The Weekly Round-Up for July 18 to July 25

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

TELEVISION

Broadway star and Tony winner Idina Menzel will return to Glee for a season three arc, reprise her role as Rachel Berry’s biological mother, Shelby Corcoran. She is expected to appear in up to 12 episodes throughout the season.

Actor B. D. Wong has confirmed he will be leaving Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He will next appear in the new midseason series Awake that stars Jason Isaacs as a police detective who’s involved in a traumatic car accident and wakes up in two fractured realities. Wong plays a psychiatrist.

TNT quietly announced the cancellation of the TNT series Men of A Certain Age.

The cable network FX has placed a 13-episode order for its next original drama series: American Horror Story, which was co-created by former Nip/Tuck executive producers and current Glee co-creators/executive producers Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk. The new series will premiere in October on the cabler and the series revolves around The Harmons, a family of three who move from Boston to Los Angeles as a means to reconcile past anguish. The cast includes Dylan McDermott (The Practice), Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights), Taissa Farmiga, Jessica Lange (Tootsie, Blue Sky, Grey Gardens), Evan Peters (One Tree Hill) and Denis O’Hare (The Good Wife and True Blood). Guest stars for the series include Frances Conroy (Six Feet Under) and Alexandra Breckenridge (Dirt).

Lifetime is moving the new drama The Protector to Monday nights at 10 PM starting August 1 in order to make room for the new drama Against the Wall that will debut on Sunday, July 31 at 10 PM.

BBC America has picked up a new drama for the summer of 2012 called Cooper, which centers on a young Irish cop operating in the immigrant communities of 19th century New York. The series received a 10 episode order.

It looks like despite what was said before about actors Lea Michele, Chris Colfer, and Cory Monteith leaving the FOX musicomedy Glee when their characters graduate at the end of this upcoming season, Executive Producer Brad Fulchuk stated at Comic Con that they will actually be back for season 4. The statement was thus: “(just) because they’re graduating doesn’t mean they’re leaving the show”. Entertainment Weekly confirmed that all of the actors have signed traditional seven-year contracts so it’s not like their deals were going to expire after next season, though the studio retains the right to drop them year after year. Actor Chord Overstreet’s exit, however, is still a go; in fact, he won’t return this fall for any episodes. Falchuk said Overstreet was offered a deal to return for 10 episodes with the possibility of becoming a series regular, but Overstreet declined in favor of other opportunities.

Legendary actor Robert Wagner (Hart to Hart) will not be providing the voice of Charlie in the reimagined Charlie’s Angels series that will debut on ABC in the fall. The reason for this change is due to scheduling conflicts. Casting is ongoing for the man who will ultimately give new angels their marching orders this fall.

Actress Jorja Fox is returning to CSI this fall as a full-fledged series regular after appearing on the show in a recurring guest star capacity for the past four seasons; but she won’t appear in every episode this season. The long-running series will return with new episodes on September 21 at 10 PM.

The Syfy hit series Eureka will air a special holiday themed episode this December and it won’t be like the show’s previous holiday episode: it will be animated. In the first-of-its-kind episode, the quaint town of geniuses will be transformed into animated versions of themselves. The stand-alone holiday episode will also feature a stellar line up of guest stars lending their voices to a variety of characters – Jim Parsons, Chris Parnell, Matt Frewer and Edward James Olmos. The airdate for the holiday episode will be announced at a later date. In the episode “Do You See What I See,” it’s Christmas again in Eureka, and Sheriff Carter (Colin Ferguson) and Allison Blake (Salli Richardson-Whitfield) are secretly planning the perfect holiday surprise for their kids. But something mysterious interferes with the super-photon generator designed to create a faux winter wonderland on Main Street, sending a kaleidoscopic wave of color crashing over Eureka, and leaving the entire town and its inhabitants animated. Adapting to the rules of their animated world, our cartoon heroes encounter talking creatures, anthropomorphized machines, and snowy foes as they race to find a solution before Christmas morning…or face potentially being a cartoon forever. Jim Parsons is set to voice Carter’s long put-on Jeep, who’s had enough of his owner’s cavalier attitude towards him. Edward James Olmos will voice Rudy, the leader of a pack of sled dogs who befriends Deputy Andy. Chris Parnell also guest stars as Dr. Noah Drummer, reprising his role from last year’s Christmas special. Matt Frewer will be featured as an animated, altered version of himself, and helps Jo (Erica Cerra) make an important realization about her tough-girl personality.

TNT has ordered a second season of Franklin & Bash, the legal drama that stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Breckin Meyer.

Despite reports to the contrary, actress Karen Gillan announced at Comic Con over the weekend that she will indeed be returning to Doctor Who for its next new season, which will air in 2012. The current season of the show – as it airs here in the United States – is anticipated to start in September.

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Actor Titus Welliver (Lost, The Good Wife and Sons of Anarchy) has been cast as Triphammer in the FX pilot called Powers, which is based on a Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming comic book. The pilot stars Jason Patric and Lucy Punch as detectives who investigate crimes involving people with superhuman abilities. Triphammer is described as both a genius and a narcissist, a combination of Steve Jobs and Donald Trump. He’s not just a powerful force in his own right, he has invented technology that can both bestow and remove superhuman abilities.

CONDOLENCES

British singer (and unreformed addict) Amy Winehouse passed away over the weekend.

ME: RIP, Ms. Winehouse. Sympathies are extended to their family, friends and fans.

MOMENT OF SILENCE, PLEASE…

MADE FOR TV MOVIE NEWS

Actors John Corbett and Gary Cole and actresses Julie Benz and Kelly Overton have been cast in the two-hour movie Ricochet, based on the best-selling book by Sandra Brown, which will air on TNT. Det. Sgt. Duncan Hatcher (Corbett), a sexy Savannah homicide cop, falls hard for Elise Laird (Benz), a dishy damsel-in-distress. She’s married to corrupt Judge Cato Laird (Cole), who consistently subverts Hatcher’s efforts to bring a local drug lord to justice. Things get complicated when Hatcher and his feisty partner, Det. DeeDee Bowen (Overton), are called to the Laird home after Elise supposedly shoots an intruder in self-defense. This made for TV movie is part of the new Tuesday Night Mystery movie franchise slated to launch in November on TNT. The franchise will feature six contemporary crime dramas, from true-crime stories to fictional mysteries.

A&E Network will begin production on Stephen King’s Bag of Bones, a four-hour epic mini-series that will feature Pierce Brosnan’s return to television. The two-night event is scheduled to premiere in the fourth quarter of 2011. The mini-series will also star Anabeth Gish (The X-Files and most recently seen in Pretty Little Liars) and Melissa George (Alias). The story centers on bestselling novelist Mike Noonan (Brosnan), who is unable to stop grieving after the sudden death of his wife Jo (Gish). A dream inspires him to return to the couple’s lakeside retreat in western Maine, where he becomes involved in a custody battle between the daughter of an attractive young widow (George) and the child’s enormously wealthy grandfather, the mysterious ghostly visitations, the ever-escalating nightmares and the realization that his late wife still has something to tell him.

Lifetime has greenlit the original movie called We Have Your Husband that will star Teri Polo and Esai Morales. The film is based on the true story of American Jayne Valseca (Polo) and her fight to free her husband Eduardo (Morales) who spent 7 and a half months at the hands of brutal kidnappers in Mexico. Eduardo, a Mexican businessman, was kidnapped at gunpoint close to the ranch where he lived with his wife Jayne and their kids, launching a race for Jayne to raise ransom money while Eduardo clings to life as he is starved, tortured and shot several times. The film is based on the book of the same name by Jayne Valseca and Mark Ebner.

TNT has set actor Bill Pullman (who is currently appearing in Torchwood: Miracle Day) as the lead in a two-hour telefilm called Innocent that is based on the book by Scott Turow, which is actually a sequel to his bestseller Presumed Innocent. It is the first entry in the network’s recently announced new Tuesday Night Mystery movie franchise slated to launch in November, which will feature six contemporary crime dramas, from true-crime stories to fictional mysteries. Innocent centers on Judge Rusty Sabich (Pullman) who, twenty years after being cleared in the death of his mistress, is charged with the murder of his late wife.

The Sundance Channel has picked up the mini-series called Appropriate Adult, which is based on true events. It tells the story of British serial killer Fred West (Dominic West) and his relationship with his appropriate adult, Janet Leach (Emily Watson). In the UK, an “appropriate adult” is appointed to sit in on police interviews with children or vulnerable adults to safeguard their interests. Fred West and his wife Rosemary were accused of murdering at least a dozen women between 1967 and 1978. It will premiere on the cable channel in the fall.

NOTE: The weekly calendar, casting scoop and box office news will all appear separately this week, covering the news for the last two weeks (because of my attending Comic Con last week).