Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

Actress Alfre Woodard will guest star in an upcoming episode of Copper on the BBC America. The period piece series will return for its second season on June 23 with Woodard playing Hattie Lemaster, a former slave who has recently arrived to the Five Points to start anew. Jarred by raucous city life, Hattie must reconcile her past against hope for a future. (Press Release)

Actor Carter MacIntyre will not be back as a series regular on Drop Dead Diva when it returns for its resurrected 5th season. He will, however, appear in a “limited capacity” during the new season. Casting is underway now for a replacement guardian angel for Jane Bingum. (Vlada Gelman at TV Line)

Actress Patricia Arquette (Medium) will have a major recurring role in Boardwalk Empire, playing Sally Wheet, a tough-as-nails Tampa speakeasy owner with connections to local gangsters. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actor Ned Bellamy (Justified) will have a recurring role on the summer series Under the Dome that will debut on CBS on June 24. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Relative newcomer Matt Kane has landed a recurring role on Switched at Birth, playing Jace, a brilliant and intense coffee shop barista and potential love interest for Daphne (Katie Leclerc). (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actress Drea de Matteo (The Sopranos) will reprise her role of Wendy (Jax’s baby momma) on Sons of Anarchy. (Michael Ausiello at TV Line)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

Lifetime has given the greenlight to a new two-hour original movie called Babysellers, a follow-up to the networks’ 2005 movie Human Trafficking. This made-for-TV movie will star Kirstie Alley (Cheers) as Carla Hughes, a well-respected, influential owner of a major U.S.-based adoption agency that helps prospective parents fulfill their dream of having a family. While presenting an innocent veneer of kindness and good intentions to her trusting clients, behind-the-scenes Hughes functions as a ruthless international kingpin, controlling an expansive syndicate spanning the world and manned by subordinates authorized to use any means necessary to procure children for her business. It will also star Jennifer Finnigan (Monday Mornings) as Nic Kingman, the dedicated, tough-as-nails Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who believes Hughes is fueling a global business that stops at nothing to find the right child for the right owner — at the right price – and goes undercover to bring her sordid operation down. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

MINI-SERIES NEWS

The History Channel is developing a multi-hour project based on the life of Harry Houdini with Adrien Brody set to play the lead role. (James Hibberd at Entertainment Weekly)

Actor Jamie Bamber (Battlestar Galactica and Monday Mornings) will play the lead in the UK eight-part series called The Smoke. He will play a firefighter in the drama about the lives of a crew in a London fire station. (Nancy Tartaglione at Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Actress Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) is set to star in the upcoming box office film The Homesman opposite Tommy Lee Jones. This period piece western will also star Meryl Streep, Hilary Swank, James Spader and John Lithgow. The film is about a man (Jones) who teams up with a pioneer woman (Swank) to escort three insane women across the prairie back to civilization. Steinfeld will play a poor, simple, and barefooted teenager named Tabitha Hutchinson. (Jen Yamato at Deadline)

BOX OFFICE TRAILER

Jerky Steve Carell & Cool Sam Rockwell in ‘Way, Way Back’ Trailer

Q&A SECTION (With Team Watch with Kristin at E! Online and Sandra Gonzalez at Entertainment Weekly)

Question: Loving Nashville! Any scoop on Rayna and Deacon? I hope they get together for real soon! – Gwen

Team Watch with Kristin: Well, things are about to get real messy in Rayna and Teddy’s divorce because of, you guessed it, Deacon! It seems like Teddy will be trying to change their custody agreement in order to keep the girls away from Rayna whenever she’s around Deacon.

Question: Any Revolution finale scoop? — Sara

Sandra: There’s a cliffhanger! Before you pelt me with tomatoes of dissatisfaction let co-executive producer David Rambo elaborate: “It’s a very unsafe world. It’s a very dangerous place. No one is safe, and I would expect that there will be some losses and some gains,” he says. As far as whether any of the new people we’ll be meeting later this season will pop up in season 2, Rambo says we’ll “definitely meet some people beyond the borders of the Monroe Republic that we’ll get to know in the second half of the season and maybe into season 2.”

Question: There’s been NO love for Hawaii Five-0. PLEASE change that. — Maria

Sandra: Finale intel: We’re used to seeing the team chase after the bad guys, but in the final episode of the season, I’m hearing someone on the team is going to be running from the good guys.

That’s it. Enjoy!