The Weekly Round-Up for April 25 to April 29

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

TELEVISION NEWS

The new Showtime period piece The Borgias has been given a second season order for 10 episodes. Production of Season 2 will begin in the summer for a 2012 premiere. Oscar-winner Irons stars as Rodrigo Borgia, the cunning, manipulative patriarch of the Borgia family who builds an empire by bribing, buying and muscling his way into the papacy. Along the way, the family commits virtually every sin in the book and invents more than a few of their own.

The CW dramas Gossip Girl, Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries and 90210 have all been renewed for next season.

NBC is finally giving the long-delayed rom-com anthology series Love Bites a chance. The series, which stars Becki Newton (Ugly Betty), will begin a nine-week summer run starting on June 2 at 10 PM. But the odds of the series making it to a second season are long because Newton has already been cast in another pilot for CBS and if NBC completely believed in the series, it would have aired during the regular season.

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Actresses Alison Pill and Olivia Munn are in negotiations for supporting roles while actress Marisa Tomei is closer to agreeing to play the lead in the HBO pilot by Aaron Sorkin tentatively called More As This Story Develops. The pilot centers on cable news anchor Will McCallister (Jeff Daniels), who has his own show, and the show’s female executive producer and staff. Tomei is poised to play the executive producer, MacKenzie, for whom producing the news is what she does best and everything else is tied for last place. Pill would play Maggie, an associate producer on the assignment desk. While Munn would play a sexy financial analyst on the same cable network as McCallister.

The John Grisham novel The Firm, which was made into a box office film back in 1993, is becoming a TV series. NBC is currently in negotiations to pick up the 22-episide series that will be produced by eOne Television in association with SPT networks and Paramount Pictures. Part of the deal is for the series to air on Sony’s AXN networks – to be aired in more than 125 territories around the world. The domestic sale is handled by eOne, which retained basic and pay TV, broadcast and digital/DVD rights for the show outside of AXN markets and handles distribution worldwide, including the U.S. and Canada. Casting is underway and production is expected to begin in July. The series is to pick up 10 years after the events in the 1993 feature left off. It reintroduces Mitch McDeere who brought down a prestigious Memphis law firm operating as a front for the Chicago mob. McDeere and his family emerge from isolation after 10 years in the Federal Witness Protection Program. Determined to reclaim their lives and their future, the McDeeres soon find that past dangers are still lurking and new threats are everywhere.

It looks like the cable network Starz is ready to roll out its first original limited series, an adaptation of the Dean Koontz 1985 novel Twilight Eyes. The project centers on Slim MacKenzie, who uses his psychic powers, aka Twilight Eyes, to hunt Goblins — monsters that have the ability to mimic human beings. While the events in the book take place even before the 1980s, the adaptation will be set in present day.

MADE FOR TV MOVIE NEWS

Actors Ron Livingston (Band of Brothers) and Peter MacNicol (Ally McBeal and Numb3rs) as well as actress Sarah Paulson (Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) will appear in the HBO film called Game Change that follows John McCain’s (Ed Harris) 2008 presidential campaign, from his selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (Julianne Moore) as his running mate to their ultimate defeat in the general election. Livingston will play Mark Wallace, a senior adviser to McCain-Palin 2008. Paulson will play McCain’s senior campaign advisor Nicolle Wallace. Meanwhile, MacNicol will play McCain’s campaign manager Rick Davis.

CONDOLENCES

Famed screenwriter Kevin Jarre passed away at the age of 56 after suffering heart failure. He was the man behind the box office films Glory, Rambo, Tombstone, The Devil’s Own and The Mummy [among others]. (E! Entertainment Online)

ME: Rest in Peace, Mr. Jarre. Deepest condolences to his family and friends.

Phoebe Snow, a singer and songwriter who gained fame with her 1974 self-titled album that featured the hit single Poetry Man has passed away. She was 60. (LA Times)

ME: Rest in Peace, Ms. Snow. Deepest sympathies to her family, friends and fans.

MOMENT OF SILENCE, PLEASE….

CASTING SCOOP

Actress Kelli Giddish (the short-lived Chase) will appear in the last two episodes of The Good Wife, playing an investigator for Lockhart Gardner who used to work with Kalinda (Archie Panjabi). There is a possibility for Giddish to return in the fall, though The Good Wife is yet to be officially renewed, so the show’s producers have not started working on storylines for Season 3.

Actress Elisabeth Harnois (Miami Medical) will be joining the cast of CSI as a regular. She was originally signed to guest star in the May 5 episode as the estranged daughter of Conrad Ecklie (Marc Vann), who works for the Los Angeles Police Department and helps the Las Vegas crew hunt down serial killer Nate Haskell (Bill Irwin). The guest stint grew into a bigger role on the show. She was expected to return for more episodes and has now been upgraded to a full-blown regular status on the show.

Actress Lauren Stamile (Grey’s Anatomy) will have a recurring role in the upcoming season of Burn Notice, playing a CIA agent looking into the murder of a fellow operative. Her investigation leads her to cross paths with Michael (Jeffrey Donovan).

Actor John de Lancie (Star Trek: The Next Generation and Stargate SG-1) has been cast in Torchwood: Miracle Day. What his role will be has not been confirmed. Torchwood: Miracle Day will premiere on July 8.

Actor William Forsythe (The Untouchables) has been cast in the second season of Boardwalk Empire, playing gangster Manny Horvitz.

Actor-comedian Bill Engvall (The Bill Engvall Show) will take a dramatic turn in the TNT medical drama HawthoRNe when it returns this summer. He will play Richmond Police Internal Affairs Det. James “Jimmy” Dupree, who is called in to investigate a case involving an incident at James River Hospital. The series returns for its third season on June 14 at 10 PM.

Legendary actor Ed Asner will appear in a two-episode arc on Royal Pains as the grandfather of Hank and Evan. The medical dramedy will be back on the USA Network with new episodes on June 29 at 9 PM.

NOTE: The weekly calendar and the box office news will appear separately this week.

Have a great weekend!