Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Happy Tuesday!! The news isn’t too voluminous today, but there were some good items that broke today:

TELEVISION

Actor Jonathan Cake (Six Degrees and Empire) will play a major love interest for Marcia Cross on Desperate Housewives, appearing in this season’s final four episodes. He will then return in the fall as a full-fledged series regular. He will play Aaron, a handsome, sexy, college-educated police detective with strong family values who comes to Wisteria Lane to investigate a case. (Nellie Andreeva at TV Line)

Actresses Jennifer Tilly (most recently seen on Caprica) and Romy Rosemont (Finn’s mom on Glee) will guest star on the third episode of the Lifetime drama Drop Dead Diva when it returns with new episodes this summer. Rosemont will play one of Jane’s (Brooke Elliott) clients – the mother of a little person – who is suing the sperm bank that provided the sperm. Meanwhile Tilly will play an actress who Fred (Ben Feldman) hires to play his mother for Stacy (April Bowlby). (Jethro Nededog at Zap2It)

It looks like actor Steven Weber (Wings) is joining the cast of Parenthood as a potential love interest for Lauren Graham’s lovelorn single mom. He will play Jack Kraft, a charismatic artistic director of the Berkeley Theater Company who crosses paths with Sarah when her play is submitted to his New Voices reading series. (Michael Ausiello at TV Line)

Actor Jason George (Off the Map) will guest star on Castle in an upcoming episode where Castle and Becket head to Los Angeles. He will play an entrepreneur, who ends up being a key character in solving their new case. This is the same episode for which actor Dominic Purcell will appear. (TV Overmind)

Actor Judd Hirsch will appear in the new season of Damages when it comes to DirecTV with all new episodes this summer. He will play a former mentor of Patty’s whose reappearance in her life shows just how much has changed in his. (TV Overmind)

TNT has renewed the critically acclaimed drama Southland for a 4th season, ordering 10 new episodes of the gritty, realistic cop drama. (The Futon Critic)

Additionally, TNT has given the green light to the new drama Perception that stars Eric McCormack (Will & Grace) as Dr. Geoffrey Pierce, an eccentric neuroscientist who uses his unique outlook and expertise to help the federal government crack difficult cases. His intimate knowledge of human behavior and masterful understanding of the mind are matched by his equally odd and imaginative view of the world. The cast includes Rachael Leigh Cook (She’s All That), as FBI agent Kate Rossi, Pierce’s former student and the person responsible for recruiting him to work for the government and Kelly Rowan (The O.C.) as Natalie Vincent, Pierce’s best friend, who is every bit his intellectual equal. The show is expected to premiere in 2012, receiving a 10 episode order. (The Futon Critic)

Actress Connie Nielsen will star opposite Kelsey Grammer in the Starz series called Boss, which is an 8-episode political drama with Grammer starring as Kane, the Mayor of Chicago who is diagnosed with a degenerative mental condition that only he and his doctor know about. Nielsen will play his immaculately groomed wife Meredith who is a pro with the press and tough when she needs to be. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Actress Laura Allen (Terriers) has been bumped up to the female lead opposite actor Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter franchise) in the NBC drama pilot REM. Additionally, actresses Michael McManus (The Vampire Diaries and Law & Order: SVU) and Cherry Jones (24) have also joined the cast. The drama is described as an Inception-style thriller and centers on Detective Michael Britten (Isaacs), who wakes up after an accident to find he is living in two different realities, one in which he has killed his son Rex (Dylan Minnette) and one in which he has killed his wife Hannah (Allen) in a car accident. McManus will play Rex’s tennis coach, who has become his confidante in the wake of the recent loss of his mother. While Jones will play Dr. Stephanie Evans, Mark’s shrink in the reality in which his wife has been killed. (The Futon Critic and Deadline)

Actress Natasha Henstridge (Eli Stone) has joined the CW drama pilot called The Secret Circle, based on the book series by L.J. Smith (author of The Vampire Diaries books for which the series is based). This pilot centers on Cassie (Britt Robertson), a young girl who moves to New Salem, Maine and learns she is a member of a secret coven of witches. She is also the key that will unlock a centuries-old battle of good versus evil. Henstridge will play Dawn Chamberlain, the vice principal of New Salem High School. (Zap2It and Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Acting legend Ian McShane (Deadwood) has joined the cast of the upcoming box office movie Jack the Giant Killer, which is a re-telling of the Jack and the Beanstalk fairy tale that follows a farm boy (Nicholas Hoult) who leads an expedition to free a princess taken hostage by a giant, a situation which threatens the uneasy truce between humans and giants. He will play King Brahmwell, the father of the kidnapped princess (Eleanor Tomlinson) who is not thrilled about the idea of his daughter marrying a farmer boy. (Dark Horizons)

That’s it. Enjoy!