Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for today:

NEWS

Mary Tyler Moore will receive the 2011 Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, which will be presented on January 29 at the 18th annual SAG Awards in Los Angeles. (Deadline)

TELEVISION

Actress JoAnna Garcia (Better With You and Privileged) will appear in multiple episodes of Royal Pains, playing Dr. Nina Greene, a smart and compassionate nephrologist who may or may not be a former child star. The doc’s possibly famous-ish background comes to the fore when she is pressed on the issue by patient Jack O’Malley (Tom Cavanagh). The mid-season finale just recently aired with the remainder of the season set to return sometime in early 2012. (Matt Mitovich at TV Line)

Actress Skyler Day (Gigantic) will play the first girlfriend of Drew (Miles Heizer) on Parenthood. The show will be back on September 13 on NBC at 10 PM. (Megan Masters at TV Line)

HBO has picked up the as-yet untitled Aaron Sorkin project about a fictional cable news network that centers on a cable news anchor (Jeff Daniels), his new executive producer (Emily Mortimer), his newsroom staff (Alison Pill, John Gallagher, Jr., Olivia Munn, Dev Patel, Thomas Sadoski) and their boss (Sam Waterston). (James Hibberd at Entertainment Weekly)

Actress Laura Innes (ER and The Event) will have a major recurring role on Awake, one of the new NBC dramas that will air during mid-season. She will play Captain Tricia Harper, the supervisor of lead character Michael (Jason Isaacs). The series is about a police detective who in the wake of a tragic car accident finds himself toggling between two realities: one in which his wife (Laura Allen from Terriers) died in the crash, and another in which their teenage son (Dylan Minnette from Lost) instead perished. (Matt Mitovich at TV Line)

Actor Scott Lawrence (JAG) will play an Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor named Allen, who will give advice to one of the husbands on Desperate Housewives. (Lynette Rice at Entertainment Weekly)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Another project from producer Mark Gordon has been set up at ABC. The project is an hour-long project based on the Candace Bushnell book One Fifth Avenue, which is described as a stylish, sexy, modernization of Miami Vice for the twenty-first century. The project is called Untouchable and it centers on a hard-charging female FBI agent with a blue collar background who is teamed with a reckless, independently wealthy LAPD detective to take on twenty-first century organized crime. (Deadline)

Meanwhile, TNT has given a pilot order to Scent of the Missing, about an intrepid mystery solver and her dog, which is based on a book with the same title. (James Hibberd at Entertainment Weekly)

Lifetime has put the new drama project Princess of Whales in development with writer-producer Stephen Kronish and Cold Case star-turned-producer Kathryn Morris. The project is based on the true story of Marcia Hartman and follows the exploits of one of Las Vegas’ most successful casino hostesses, whose job is to bring in the super-high rollers and make them spend as much as possible. But her lavish lifestyle and life-of-the-party personality reveal a dark side that threatens to destroy her. Morris and her development executive saw an article about Hartman, tracked her down and secured the rights to her story. (Deadline)

Actor Scott Foley (The Unit) is teaming up with former Everwood show-runner Rina Mimoun on The Escape Artist, a potential hour-long drama series about a brother and sister who help people disappear. (Michael Ausiello at TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Actor John Malkovich will join actor Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: First Class) actress Teresa Palmer (I Am Number Four) in the film adaptation of the Isaac Marion book called Warm Bodies, which is the unique story about an existentially tormented zombie named “R” who begins an unlikely friendship with the girlfriend of one of his victims, a relationship that could cause a chain reaction that will transform him, his fellow zombies, and maybe the whole undead world. (First Showing and Variety)

Actor Ben Rappaport (Outsourced) has joined the cast of the film Great Hope Springs that stars Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones as a married couple who try to rekindle their relationship by seeking therapy from an unorthodox guru (Steve Carell). He will play the married couple’s son. (Variety and Dark Horizons)

Actor Sharlto Copley (District 9) [among others] will stay in the international sci-fi feature Europa, which revolves around a team of astronauts who are assembled from various nations to embark on the first manned mission to Europa, Jupiter’s fourth moon. (Deadline)

Actor Michael Keaton and actress Michelle Monaghan (Source Code) will star in the psychological thriller called Penthouse North. Monaghan plays a photojournalist haunted by a tragic event who has become an agoraphobic trapped in her upscale New York penthouse. Soon the world makes its way in as a smooth but sadistic criminal (Keaton) breaks in looking for a hidden fortune, with the woman mustering her inner strength to survive. (Dark Horizons)

That’s it. Enjoy!