Ugly Betty’s Becki Newton Picked Up By NBC

Becki Newton & Jordana Spiro star in new NBC series Love Bites

NBC announced the pickup of three new series for Fall 2010, including erstwhile Ugly Betty star Becki Newton’s new series, Love Bites.

The series is a joint production from Universal Media Studios and Working Title Productions. Working Title not ringing any bells? This is their first U.S. television production, but you might be more familiar with their theatrical gems: Love Actually, Bridget Jones’s Diary and Four Weddings and a Funeral. With a track record like that for romantic shenanigans, you can imagine why I’m excited about this new series!

Per the network, Love Bites is an hour-long romantic comedy anthology series featuring three loosely connected, modern stories of love, sex, marriage and dating. Each episode contains multiple vignettes, all illuminating the theme of love with an edgy, irreverent spin. Emmy Award-winning writer-producer Cindy Chupack (Sex and the City) is the showrunner.

Becki Newton (Ugly Betty) stars as Annie and Jordana Spiro (My Boys) stars as Frannie. Wait a minute – Annie and Frannie? That might be just a little too precious, but the premise is still too good for me to resist. The pair are the last two single girls standing after all of their friends get married. Annie is an infectiously bubbly optimist and Frannie is an always-a-bridesmaid realist. Their story will anchor the series, while other romantically-challenged characters will come and go each week.

The pilot’s guest cast includes Jennifer Love Hewitt, Greg Grunberg, Craig Robinson, Jason Lewis,  Lindsay Price (whom NBC prefers to credit as from Lipstick Jungle rather than rival ABC’s Eastwick), Larry Wilmore, Charlyne Yi, Pamela Adlon, Stacy Galina, Brian Hallisay (Hey! The hottie from Privileged!), Kyle Howard (another My Boys alum) and Steve Howey.

Sounds like this is going to be a mixture of Bridget Jones and Love Actually. I’m so on board. NBC also picked up “dramatic thriller” The Event (meh) and another workplace comedy, Outsourced (meh).