Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

The news isn’t too voluminous today, but there are still some items that should be found to be interesting:

TELEVISION

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. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

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. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

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). (Michael Ausiello at TV Line)

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. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

CONDOLENCES

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…

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Actress Mireille Enos (The Killing) is set to play the wife of Brad Pitt in the upcoming film World War Z, which is an adaptation of the Max Brooks novel that is set ten years after a global zombie epidemic. Brad Pitt is playing a U.N. worker collecting testimonials from various people around the world about the events of the war. Enos would play his wife, a mother of two girls. (Heat Vision and Dark Horizons)

Meanwhile actor Joel Kinnaman (also from The Killing) has a part in the upcoming thriller called Safe House where he will play the key role of a man who operates the titular CIA safe house which comes under attack. The only surviving agent (Ryan Reynolds) must then transport a lethal prisoner (Denzel Washington) to another destination before the attackers kill them both. Shooting on the film is currently underway in South Africa. (Heat Vision and Dark Horizons)

Actor Johnny Depp will indeed make a cameo in the long-in-gestation box office adaptation of the TV series 21 Jump Street, which stars Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube and Alison Brie (among others). (First Showing)

That’s it. Enjoy!