and Lorraine Toussaint (Saving Grace) have all joined the CBS drama pilot ATF (now being called The Line) about Jack Donovan (Dylan Walsh), an ATF agent who hunts down the most dangerous criminals while trying to raise his 15-year-old daughter.

Zachary Knighton (FlashForward) has the lead role in the ABC comedy pilot Happy Ending, starring alongside Elisha Cuthbert. The show is about couple (Knighton and Cuthbert) who break up at the altar, forcing them and their group of friends to figure out how to maintain their friendships after the split.

Nikki Blonsky (Hairspray) has joined the ABC Family Channel drama pilot Huge about the lives of six teens and the staff at a weight-loss camp, as they look beneath the surface to discover their true selves and the truth about each other.

Will Estes (Reunion) and Bridget Moynahan (Six Degrees) have joined the Tom Selleck-led CBS drama pilot Reagan’s Law, which is about a multi-generational family of New York cops.

Sissy Spacek has joined the as-yet untitled medical drama by John Wells for CBS about a mobile team of volunteer doctors who travel the world and the U.S. helping those in need. She will play the team’s leader and mother to one of the members (Rachelle Lefevre). Amy Smart, Janeane Garofalo, Jay Hernandez, Michael Beach and Skeet Ulrich also star.

Luke Ford (The Mummy 3) will star alongside Scott Porter (Friday Night Lights) in the CW drama pilot Nomads.

Christian Slater has joined the FOX comedy pilot Security about a team of twentysomething geniuses who crack security systems. He will play their leader.

Carrie Fisher and Cheryl Hines have joined the ABC pilot Wright vs. Wrong, which stars Debra Messing as a right-wing political pundit. Hines will play her liberal rival and Fisher her manager.

John Larroquette has joined the FOX drama pilot Pleading Guilty about Mack Malloy (Jason Isaacs), an ex-cop and recovering alcoholic now serving as a partner in a top-drawer corporate law firm. Madchen Amick co-stars.

Jennifer Beals has joined the FOX drama pilot Ride Along, a police procedural set (and filmed) in Chicago.

Jennifer Love Hewitt, Greg Grunberg, Lindsay Price and Jason Lewis will all guest star in the NBC drama pilot Love Bites.

Melissa McCarthy (Gilmore Girls and Samantha Who?) has the title role in the CBS comedy pilot Mike & Molly, which co-stars Reno Wilson and Swoosie Kurtz.

Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon, Reed Diamond (Dollhouse) and Dana Davis (Heroes and 10 Things I Hate About You) will join Breckin Meyer and Mark-Paul Gosselaar in the TBS drama pilot Franklin & Bash, which follows two street lawyers and lifelong friends who, after taking down a white-shoe law firm in a high-profile case, are recruited by the firm’s patriarch (Malcolm McDowell).

Brandon Routh (Chuck) Hal Linden (Barney Miller)and Tina Majorino (The Deep End and Veronica Mars) have landed roles in the TBS drama pilot In Security about sisters (Constance Zimmer and Kat Foster) who take over their father’s private-security business protecting the super-elite while dealing with personal and family issues.

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights), Alan Tudyk (Firefly), Eric Balfour (24), Moon Bloodgood (Journeyman) and Monica Keena (Dawson’s Creek) have joined Gregory Smith, Julie Bowen, Jennifer Finnigan and Jonathan Silverman in the movie Conception about nine couples who struggle with romance and pregnancy.

Emma Stone (The House Bunny) has the lead role in the movie The Help, an adaptation of the Kathryn Stockett novel of the same name about African-American domestic servants and their wealthy white employers in pre-Civil Rights era Mississippi.

Jennifer Connelly, Greg Kinnear and Marisa Tomei are joining Pierce Brosnan, Jim Gaffigan and Ed Harris in the movie Salvation Boulevard, a comedic thriller based on the book by Larry Beinhart, which centers on a former Deadhead turned born-again Christian who finds himself on the run from some fundamentalist members of his mega-church who will do anything to protect their larger-than-life pastor.

Up and coming actress Jessica Chastain (to be seen in the Brad Pitt movie The Tree of Life) has joined the movie The Fields as the female lead opposite Sam Worthington and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. The story is based on a real-life series of unsolved murders in a stretch of bayous where as many as 70 bodies have turned up over the past 30 years.

Whoopi Goldberg, Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey have joined the Tyler Perry movie For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, which also stars Phylicia Rashad, Jurnee Smollett, Kimberly Elise, Kerry Washington, Loretta Devine and Macy Gray. The film is an adaptation of the Ntozake Shange poem-play featuring 20 African-American women speaking on the issues they face in modern society.

Colin Egglesfield (Melrose Place) has joined the cast of the romantic comedy Something Borrowed based on the book by Emily Giffin about a 30-year-old single Manhattan attorney (Ginnifer Goodwin). John Krasinski co-stars.

Matt Bomer (White Collar and Chuck) is in talks to join the romantic comedy What’s Your Number?, which stars Anna Faris.

Liam Neeson and Cedric the Entertainer have joined Hugh Jackman and Lenny Kravitz in the Lee Daniels directed by Selma about the historic 1965 march in the Alabama town that marked the political and emotional peak of the civil rights movement.

Sean Bean has joined the cast of WWII action film Age of Heroes based on the true story of James Bond scribe Ian Fleming‘s time with 30 Commando, a Special Forces unit.

The movie Son of No One will star Channing Tatum, Al Pacino, Ray Liotta, Katie Holmes, Juliette Binoche and Tracy Morgan (the 30 Rock funny man himself) [who is replacing Terrence Howard in the film that follows a young cop (Tatum) assigned to the working class neighborhood where he grew up; the cop soon finds an old secret has begun to resurface and threatens to destroy his family.

Carey Mulligan (An Education) will take on the role of Eliza Doolittle in the remake of My Fair Lady. The script was written by none other than Emma Thompson.

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIES

Jack Coleman (Heroes) will star in the Hallmark Channel movie Rock the House, slated to air in 2011, about a strained father-daughter relationship that is improved dramatically through the magic of rock n’ roll when the dad (Coleman) begins to realize that making a living doesn’t have to mean missing out on what really matters.

NOTE: Be on the lookout for many more made-for-TV movies to air on the Hallmark Channel as they recently announced a long list of movies already in production and those soon to be in production, including a return by Catherine Bell (JAG and Army Wives) as “good witch” Cassandra Nightingale; Brian Austin Green in a period piece called The Wild Girl and The Wish List, starring Jennifer Esposito (Samantha Who?) and David Sutcliffe (Gilmore Girls) – among many others.

CASTING SCOOP

Jennifer Aniston will be joining her former Friends co-star Courteney Cox in an upcoming episode of Cougar Town.

Judy Greer will appear on an upcoming episode of The Big Bang Theory.

An upcoming episode of Warehouse 13 will feature Firefly alums Jewel Staite and Sean Maher and will now also include another Firefly alum: Gina Torres. Other upcoming guest stars in the popular Syfy series include Paula Garces (Defying Gravity) and Philip Winchester (mini-series Alice).

RUMOR PATROL

Rumor has it that Friday Night Lights will now start on NBC on April 7; but check back soon for confirmation.

Kate Hudson is in talks to join Ginnifer Goodwin (Big Love) in the romantic comedy Something Borrowed based on Emily Giffin‘s 2005 debut novel of the same name.

Fans of Friday Night Lights just might be seeing Scott Porter back as Jason Street in the fifth and final season of the show. This visit back to Dillon has not yet been confirmed, but it is the strong hope of Porter and those behind the scenes at the show to have him back.

Oscar-winner Kevin Kline is set to star in and executive produce a potential new drama on HBO about a prominent doctor (Kline) who must restart his life after serving a 15-year prison sentence for murdering his mistress.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

The following movies, specials and series will debut and/or return with new episodes this weekend and throughout next week:

The movie Amish Grace will air on the Lifetime Movie Network on Sunday, March 28 at 8 PM. The film chronicles the story of several Amish girls who were killed in a small town in Pennsylvania. Kimberly Williams-Paisley stars.

NOTE: This movie will reair on Thursday, April 1 at 8 PM.

A marathon of season one episodes of Merlin will air on Syfy on Sunday, March 28 and Thursday, April 1. Check local listings for times.

10 Things I Hate About You is back with new episodes, starting on Monday, March 29 at 8 PM preceded by a marathon of the first season episodes on ABC Family Channel. Check local listings for start time of the marathon.

Saving Grace will be back for its final season on Monday, March 29 at 10 PM on TNT.

Law & Order: Criminal Intent returns on the USA Network on Tuesday, March 30 at 10 PM.

The USA Network series In Plain Sight returns at 10 PM on Wednesday, March 31.

The new CBS drama Miami Medical will debut on Friday, April 2 at 10 PM.

Stargate: Universe returns with new episodes and the second season of Merlin begins on Syfy on Friday, April 2 at 9 and 10 PM respectively.

NEW EPISODES OF EXISTING SHOWS

Here are the new episodes of the dramas that will be airing this coming week:

Saturday, March 27:
The Guard on ION at 9 and 10 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will air in syndication this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Sunday, March 28:
Cold Case on CBS at 10 PM
Breaking Bad on AMC at 10 PM
The Pacific (mini-series) on HBO at 9 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will air in syndication this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Monday, March 29:
Castle on ABC at 10:02 PM (Part 2 of 2)
Life Unexpected on the CW at 8 PM
Gossip Girl on the CW at 9 PM
24 on FOX at 9 PM
Chuck on NBC at 8 PM
Trauma on NBC at 9 PM
Law & Order on NBC at 10 PM
Greek on ABC Family at 10 PM
Damages on FX at 10 PM

Tuesday, March 30:
Lost on ABC at 9 PM
V on ABC at 10:02 PM
90210 on the CW at 8 PM
Melrose Place on the CW at 9 PM
Parenthood on NBC at 10 PM
Survivors on BBC America at 9 PM
Justified on FX at 10 PM
Southland on TNT at 10 PM

Wednesday, March 31:
Ugly Betty on ABC at 10:01 PM
Human Target on FOX at 8 PM
Mercy on NBC at 8 PM
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on NBC at 10 PM
Being Erica on SOAPNet at 10 PM

Thursday, April 1:
FlashForward on ABC at 8 PM
Grey’s Anatomy on ABC at 9 PM
Private Practice on ABC at 10:01 PM
The Mentalist on CBS at 9 PM [network changed times]
CSI on CBS at 10 PM [network changed timed]
The Vampire Diaries on the CW at 8 PM
Supernatural on the CW at 9 PM
Bones on FOX at 8 PM
Fringe on FOX at 9 PM

Friday, April 2:
Ghost Whisperer on CBS at 8PM
Medium on CBS at 9 PM
Smallville on the CW at 8 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!

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