Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for today, few though they may be:

TELEVISION

Actor Kristoffer Polaha (Ringer and Life Unexpected) has joined the cast of this fall’s new CBS legal drama Made in Jersey as a series regular. This new series will follow Martina Garretti (Janet Montgomery from Human Target), a working-class Garden State gal who holds her own among the snooty lawyers at Stark & Rowan, a New York law firm. Polaha will play Nolan, a handsome, charming third-year associate at the firm. Though Nolan came of age against a backdrop of private schools and wild getaways in the Hamptons, his dad’s squandering of the family fortune means he doesn’t have much in the bank. Nevertheless, Nolan’s a well-established member of the Manhattan elite. (Kimberly Roots at TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Actor Samuel L. Jackson and actress Angela Bassett will join singer-actress Jennifer Hudson in the holiday musical film called Black Nativity, which is an adaptation of the Broadway musical by Langston Hughes. Be prepared for both A-listers to sing on the big screen too. The story follows a young black teen from Baltimore who is sent by his single mother (Hudson) to Harlem to spend Christmas with the grandparents he’s never met (because she hasn’t spoken to her father since they had a falling out after she got pregnant). Through his grandfather’s Christmas Eve sermon and a stylized, dream-sequence retelling of the classic Nativity story, he learns about the importance of faith and family. The teen son has not been cast yet; but Jackson and Bassett will play his grandparents Reverend Clarence and Aretha Cobbs respectively. (Variety and First Showing)

Q&A SECTION (with Natalie Abrams and Adam Bryant from TV Guide and Michael Ausiello at TV Line)

Question: I know it’s early, but got any scoop on Revenge? —Jennifer

NATALIE: Daniel isn’t the only Grayson making a play for the family business. Conrad’s son from his first marriage will pop up next season. Intelligent and effortlessly handsome, this other heir apparent will attempt to reclaim his role in Conrad’s life and company, throwing the family and corporate dynamic into chaos. Anyone else hoping Emily sets her sights on him next?

Question: I still miss Jill on Royal Pains! Are there any more details on Hank’s new possible love interest? —Allison

ADAM: You mean love interests, plural! Co-creator and executive producer Andrew Lenchewski says there will be two new women coming into Hank’s life, one he meets through a matchmaker (as we first reported, Kat Foster plays a pediatrician who has zero interest in dating another doctor) and a woman we meet “because of an adventure Boris invites Hank on,” he says.

Question: Sadie is my favorite character on Awkward! I hope she stays sassy! —Lonie

NATALIE: Sadie will always be sassy! But will she be sassy enough to deal with “the Julies”? Creator Lauren Iungerich tells us that later in the season viewers will meet Julie (Tru Collins) and Julie (Sophia Tilson), who Iungerich says “are even more queen bee than Sadie.” But when we asked Molly Tarlov if Sadie will lose her reigning title, she told us, “I don’t think in the world of Awkward it can happen.”

Question: Any Lying Game scoop?! —Georgia

Ausiello: Although it may seem like fans are enduring an epic poem between seasons — even now, Season 2 is only penciled in for “winter” — I can exclusively report that only 10 days will have passed since the events of the freshman finale, which included Alec’s arrest for suspicion of murder and the reveal that Rebecca is the twins’ mother. Adrian Pasdar, who plays Alec (as well as portrays POTUS in USA’s Political Animals, debuting July 15) recently lunched with Lying Game EP Chuck Pratt, and tells us, “It sounds like [Season 2] is going to go in a direction that nobody is going to expect.”

Question: Do you have a tidbit on the series finale of Eureka? —Eric

Ausiello: I’ll see your tidbit and raise you an 87-word review, courtesy of TVLine’s Matt Mitovich: “The finale is a real crowd-pleaser, featuring gobs of closure, a storyline moment that allows for a ‘clip reel’ which will make many an eye well up and appearances by all of the usual suspects (plus at least one good surprise). You’ll be subject to at least one fake-out, one dismemberment (sad face), the proffering of a ring box, one teeny-tiny secret revealed and a final twist that is 100-percent Eureka. Oh, and Felicia Day’s Holly reclaims and lays sole ownership in perpetuity to the word ‘adorkable.’”

That’s it. Enjoy!