News
The Round-Up for the Week of March 7 to 11
Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:
TELEVISION NEWS
A newly revamped Law & Order: Los Angeles will be re-launched in April by NBC. It will return with a two-hour episode on April 11 at 9 PM before moving to its regular timeslot on Mondays at 10 PM the following week. Part-time cast members Alfred Molina and Terrence Howard are now full-time regulars, with Molina’s character moving from the district attorney’s office to the police force (to work as a detective alongside Corey Stoll’s character) and Howard’s character will become the show’s sole senior district attorney. Alana De La Garza will reprise her Law & Order role of A.D.A. Connie Rubirosa to team with Howard’s character in the courtroom.
Congrats to all the winners of this weekend’s NAACP Awards, including Denzel Washington, Halle Barry, Regina King, LL Cool J, S. Epatha Merkerson, Usher, Idris Elba, John Legend and Keke Palmer (among many others).
Actress Louise Lombard will be back on CSI for one episode to reprise her role as Sofia Curtis during the CSIs’ hunt for escaped serial killer Nate Haskell (Bill Irwin) in a May sweeps episode.
Mark your calendars!! Doctor Who will be back on BBC America with a two-part episode starting on April 23 at 9 PM. You can expect the following for the return of the doctor: “The Doctor (Matt Smith), and his companions Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill), find themselves on a secret summons that takes them on an adventure from the desert in Utah — right to the Oval Office in 1969.”
Actress Elizabeth Berkley (Saved By the Bell) will be back on CSI: Miami presumably as Julia Winston, Horatio’s (David Caruso) ex-lover and mother of Kyle Harmon (Evan Ellingson). The episode is set to air in May.
Mark your calendars: TNT has announced the return dates for their summer series, including: Men of a Certain Age on June 1 at 10 PM; Memphis Beat on June 14 at 9 PM; HawthoRNe on June 14 at 10 PM; Leverage on June 26 at 9 PM; The Closer on July 11 at 9 PM and Rizzoli & Isles on July 11 at 10 PM.
Also, TNT will launch their new shows as follows: Franklin & Bash, starring Mark-Paul Gosselaar (NYPD Blue) and Breckin Meyer (Road Trip) as two fly-by-the seat-of-their-pants lawyers working for a button-down law firm, which debuts on June 1 at 9 PM. And, Falling Skies, which has its 2-hour debut on June 19 at 9 PM (with its regular time slot being Sundays at 10 PM) stars Noah Wyle (ER) in the story of the aftermath of an alien invasion and the resistance movement formed by the survivors.
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
The NBC series Love Bites that has been on hold for months is looking like it is officially DOA. Reason being: Lead actress Becki Newton (Ugly Betty) has signed on to star in a CBS comedy pilot that revolves around a blue-collar man who lives under the same roof with his wife, their grown daughter (Newton) and her 12-year-old son, and his recently widowed mother.
Actor Jim Caviezel (The Prisoner and Passion of the Christ) has been cast in the CBS drama pilot Person of Interest (that comes from J. J. Abrams). He joins Michael Emerson (Lost) and Oscar-nominated actress Taraji P. Henson in this drama that centers on a paramilitary CIA officer (Caviezel) who is presumed killed in the line of duty, but resurfaces in New York City where he teams up with an eccentric billionaire (Emerson) to clean up the city’s violent underworld.
Actresses Darby Stanchfield and Liza Weil have joined the ABC drama pilot called Damage Control that is about Olivia Price (Kerry Washington), a professional fixer with a dysfunctional staff. Stanchfield is set as Abby, the tireless investigator for Olivia’s firm while Weil will play Julia Tannen, the woman at the center of the pilot’s crisis – an aide that’s going around saying she’s sleeping with the President. Columbrus Short and Henry Ian Cusick are among the co-stars.
Actor Chris Egan (Kings) and actress Tabrett Bethell (Legend of the Seeker) have joined the cast of the ABC drama pilot called Poe that is a period drama which envisions famed author Edgar Allan Poe as the world’s very first detective in 1840s Boston. Egan will play the title role while Bethell is set as Sarah Elmira Royster, Poe’s sweetheart in adolescent and muse in adulthood. Also, actress Natalie Dormer (The Tudors) has joined this pilot as Celeste, a beautiful spitfire, with a firm moral center – the logical yin to Poe’s wildly theoretical yang. She owns the newspaper for which Poe writes, having inherited it from her fiancée who died in mysterious circumstances.
Actor Bruce Greenwood has joined the cast of the ABC drama pilot called The River, which is about a family who travels to the deep Amazon to locate and rescue their missing father, a famous TV explorer. He will play the missing man, Emmet Cole who is billed as part Don Herbert, part Carl Sagan, and part Doctor Henry Walton Jones. Also, actor Paul Blackthorne will appear as the producer of the show documenting this endeavor.
Anjelica Huston has joined the growing cast of the NBC drama pilot called Smash that is to be a show-within-a-show about a group of people who come together to put on a Marilyn Monroe-themed Broadway musical. She will play Eileen, a shrewd Tony-winning producer. Amon the cast members are Debra Messing, Jack Davenport, Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty.
Actor Brandon T. Jackson (Tropic Thunder) will play the lead role opposite Minnie Driver in the CBS pilot called Hail Mary, that centers on Mary Beth Baker (Driver), a suburban single mom in Atlanta who, after her teen son gets killed, teams up with her son’s best friend KZ (Jackson), a fast-talking con artist from the streets, to solve her son’s murder and other crimes.
Actor Robert Carlyle (Stargate Universe) is set to portray Rumplestiltskin in the ABC drama pilot Once Upon a Time, about a woman drawn into a town where the magic and mystery of fairy tales may be real and hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of her troubled past. An expert on black magic, Rumplestiltskin agrees to help Snow White and Prince Charming counteract the Evil Queen’s dark spells, but for a price. Also actress Jennifer Morrison (House) has been cast in the lead role of Anna Swan (Morrison), a woman with a troubled past who is drawn to Storybrooke, a small town in Maine where the magic and mystery of Fairy Tales just may be real.
Actress Emma Bell (The Walking Dead) has been added to the NBC drama pilot now called Reconstruction (formerly called The Crossing) that is set in a Missouri town during the post-Civil War Reconstruction era and centers on Jason (Martin Henderson from Off the Map), a soldier who crosses the country and settles into a complicated town where he is welcomed as its savior. Bell will play a strong-willed woman who denounces Jason as a coward.
Actress Emily VanCamp (Everwood and Brothers & Sisters) has landed the lead in the ABC drama pilot called Revenge that is a contemporary re-imagining of The Count of Monte Cristo. It centers on Emily Thorn (Van Camp), a mysterious woman who comes to the Hamptons to exact revenge on the people who destroyed her family.
Actress Meredith Hagner (Lights Out) has been cast as the second lead opposite actress Lucy Griffiths in the CW zombie pilot called Awakening that is about two sisters, Jenna (Lucy Griffiths) and Jayce (Meredith Hagner), who are coming of age and facing off against one another amidst the beginning of a zombie uprising. Also, actor Brian Hallisay (Privileged) will play Jenna’s Calvin Klein-handsome boyfriend. Lastly, actor Titus Welliver (The Good Wife and Lost) will play the character initially known simply as “The Hunter,” a member of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Division.
Actor Riley Smith (24) is set to co-star in the CW pilot Cooper & Stone that is about Jenna Cooper (Alex Breckenridge) and Stone (yet to be cast), two smart young female detectives on Chicago’s North Side who are best friends, equally adept at discussing fashion, music and pop culture as they are solving homicides. Smith will play a hot-shot vice detective with the Chicago PD who is transferred to the Northside from the Southside after his cover is blown in a high-risk operation. He enjoys needling Stone, whom he competed against at the academy, and it seems they have a history of sexual tension as well as professional tension.
Actress Nancy Travis has joined the CW drama pilot Hart of Dixie in a guest-star/recurring role. The comedic drama centers on a young New York City doctor, Zoe Hart (Rachel Bilson), who inherits a medical practice in a small Southern town inhabited by an eclectic group of characters. Travis will play a no-nonsense nurse who becomes a surrogate mother to Zoe. Also, actor Cress Williams (Friday Night Lights and Grey’s Anatomy) is believed to be playing Lavon Hayes, the town’s unorthodox mayor, a former NFL star who lets Zoe stay in his plantation’s carriage house.
Actress Madchen Amick (Twin Peaks and Damages) has landed the female lead in the NBC drama pilot S.I.L.A., which is a complex drama in the vein of Traffic set in the world of crime, law enforcement and politics in modern-day Los Angeles. She will will play Mary, who came from a blue-collar background to become a successful Century City lawyer.
Kelli Garner (My Generation) is set to co-star opposite Christina Ricci in the ABC drama pilot called Pan Am, a sexy soap set against the Jet Age about a group of pilots and flight attendants working at Pan Am Airlines in the 1960s. She will play Kate, a well-educated, sharply intelligent and tri-lingual stewardess who is also a bit of a rebel.
Actor Sasha Roiz (Caprica) has joined the cast of the NBC pilot called Grimm that is about Nick Burckhardt (David Giuntoli), a police detective who discovers fairy tale creatures live among us and is tasked with defending humans from these mythical beasts. Sasha will play Captain Ericson, Nick’s supervisor. Meanwhile, actor Reggie Lee (Prison Break) will play a cop who works with Nick.
Actress Arielle Kebbel (Life Unexpected and The Vampire Diaries) is the newest cast member of the ABC drama pilot called Hallelujah, which is about a tiny town in Tennessee which finds itself being torn apart by the forces of good and evil. She is expected to play Veda Roman, the stunning wife of Del Roman (yet to be cast), a local mobster. Meanwhile, actors Terry O’Quinn will have roles in this pilot with O’Quinn will play the show’s main villain Del, a charming yet wholly corrupt local millionaire who virtually owns the town and Logue playing Rye Turner, an honest family man and the owner of the local diner who’s tired of being under Del’s thumb.
Brian O’Byrne (Flash Forward) has joined the cast of the NBC drama pilot Prime Suspect, which is about Jane Timoney (Maria Bello), an iconoclastic female detective who has to make her bones in a tough New York precinct dominated by men. He is expected to play Reg Duffy, a detective who’s the most hostile towards Jane.
Actress Brooke D’Orsay (Drop Dead Diva and Royal Pains) has landed the female lead in the ABC comedy pilot called Smothered that is about a young couple – Zach (Kyle Howard) and Gillian (D’Orsay) with a one-year-old daughter who find themselves smothered by their two very different sets of parents – his (Marcia Gay Harden and Adam Arkin) are pretentious and disengaged while hers (John C. McGinley and Julie White) are scrappy and exuberant.
Actress Kristin Kreuk (Smallville) will guest star in the Ron Moore/NBC drama pilot called 17th Precinct, as Susan Longstreet, the wife of Jamie Bamber’s crime scene expert. If the pilot is picked up to series her role could becoming a recurring one. The pilot is set in the fictional town of Excelsior, where magic and supernatural elements rule over science, 17th Precinct revolves around the lawmen at the local cop shop.
Actor Jeremy Sisto (Law & Order) will appear in the ABC comedy pilot called Suburgatory that centers on Tessa (Jane Levy), a teenage girl who is moved by her dad George (Sisto) from Manhattan, where she grew up, to her version of hell: the suburbs.
Actor Joe Mazzello (the little kid from Jurassic Park as well as The Social Network and The Pacific) has joined the cast of the ABC drama pilot called Georgetown, which centers on Andrew Pierce (Jimmy Wolk), an effortlessly charming and brilliant Yale graduate and the youngest Presidential speech-writer on record. Mazzello will play Peter, another junior White House staffer who lives with his best friends Andrew, Nikki (Katie Cassidy) and Sam (Daisy Betts).
Actress Jordana Spiro (My Boys) has landed a role on the ABC comedy pilot called Lost and Found, which centers on Jo (Spiro), a narcissistic thirtysomething New York City bartender and party girl whose life is turned upside-down when the conservative 18-year-old son she gave up for adoption turns up on her doorstep.
Actor Kristoffer Polaha (Life Unexpected) has landed a role opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar in the CBS drama pilot called Ringer that has Geller playing a troubled young woman named Bridget who, while on the run from the mob, hides out by inhabiting the life of her rich wealthy twin sister, Siobhan. But there is a bounty on her sis’ head, too. Polaha plays the out-of-work husband of Siobhan’s best friend (Tara Summers) who also happens to be having an affair with Siobhan.
Actor Thomas Dekker (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) has landed the male lead in the CW drama pilot Secret Circle, which is based on the book series of the same name by L.J. Smith (the author behind The Vampire Diaries books). The story revolves around a young woman named Cassie (Britt Robertson from Life Unexpected) who discovers that not only is she a witch and part of a top-secret coven, but she’s also the key that will unlock a centuries-old battle between good and evil. He will play Adam, the oldest member of the aforementioned coven and a love interest for Cassie.
Actress Marisol Nichols (The Gates and 240 has joined the ABC pilot Good Christian Bitches that follows a woman (Leslie Bibb) who moves back to her Dallas neighborhood after a divorce only to become the center of salacious gossip from the community’s churchgoing wives. She will play the role of Heather (no other details on the character are available).
Legendary choreographer-actress Debbie Allen has booked a role on the ABC drama pilot Grace that is about Michael Grace (Eric Roberts), a famous choreographer whose womanizing ways have produced three daughters – Sarah (Abigail Spencer), a lawyer; Shay (Sherri Saum), a photographer; Eden (Anabelle Acosta), a teenager – all with different mothers. Allen will play Helen Grace, Shay’s mother. Also, actor Chris Carmack (The O.C.) will play a musician in this pilot.
Sean Maher (Firefly) will have a role in the NBC drama pilot Playboy, which is a period drama set at the Playboy Club in Chicago in 1963. It is believe he will play Sean, Alice’s (Jenna Dewan-Tatum) husband. Meanwhile, the lead role has been changed from Jeff Hephner (Hellcats and The O.C.) to Eddie Cibrian (Third Watch). His character is Nick Dalton – described as “the ultimate playboy” – an attorney in Chicago and a Keyholder at the glamorous, exclusive Playboy Club.
Actress Lily Rabe (All Good Things and No Reservations) is set for a recurring role in the FOX drama pilot Exit Strategy that stars Ethan Hawke as the head of a team of five experts associated with the CIA who are deployed when a CIA operation goes bad.
Actress Ellen Barkin will star in the NBC drama pilot A Mann’s World. Allan Mann, a fiftysomething handsome and sexy straight Beverly Hills hairdresser (Don Johnson) struggling to stay young and relevant in a place where looks are everything. She will play Allan’s forgiving, funny ex-wife and the mother of their three children.
Actor Eric Winter (Brothers & Sisters) has been cast in the FOX drama pilot Weekends at Bellevue, which is based on the Julie Holland memoir. It centers on Ellie (Lauren Ambrose), the psychiatrist in charge of the weekend shift of Bellevue Hospital’s psychiatric unit. Winter will play a scruffy and sexy doctor attending in the ER.
MADE FOR TV MOVIES NEWS
Keira Knightley will provide her voice for the role of Tinker Bell in the upcoming made-for-TV movie Neverland that will air on Syfy. The cast of this mini-series, that will air in December, includes Rhys Ifans, Anna Friel and Bob Hoskins.
Julianne Moore is set to play Sarah Palin in the HBO movie called Game Change that is to chronicle the failed 2008 presidential campaign by John McCain.
A large cast has been added to the HBO biopic called Hemingway & Gellhorn that is set to appear on the TV network in 2012. The story covers the tumultuous romance and subsequent marriage of literary master Ernest Hemingway (Clive Owen) and up-and-coming war correspondent Martha Gellhorn (Nicole Kidman) from their first meeting in a Key West bar in 1936 to their cross-Europe romance and five-year marriage. Among the cast are David Strathairn, Rodrigo Santoro, Molly Parker, Parker Posey, Santiago Cabrera, Peter Coyote and Tony Shalhoub.
BOX OFFICE NEWS
Actor Jeffrey Donovan (Burn Notice) and rising young actor Miles Fisher (Final Destination 5) have joined the cast of the Clint Eastwood Hoover biopic called J. Edgar. The story focuses on the FBI director’s scandalous career and controversial private life. Donovan will play Hoover’s rival Robert F. Kennedy while Fisher will play Agent Garrison, an FBI man who interviews Hoover at different points throughout the movie.
It looks like it’s been confirmed that Kristen Stewart (The Twilight franchise) will appear as Snow White in the upcoming box office film Snow White and the Hunstman, joining Viggo Mortensen as the huntsman and Charlize Theron as the evil queen.
Alec Baldwin (30 Rock) has joined the cast of the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Rock of Ages, playing the part of Dennis Dupree, an ex-rocker hanging onto his glory days while he runs the Rock of Ages nightclub. Julianne Hough, Mary J. Blige and Tom Cruise are among the cast.
Actress Brie Larson (United States of Tara and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) has landed the coveted lead role of Molly in the remake of 21 Jump Street. She will star opposite Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum and Ice Cube.
Welsh hunk Luke Evans (Clash of the Titans) will appear in the upcoming action-thriller The Amateur American, playing a young American living in Paris who accepts a job working for a shadowy employer and soon finds himself framed for murder and caught up in a web of deceit. Evans will soon be seen in the following roles in these upcoming movies: Zeus in Immortals; Aramis in The Three Musketeers; a British DI in Blitz and Edgar Allan Poe’s assistant in The Raven.
CASTING SCOOP
Singer-actor Marc Anthony has joined the cast of the TNT medical drama HawthoRNe, reprising his newly expanded role of police Det. Nick Renata.
Actor Victor Webster (Charmed and Melrose Place) [and who is currently playing Beckett’s boyfriend on Castle] will make a guest appearance on NCIS: Los Angeles as Stanley King, a world-class thief suspected of several high-end heists. He lands on NCIS’ radar after a secure facility housing sensitive materials on a Marine base is compromised. In order to get close enough to keep an eye on King, Kensi (Daniela Ruah) must work alongside him as a savvy thief. His episode is expected to air on March 29.
Actor Sean Patrick Flanery (The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and The Dead Zone) will be heading to the CBS soap The Young and the Restless, playing a country veterinarian named Sam.
Actor-singer Rick Springfield (General Hospital) will guest star in an episode of Hawaii Five-0 set to air this spring. He will play Renny, a fashion photographer who is in Hawaii shooting a swimsuit cover alongside his model fiancé Kenza when tragedy strikes.
Actor Nick Zano (Melrose Place) and actor turned entertainment news reporter Mario Lopez will appear in the season premiere episode of Drop Dead Diva. Lopez will play himself while Zano will play movie star Tim Kline, whose hit-and-run accident and impending divorce are handled by Jane (Brooke Elliott). Country singer LeAnn Rimes stars as Kline’s soon-to-be ex-wife.
Jason Priestley (the 90210 actor-director) will appear in a four-episode arc on the Syfy series Haven, playing Chris Weekly, a brilliant, principled but anti-social marine biologist who must deal with an affliction most would consider a blessing.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
There is a lot of programming to keep track of each, so, the list below covers most of what you can expect this coming weekend and next week (including reairs, new episodes and made-for-TV movies):
Saturday, March 12:
Rascal Flatts: Nothing Like This (Special) on ABC at 9 PM
NCIS on CBS at 8 PM (Reair)
NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS at 9 PM (Reair)
Harry’s Law on NBC at 8 PM (Reair)
Law & Order: Los Angeles on NBC at 9 PM (Reair)
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on NBC at 10 PM (Reair)
Being Human on BBC America at 8 PM (Reair)
Being Human on BBC America at 8 PM (NEW)
Boardwalk Empire on HBO at 10 PM (Reair)
He Loves Me movie on Lifetime at 9 PM (Reair)
Battle of Los Angeles movie on Syfy at 9 PM (Debut)
Sunday, March 13:
Desperate Housewives on ABC at 9 PM (Reair)
Brothers & Sisters on ABC at 10:01 PM (Reair)
CSI: Miami on CBS at 10 PM
Breakout Kings on A&E at 10 PM
Big Love on HBO at 9 PM (NEW)
Big Love on HBO at 10 PM (Reair)
He Loves Me movie on Lifetime at 7 PM (Reair)
Army Wives on Lifetime at 9 PM
The Tudors on Showtime at 9 and 10 PM (Reairs)
Monday, March 14:
Hawaii Five-0 on CBS at 10 PM (Reair)
90210 on The CW at 8 PM (Reair)
Gossip Girl on The CW at 9 PM (Reair)
House on FOX at 8 PM
The Chicago Code on FOX at 9 PM
Chuck on NBC at 8 PM
The Event on NBC at 9 PM
Harry’s Law on NBC at 10 PM
Pretty Little Liars on ABC Family at 8 and 10 PM (NEW and Reair)
The Secret Life of the American Teenager on ABC Family at 9 PM (Reair)
Being Human on Syfy at 8 PM (Reair)
Being Human on Syfy at 9 PM (NEW)
Stargate Universe on Syfy at 10 PM
The Closer on TNT at 10 PM (Reair)
16 Wishes movie on Disney at 8 PM (Reair)
The Sunset Limited on HBO2 at 8:30 PM (Reair)
Big Love on HBO2 at 10 PM (Reair)
Tuesday, March 15:
No Ordinary Family on ABC at 8 PM (Reair)
V on ABC at 9 PM (Finale)
Detroit 1-8-7 on ABC at 10:01 PM
NCIS on CBS at 8 PM (Reair)
NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS at 9 PM (Reair)
The Good Wife on CBS at 10 PM (Reair)
One Tree Hill on The CW at 8 PM (Reair)
Hellcats on The CW at 9 PM (Reair)
Parenthood on NBC at 10 PM (Reair)
Lights Out on FX at 10 PM
Anne Rule’s Everything She Ever Wanted movie on Lifetime Movie Network at 8 PM (Reair)
Dinoshark movie on Syfy at 7 PM (Reair)
Mega Python vs. Gatoroid movie on Syfy at 9 PM (Reair)
Wednesday, March 16:
Off the Map on ABC at 10 PM
Criminal Minds on CBS at 9 PM (Reair)
Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior on CBS at 10 PM
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on NBC at 10 PM (Reair)
Being Erica on SOAPNet at 11 PM
Justified on FX at 10 PM
Big Love on HBO at 8, 9 and 10 PM (Reairs)
The Tudors on BBC America at 9 and 10 PM (Reairs)
Thursday, March 17:
Private Practice on ABC at 9 PM
Off the Map on ABC at 10:01 PM (Reair)
The Vampire Diaries on The CW at 8 PM (Reair)
Nikita on The CW at 9 PM (Reair)
Bones on FOX at 9 PM
Fairly Legal on USA Network at 10 PM
Big Love on HBO at 8 PM (Reair)
Friday, March 18:
Smallville on The CW at 8 PM (Reair)
Supernatural on The CW at 9 PM (Reair)
Fringe on FOX at 9 PM
Law & Order: UK on BBC America at 9 and 10 PM
Merlin on Syfy at 10 PM
Big Love on HBO Signature at 9 PM (Reair)
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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