Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

I have lots of great news for television and film to share with all of you so let’s get right into it all:

TELEVISION

Matthew Lillard (Scream and the Scooby Doo movies) will gust star on an upcoming episode of House. He will be playing a bass player in a band who has been struggling for years and years. He finds himself in a very extreme circumstance in the beginning of the episode and becomes an unexpected hero. (William Keck at TV Guide)

Amy Irving (Alias), Dylan Baker (The Good Wife) and Jennifer Grey (Dirty Dancing) will also guest star in upcoming episodes of House. (Hollywood Reporter and Gina DiNunno at TV Guide)

David Newsom (Homefront) will guest star on an episode of Men of a Certain Age, playing the younger brother of Terry (Scott Bakula). This will be a reunion (of sorts) for Newsom and Bakula as they played siblings in Quantum Leap. Men of a Certain Age is back on TNT for its second season starting December 6 at 10 PM. Newsom is expected to appear in the January 3 episode. (Adam Bryant at TV Guide)

Sterling Beaumon (who played young Ben on Lost) will guest star on Criminal Minds, playing Jeremy, young boy who is suspected of killing families in the Midwest. Mare Winningham will also also guest-star as Nancy Riverton, a woman who takes in Jeremy. Criminal Minds returns on September 22 at 9 PM. This episode is slated for October. (Adam Bryant at TV Guide)

Cristián de la Fuente (In Plain Sight) will play the potential recurring role of Eric Rodriguez, a self-possessed, confident, wickedly funny doctor on Private Practice this fall. His first appearance will be sometime in late October or early November. (Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly)

John Schneider (Smallville) will play the dad of Brian Austin Green (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) in upcoming episodes of Desperate Housewives. The series is back with new episodes on September 26. (Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly)

John Larroquette will appear in a multi-episode arc on CSI: NY, playing Deputy Chief of Manhattan Borough Detectives Ted Carver. His first episode is slated for November 5. (Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly)

Jamie Hector (The Wire and Heroes) will guest star in the third season premiere of Lie to Me, where he will play a character involved in a major bank heist. (The Hollywood Reporter and Televisionary)

TNT has picked up its medical drama HawthoRNe for a third season. The new season will contain 10 episodes. (TNT)

Rumor has it that Stephen Lang (Avatar) is in talks to play the merciless leader of a prehistoric settlement in the much-anticipated FOX time travel drama Terra Nova, which has Jason O’Mara (Life on Mars) in the lead role. FOX has announced it will preview the new series for one night in May 2011 and then will bow the drama officially in the fall of 2011. (Lynette Rice at Entertainment Weekly)

Doctor Who has entered the new Guinness World Records book as the longest-running prime-time sci-fi series in television history, airing 769 episodes, including 212 storylines and a full-length TV movie. It first aired in 1963. (What’s On TV UK)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

ABC is developing an untitled drama pilot about the vice president of the United States and his female chief of staff. The as-yet untitled series is less about politics and more about office dynamics, including a budding romance between the chief of staff and the Vice President’s son. (Variety and Televisionary)

MTV has greenlit two new projects: That Girl, which follows a 15-year-old who gains notoriety after an accident leads her classmates to think she attempted suicide. And, Death Valley, a documentary-style series, including cast members Caity Lotz (Mad Men) and Tania Raymonde (Lost), which follows the Undead Task Force, which battles zombies, vampires and werewolves that have overrun the San Fernando Valley. (James Hibberd at Hollywood Reporter)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIES

Catherine Bell (Army Wives) will reprise her role of Cassie Nightingale in another sequel to the popular Hallmark Channel movie The Good Witch, filming the 4th movie in November during her hiatus from Army Wives. The third movie in the franchise – The Good Witch’s Gift – will debut on the Hallmark Channel on November 13 at 8 PM. (The Futon Critic)

Stockard Channing and Ivan Sergei (Jack & Jill) have been added to the cast of the Alyssa Milano-led, Lifetime made-for-TV movie Sundays at Tiffany’s, which is based on the James Patterson best-selling novel. The movie is about Jane (Milano), who as a young girl regularly accompanied her mother to the titular NYC landmark – with her imaginary friend “Michael” in tow. Now a grown businesswoman, Jane is set to be married. The return of Michael (Eric Winters from Brothers & Sisters) after a 23-year absence, however, threatens to throw Jane’s plans askew when he prompts his old “friend” to rethink her life path. Channing will play Jane’s mother and Sergei will be her fiancé. (Matt Webb Mitovich at Fancast)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Ron Perlman (Sons of Anarchy) has joined the cast of the box office movie Drive, starring opposite Ryan Gosling, who plays a loner Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver and lands in hot water when he helps the ex-con boyfriend of his beautiful neighbor. (Screen Daily)

Olivia Wilde (House) will appear in the box office movie The Change Up with Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman. Bateman plays a married man who switches bodies with his slacker best friend (Reynolds). Wilde will play the married guy’s law firm co-worker, who’s an impetus for the body switch. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

BOX OFFICE TRAILER

Must Watch: Depp & Jolie Star in ‘The Tourist’ Official Trailer

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

Question: How is Nolivia different than Olivia on Fringe? — Ken

MICKEY: The season premiere, titled simply “Olivia,” addresses that question in an unexpected way. You see, not only has Olivia been kidnapped and imprisoned “over there,” but her captors are trying to forcibly convince her that she is Nolivia. They start with her marksmanship skills.

Question: Will Callen get some answers about who’s been following him in the NCIS: Los Angeles premiere? — Maggie

ADAM: Yeah, I’d like that answer as well, but executive producer Shane Brennan says that solving that riddle would give away the series’ ultimate end. Instead, he promises smaller bits of insight. “The truth of what he finds out is startling,” Brennan says. “It’s a mystery now, and the further he goes down the rabbit hole, the deeper the mystery gets.” Instead, Brennan says to keep your eyes on Callen’s boss: “There’s a little moment at the very end of Episode 2 that lifts the veil on Hetty. It’s setting up something that comes later in the season that will be one of the most powerful episodes we do all season.”

Question: Any Kevin-Scotty spoilers from Brothers & Sisters? — Wendy

ADAM: You know about the couple adopting a troubled teen. What you don’t know is that Kevin, who was baby-crazy last year, is initially opposed to the idea. He’s taken the surrogate’s miscarriage badly, and worse, he won’t even talk to Scotty about it. Possibly because he’s as torn-up over Robert as Kitty is.

Question: Will The Good Wife’s Eli clean up his act this season? I hope not! — Carole

MICKEY: Let’s ask Alan Cumming. “I do something at the start of the season that, if [Alicia] ever finds out, there will be trouble,” he says. If you’re thinking that something has to do with that fateful call in the cliff-hanger, you’re right, and duh — of course she finds out. “There are fireworks ahead,” Cumming warns.

Question: I am badly in need of some killer Dexter scoop! — Brad

ADAM: Rita’s murder sends Dexter on the run from the FBI, but our favorite blood-spatter analyst can’t disappear too easily: He gets shot within the first three episodes of Season 5 — but not with a bullet.

Question: Parenthood is nothing without Lauren Graham — what’s she up to this season? — Matthew

MICKEY: That Sarah Braverman is a gigantic flirt. It’s no wonder that the on-a-good-day dyspeptic Adam is even more irritated when his sister joins his company and almost immediately finds not one, but two co-workers with which to behave inappropriately. One of them is Adam’s boss.

That’s it. Enjoy!