Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for yesterday and today:

TELEVISION

Actress Nazanin Boniadi, who plays Fara Sherazi on Homeland, has been promoted to series regular for the show’s upcoming 4th season. (The Deadline Team)

Actress Franka Potente (American Horror Story: Asylum and Copper) has joined the cast of the FX drama The Bridge. She will play Eleanor Schrock, a shunned Mennonite. (Liz Raftery at TV Guide)

Actor Michael A. Goorjian (Party of Five) will guest star in an upcoming episode of Covert Affairs, playing Borz Altan, a former U.S. soldier who has become disillusioned with the American Dream. Covert Affairs will be back for its 5th season sometime this summer on the USA Network. (Joyce Eng at TV Guide)

Actress Necar Zadegan (Rake, The Event and Emily Owens, M.D.). has joined the cast of the upcoming 13-episode Bravo drama Girlfriends’ Guide To Divorce that stars Lisa Edelstein (House) in the lead role. The series follows Abby (Edelstein), a self-help book author who hides the fact that she’s separated from her husband as she starts to navigate her life as a single woman in her early 40s in Los Angeles. She finds herself seeking advice from her divorced friends instead of her married ones, which leads to some unexpected and life-changing experiences. Zadegan will play a divorce attorney at Lyla’s (Janeane Garofalo) firm who is fearless and speaks her mind, sometimes embellishing in hyperbole. She wants to be Abby’s attorney and has a very nontraditional type of marriage herself. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actress Odette Annable (House) has joined the cast of the upcoming ABC summer series Astronaut Wives Club that is based on the Lily Koppel novel. The series tells the real story of the women who stood beside some of the biggest heroes in American history during the height of the space race. Annable will play Trudy Cooper, the youngest of the Astro-wives and a licensed pilot herself. A tomboy with aspirations of her own, her forward thinking challenges not just her husband but the other wives. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Grammy winner Macy Gray has joined the cast of the FOX drama series Empire that will be set in the world of a hip-hop empire featuring original and current music. Gray will have the recurring role of Tasha, who is having an affair with a much younger man over whom she exercises considerable influence and control. The cast of Empire includes Terrence Howard, Gabourey Sidibe, Taraji P. Henson. (Tony Maglio at The Wrap)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

Actress Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Spartacus: War Of The Damned and Arrow) has landed the female lead in the History Channel’s upcoming mini-series Texas Rising, which will detail the Texas Revolution against Mexico and the rise of the legendary Texas Rangers. She will play Emily West, a mythic historical figure, later dubbed ‘the Yellow Rose of Texas,’ who gets caught in a love triangle between Houston (Bill Paxton) and Santa Ana (Oliver Martinez). (The Deadline Team)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Actor Anthony LaPaglia (Without a Trace) has joined the cast of the untitled CBS terrorism drama (the working title is Red Zone) that centers on a retired CIA operative-turned-high school football coach who is pulled back into action after a terrorist event rocks Washington, D.C., and he’s forced to investigate closer to home, where the next generation of terrorists are being bred. LaPaglia will star as Coach Holden Weller, the coach/athletic director in Virginia whose commitment to his job nearly cost him his family. Also, actress Kim Dickens (Friday Night Lights) has joined the cast of this new pilot, playing Helen Weller, Holden’s confident and strong wife, a former CIA shrink who teaches psychology at the same high school as her husband. Actor Kevin Rahm (Mad Men) and Samantha Mathis (Under The Dome) will play husband and wife Paul and Olivia Jordan, the parents of Jake (Graham Rogers from Revolution), the second-string QB on Holden’s team and a friend of the Wellers’ daughter Laney. (Lesley Goldberg at The Hollywood Reporter and The Deadline Team)

Actor Josh Lucas (Sweet Home Alabama and the short-lived TV series The Firm) has joined the cast of the NBC drama pilot The Mysteries of Laura where he will star opposite Debra Messing (Will & Grace and Smash). The pilot follows the life and relationships of Laura Diamond (Messing), a female homicide detective who can handle murderous criminals, but not her hell-raising twin children. Lucas will play Jake, a clever cop with keen instincts who winds up being captain in the same precinct as his soon-to-be ex-wife, Laura. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actress Britne Oldford (Ravenswood) has joined the cast of the untitled ABC drama pilot that will be set in New York, revolving around the love and rivalry between two equally matched, powerful socialites: Philip Fitzgerald Julien (Rufus Sewell) and Margot Worth Cole (Melissa George is yet to be cast) — who play out their obsessive attraction and seduction of each other through their manipulation of others. Oldford will play Cecelia, the No. 1 fashion model/cover girl in the world who is publicly, and in truth, a virgin, yet in every photo shoot is portrayed as sexual and unattainable. She’s engaged to marry Anderson Cole, who’s three decades older. (The Deadline Team)

Actress Ivonne Coll (Switched at Birth and Teen Wolf) has joined the cast of The CW drama pilot Jane The Virgin that centers on Jane (relative newcomer Gina Rodriguez), a hardworking religious girl who, due to a series of outrageous events, is accidentally artificially inseminated. Coll will play Alba, Jane’s 60-ish doting grandmother who teaches Jane at an early age the importance of staying pure until marriage. We later learn that Alba has been harboring a lifelong secret. (The Deadline Team)

Actress Sheila Vand (Argo) will star opposite Katherine Heigl in the NBC drama pilot State Of Affairs where the latter will play Charleston Whitney Tucker, a key CIA attaché who counsels the president on high-stakes incidents around the world. Vand will play Grace Hough, a tough CIA analyst on the President’s daily briefing team, who keeps her private life to herself. Also, actor Adam Kaufman (Without a Trace) will star in this pilot, playing Lucas Wright, a CIA analyst on the President’s daily briefing team. (The Deadline Team)

Actor Ashton Holmes (Nikita and Revenge) will star opposite Jamie Lee Curtis in the untitled CBS medical drama pilot that revolves around quadruplets — three brothers and a sister — who grew up on a reality show. Curtis will play their mother, Caroline Lang, a dynamic and distinguished physician who now runs a hospital. Holmes will play Gary, possibly the most brilliant of the Lang quadruplets, who left medical school to travel the world and find himself before a near-death experience impels him to head back Stateside to the loved ones he left behind. When he learns that his brother Jonathan is now deeply involved with Jennifer, the love of his life, Gary realizes how much he may have lost when he left the U.S. (The Deadline Team)

Actress Katharine McPhee (Smash) has joined the cast of the CBS drama pilot Scorpion that centers on Walter (Elyes Gabel from Body of Proof), an eccentric genius and his international network of super-geniuses who form the last line of defense against the complex threats of the modern age. McPhee will play Paige, a working-class hero and diner waitress who understands geniuses. (The Deadline Team)

Actor Danny Huston (Magic City and X-Men Origins: Wolverine) will star opposite actress Ashley Judd in the NBC drama pilot Salvation, which focuses on mega-church pastor Daniel Strickland who suddenly dies, leaving his loyal wife, Jennifer Strickland (Judd), to rally to keep their family together and save the church. Huston will play Caleb, the lead pastor at a rival mega-church. (The Deadline Team)

Actor Ben Barnes (The Chronicles Of Narnia franchise) has joined the cast of the ABC drama pilot Exposed that centers on Anna (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), an investigative journalist who will stop at nothing to uncover the truth, including making questionable alliances. Barnes will play Stoya, a mysterious man who develops an intimate relationship with Anna. He claims to be a pilot but is in fact an NSA whistleblower who is being hunted by the U.S. government because he knows too much. (The Deadline Team)

Actor Daniel Henney (X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Revolution) has joined the cast of the ABC drama pilot Agatha that centers on former convict-turned-big-city criminologist Agatha (Bojana Novakovic from Rake), who is brought in to help local police crack a case involving a perplexing disappearance. Henney will play Rey, Agatha’s attentive, doting and loving fiancé. (The Deadline Team)

Actor Bryce Johnson (Pretty Little Liars and Popular) has joined The CW spin-off pilot Supernatural: Bloodlines that is about the various mafia-esque monster families that, unknowingly to humans, run the underbelly of Chicago and who are being tracked by a newly minted hunter who’s trying to stop them and rid Chicago of anything or anyone supernatural. There are no details on what part Johnson will play, but the cast already includes other Pretty Little Liars alums Nathaniel Buzolic and Sean Faris. (Jake Perlman at Entertainment Weekly)

ONLINE SERIES NEWS

Actress Alona Tal (Veronica Mars and Burn Notice) and actor Julian Morris (Once Upon a Time and Pretty Little Liars) have joined the cast of the Amazon Studios online series Hand Of God that centers on the powerful Judge Harris Pernell (Ron Perlman from Sons of Anarchy and the original Beauty and the Beast), a hard-living, law-bending married man with a high-end call girl on the side who has a religious awakening and starts having visions and hearing voices through his ventilator-bound son that could be God speaking to him. Tal will play Pernell’s daughter-in-law Jocelyn while Morris will play Paul Dobson, an actor-turned-preacher whose affinity for quick money and shortcuts have gotten him in trouble in the past. (The Deadline Team)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Actor Bryan Greenberg (How To Make It In America) will star alongside Bruce Willis and Thomas Jane in the movie Vice set at a futuristic resort where the rich can live out their darkest fantasies and the lifelike staff are actually synthetic beings. Greenberg plays Evan, an extremely intelligent hipster nerd with connections in the hacking community. (The Deadline Team)

Actor Ryan Eggold (The Blacklist) will appear alongside Russell Crow, Aaron Paul and Amanda Seyfried in the upcoming film Fathers And Daughters. Eggold will John, a Wall Street type who had a one-nighter with Katie (Seyfried); but when they meet randomly in a restaurant a year later, John is hurt that she doesn’t remember him and gets into a fight with Cameron (Paul) when the guy tries to defend her honor. (The Deadline Team)

Here are the top 10 box office movies for this past weekend courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1. Mr. Peabody & Sherman – 21.8 million
2. 300: Rise of an Empire – 19.2 million
3. Need for Speed – 17.8 million
4. Non-Stop – 10.6 million
5. Tyler Perry’s The Single Mom’s Club – 8.1 million
6. The LEGO Movie – 7.7 million
7. Son of God – 5.5 million
8. The Grand Budapest Hotel – 3.6 million
9. Frozen – 2.1 million
10. The Monuments Men – 2.1 million

NOTE: The Veronica Mars movie earned 1,988,351 at the box office, coming in 11th place and it is only playing in 265 theatres. I would say that’s not too shabby!!

Newcomer Levi Miller has landed the coveted role of Peter Pan in the upcoming film Pan that will star Hugh Jackman as the evil pirate Blackbeard. (Variety)

Q&A SECTION (with TV Scoop Team at E! Online)

Question: Will we see more Dean-Abaddon scenes in S9 or even S10 of Supernatural? – @gatorpez

TV Scoop Team: Supernatural fans can definitely took forward to more scenes between the battling duo, as Jensen Ackles teases, “I will say that I do know that that will come to a head. There will be a blow out there, and Dean will get the fight that he’s been looking for.”

Question: I’m so worried about the Psych finale being called “The Breakup!” Can you make me feel any better about my favorite show ending? – Maya

TV Scoop Team: Despite the ominous title, the finale will be perfect. Tears will be shed, yes, but we can promise you that they’re tears with a glorious happy ending that will fill even the bitterest of hearts with the sweet taste of donuts, spiced flax-seed, and thorough satisfaction. All your favorite characters get their moment to shine, including the infamous Dobson, who we finally get to meet. All will be (mostly) well in Psych-land, and we’re pretty sure you won’t have much more to ask for by the time the doors close on Santa Barbara (murder capital of the world) for good – or at least, for now.

That’s it. Enjoy!

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