Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Wow, Friday is nearly here. I can’t believe how quickly this work week has flown by. I hope that doesn’t hold true for the weekend, as I think we all would like that to go slowly, right?

In the meantime, here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

Stephen Collins (7th Heaven) will be stopping by Brothers & Sisters this fall, as a new love interest for Saul (Ron Rifkin). No word yet on how long Stephen’s character will stick around, though. (Kristin at E! Entertainment Online)

Fans can relive every triumph, tragedy and touchdown from the very beginning when Friday Night Lights comes to ABC Family on weeknights beginning Tuesday, September 7 at 6 PM. (The Futon Critic)

Bobby Cannavale (Third Watch) has been added to the cast of the new CBS cop drama Blue Bloods, playing Charles Rosselini, the boss of Bridget Moynahan’s Assistant District Attorney Erin Reagan. Blue Bloods will premiere on September 24 at 10 PM. (Adam Bryant at TV Guide)

Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad) will guest star on the Fox drama Lie To Me this fall, playing Internal Affairs Detective Jenkins, an ambitious, politically savvy police officer on the fast track to the top. She realizes Lightman is someone who must be handled with caution as she tries to bring down Detective Wallowski. She will appear in the third episode, which is slated to air on November. 24. (Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly)

The CW has dropped its Canadian import 18 to Life after only three weeks on the air. Repeats of Life Unexpected will return to the Tuesday 9 PM timeslot effective immediately. Six episodes will remain on the shelf here in the U.S. The series, however, will continue in Canada where CBC has ordered a second season. (The Futon Critic)

Stan Lee will guest-star on Eureka, but the network (Syfy) is keeping mum on who or what the comic book legend will play. On the other hand Ming-Na (Stargate Universe), will guest-star next season, portraying Alice Wen, a senator who arrives in Eureka to handle a sensitive matter within Global Dynamics. She may appear in more than one episode. The show airs Fridays at 9 PM. (Denise Martin at TV Guide)

CBS will air a half-hour fall preview on September 6 at 8:30 PM (hosted by Jim Belushi and Jerry O’Connell, stars of the new drama series, The Defenders) to showcase all the new shows – comedy and drama – that the network will be unveiling this fall. Mark your calendars if you want to get details on the new shows. (The Futon Critic)

The USA Network just renewed Covert Affairs for a second season. (Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly)

DVD ANNOUNCEMENTS

Glee

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Idris Elba (The Wire and the upcoming movie Takers) has signed on to play Alex Cross (the James Patterson character) in a reboot of the role originated by Morgan Freeman. This reboot will be an adaptation of the 2006 novel Cross where the forensic psychologist tracks a serial rapist who may have murdered his pregnant wife years before. Elba will next be seen on Showtime’s The Big C and recently starred as a serial killer hunting, unstable cop in the British series Luther that will air on BBC America this fall. (Deadline Hollywood Daily and Dark Horizons)

Deborah Ann Woll (True Blood) has signed on for the ensemble drama Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You, which follows an isolated young adult (Toby Regbo) who must contend with his dysfunctional family during his pre-college summer. She will play his sister. Ellen Burstyn, Marcia Gay Harden, Lucy Liu and Stephen Lang also star. (The Hollywood Reporter and Dark Horizons)

Scott Speedman (Underworld) is in negotiations to join the box office film The Vow, which is based on the true story of the newlyweds Kim and Krickitt Carpenter, whose love was tested two months into their marriage when a car accident left her in a coma for weeks. When she awoke, she remembered everyone but her husband. Rachel McAdams will star as the bride while Channing Tatum will be the groom. Speedman is expected to play the bride’s former fiancé who reenters the picture. (Mandi Bierly at Entertainment Weekly)

Maggie Gyllenhaal has confirmed that she and her husband Peter Sarsgaard will team for the biopic about bluegrass legend Bill Monroe for which Sarsgaard has been attached to play Monroe. No official announcement has been made yet. (Dark Horizons)

BOX OFFICE TRAILER

Watch: Naomi Watts in Doug Liman’s Fair Game Official Trailer

Q&A SECTION (with Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly)

Question: I need some Chuck scoop! —Taylor

Ausiello: Captain Awesome won’t be reviving his short-lived career as international superspy anytime soon. “Last season Awesome realized if there was one place in the world where he wasn’t awesome, it was on spy missions,” notes exec producer Chris Fedak. “He’d like to stay as far away from the spy world as he can.” That’s particularly true now that there’s a mini Awesome on the way. “He is going to be way more into all of the rituals of pregnancy than even Ellie is,” says fellow EP Josh Schwartz of the daddy-to-be. “Like all things in life, Awesome is going to throw himself into the pregnancy with his usual fervor.”

Question: Can you give us Smallville fans any juicy Lois and Clark spoilers? —Wahyu

Ausiello: Episode 6, titled “Harvest,” contains some good Clois action. “It’s a creepy ghost town episode, and Lois and Clark find themselves forced together,” reveals exec producer Brian Peterson. “He doesn’t have his powers, and she finds out a lot more about him than she thought she knew.”

Question: When does the 10-episode final season of Greek premiere? —Emily

Ausiello: Sometime in January. Speaking of which, the final day of shooting is Aug. 26. I’ll be hosting a group hug that morning aboard Los Angeles-bound American Airlines flight # [spoiler alert]. Let’s meet outside the rear lavatory at around, say, 10 a.m. ET.

Question: What did CW prez Dawn Ostroff mean when she said at press tour that Dean will be like Sam and Sam will be like Dean on Supernatural this season? —Isaiah

Ausiello: Let’s ask exec producer Sera Gamble. “When we start the season we very consciously riffed a little bit on season 1 in that Dean is out of the business and Sam comes for him,” she explains. “When we started the series, Sam had attachments. He had a girlfriend he was really serious about, and he had retired from hunting essentially. Dean was this very intense hunter who came for his brother. On the surface anyway, the situation is reversed at the beginning of the season.”

Question: Any scoop on what’s going to happen to Dell’s orphaned daughter Betsy on Private Practice? —Afton

Ausiello: I hear an entire episode will be devoted to answering that very question.

Question: Please tell me some good Castle scoop about Castle and Beckett. —Ilaira

Ausiello: This is probably more bad than good, but Monet Mazur is confirmed to reprise her role as Castle’s ex Gina in this season’s fifth episode.

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Hey All,

It’s over the hump day already. This week is moving along quickly, isn’t it? Let’s get down to the entertainment news for today, shall we?

TELEVISION

Lainie Kazan (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) is joining Desperate Housewives for a multi-episode arc, playing a self-employed business owner and neighbor to Teri Hatcher’s character, Susan. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Mamie Gummer (Meryl Streep’s daughter) will reprise her role as prosecutor Nancy Crozier on The Good Wife, returning in the fourth episode of the new season. Gummer will next be seen in the new Shonda Rhimes series Off the Map about a medical clinic in South America. The series is scheduled to debut midseason on ABC. The Good Wife will be back on September 28 at 10 PM. (Kate Stanhope at TV Guide)

Gloria Reuben (ER) will reprise her role as U.S. Attorney Christine Danielson on Law & Order: SVU. In a very intense case involving child slavery, she deputizes Benson and Stabler as U.S. marshals so they can leave Manhattan. (Ileane Rudolph at TV Guide)

Teri Polo (Meet the Parents) has joined the cast of new NBC series Law & Order: Los Angeles, starring in the recurring role of Casey Winters, wife of Det. Rex Winters (Skeet Ulrich). Casey is a former cop who has settled down to raise a family. The series will debut on September 29 at 10 PM. (Natalie Abrams at TV Guide)

True Blood will feature the character Hollow Stonebrook in Season Four. Hallow is a “were-sorceress” will turns up in Bon Temps next season. She communicates with the dead, and she’s interested in developing further powers.” No word on who will be cast in the role, however. (Michael Ausiello and Televisionary)

Newcomer Renee Felice Smith is joining NCIS: Los Angeles in the potentially recurring role of Nell, an incredibly bright, somewhat quirky, and extremely chatty intelligence analyst who’ll be assisting Eric (Barrett Foa) in the OPS center. Smith’s biggest role to date was in a project nobody ever saw: Amy Sherman-Palladino’s ill-fated CW pilot The Wyoming Project. (Michael Ausiello and Televisionary)

Mark your calendars: Psych and Burn Notice will be back to the USA Network in November with new episodes. Meanwhile, Royal Pains and White Collar will be back in January as well as the debut of the new show Facing Kate being in January. (The Futon Critic)

A tie-in novel for the popular Canadian series Being Erica has been commissioned, but no other details seem available as yet. (Spoiler TV)

SYFY FALL PROGRAMMING INCLUDES NEW SEASONS OF GHOST HUNTERS, STARGATE UNIVERSE, DESTINATION TRUTH, SANCTUARY, SCARE TACTICS AND FACT OR FAKED

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

HBO is finalizing a deal to develop The Crux, a drama series project starring Kevin Spacey. In the series Spacey will play a charismatic cult leader. Little else is known about the project. (Natalie Abrams at TV Guide)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

January Jones (Mad Men) has officially been cast as Emma Frost in the upcoming box office movie X-Men: First Class. The telepathic character, also known as the White Queen, started out as one of the X-Men’s most dangerous foes to one of its most central members. (Deadline New York and Dark Horizons)

Robert De Niro is joining the cast of Manual of Love 3, the third installment of an Italian romantic comedy franchise. Each film has a few different episodes, telling varying romantic stories. De Niro will play a divorced American professor living in Rome in one of the episodes within the film. (Variety and First Showing)

Model Brooklyn Decker has joined the cast of Peter Berg’s adaptation of the board game Battleship, playing one of the female leads, a character named Sam who is described as being able to surf, fight, dance and crush the NY Times crossword puzzle. She is the love interest of Taylor Kitsch, who plays one of the naval commanders in the movie. (Latino Review, Heat Vision and First Showing)

Legendary Swedish actor Max Von Sydow (Shutter Island and Minority Report) is in talks to join the cast of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. He will play Henrik Vanger, the man who hires Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) to investigate the decades-old disappearance of his favorite great-niece. (Variety and First Showing)

Q&A SECTION (with the TV Gurus at TV Guide)

Question: Got any more scoop on Bones’ new season? — Andrea

ADAM: We hear the show is looking to add a Bill Nye the Science Guy type to woo Brennan… to appear as a guest on his popular children’s TV show. Bones brushes off the request because she doesn’t see him as a serious scientist. But when he persists, Brennan makes him a deal: She’ll do his show if he can help her solve a murder.

Question: I can’t wait for The Good Wife to come back. Do you know who Alicia picks? — Deborah

MICKEY: Season 2 picks up right where Season 1 left off, with Alicia deciding between standing by her man and answering that fateful phone call. She doesn’t take Will’s call, thanks to Eli Gold, and Julianna Margulies tells us that Will and Alicia will be like “two ships in the night” for a while. But that doesn’t mean that she’s back together with Peter either — though she’s definitely with him. It seems that seeing his feisty wife in the courtroom makes Peter want to debrief her.

Question: How will Criminal Minds resolve last season’s cliff-hanger? — Marcus

ADAM: The season premiere finds the team in what executive producer Ed Bernero calls a “rolling hostage situation,” during which an unexpected member of the team will be called upon to make contact with Tim Curry’s creepy killer in an unorthodox way. “The solution rests on whether or not that team member can convince this psychopath to spare the little girl he’s taken,” Bernero says, adding that “another team member will be affected for a long, long time by what happens.”

Question: What exactly will Vanessa Williams be up to on Desperate Housewives this season? — P.K.D.

MICKEY: It seems she’ll be taking one for the team. We’re hearing that a handsome professional baseball player with some ethical issues will romance one of the

Question: Is Chuck grooming Alex to be a mini-spy? — Ben

MICKEY: It’s no accident that producers have shown us that Casey’s daughter has some serious combat skills. “It’s a spy show, so I think she’s going to be on some missions,” reports Adam Baldwin, who plays Alex’s proud papa.

Question: Is Barney back to his old self now on How I Met Your Mother? — Kingsley

MICKEY: Neil Patrick Harris says that while Barney searches for his dad, he won’t lack female companionship. (Actually, he used much more colorful language, but you get the idea.) Might he birthday-suit up for Zoey, a civic-minded activist who is protesting the destruction of a New York hotel? No. She’ll tangle with Ted, since he’s the guy who’s leveling the historic gem.

Question: How will Smallville deal with having less Chloe this season? — Greg D.

ADAM: As we previously reported, Chloe will give herself up in a trade to save Oliver, who was taken in the season finale. That will keep Chloe off-screen and give Oliver lots to do as he searches for her. Or will it? “Hunting [for her] may not really be a good thing He’s got to weigh that decision,” executive producer Brian Peterson tells us. Adds fellow EP Kelly Souders: “Giving up is maybe not quite the way he would look at it, but letting go might be part of his scenario.”

Question: I love The Big C, but I think it’s sad that Cathy and her husband are apart. Will they ever reconcile? Laura Linney and Oliver Platt are so great together. — Hilary

MICKEY: Well, they don’t have to be together to be great together, do they? In fact, the couple’s fumbling romantic estrangement is the source of much of the upcoming comedy. A particularly hilarious misunderstanding occurs when Cathy says she’d like to have sex in the grass.

Question: What’s coming up on Lie to Me? — Sarah

ADAM: Sounds like the show is cooking up quite a season-ender, thanks in no small part to assurances from the network that it will be back. “We put some characters in jeopardy,” outgoing executive producer Shawn Ryan says. “We really tried to end the season as a launching pad for Season 3. It’s not a Dynasty-esque cliff-hanger, where there’s bloody people on the floor… but there are some pretty high stakes.”

Question: Life Unexpected? Anything? — Tamara

MICKEY: Britt Robertson tells us that there will no more running away for Lux; Season 2 will find her much more settled with her birth parents. “No matter what people did, Lux always felt rejected,” she says. “That’s something she has now overcome.” Good thing too, because her love life is going to get a lot more complicated. Forget Jones vs. Bug: There’s a new surly musician in town, and he’s like catnip to our be-hatted heroine.

That’s it. Enjoy!