Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

Singer/actor Cheyenne Jackson (30 Rock and Glee) will make a guest appearance on Royal Pains later this season, playing Sam, the owner of a custom perfumery who loses his sense of smell and finds his career jeopardized. (Jim Halterman at TV Fanatic)

Actors Harold Perrineau (Lost) Tom Everett Scott (Southland and Beauty And The Beast), DJ Qualls (Supernatural), Michael Welch (Twilight trilogy and Joan of Arcadia) and Kellita Smith (The Bernie Mac Show) have all joined the ensemble 13-epoisode Syfy drama Z Nation that is set three years after a zombie virus has gutted the country. A team of everyday heroes must transport the only known survivor of the plague from New York to California, where the last functioning viral lab waits for his blood. Although the antibodies he carries are the world’s last, best hope for a vaccine, he hides a dark secret that threatens them all. (TV By the Numbers)

Actor James Marsters (Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Caprica) and actress Bianca Lawson (Pretty Little Liars and Teen Wolf) will both appear in the upcoming second season of Witches of East End on Lifetime. Marsters will guest-star as Tarkoff, an old family friend of Joanna’s (series lead Julia Ormond) who comes back into her life. Meanwhile, Lawson will play a mysterious woman named Eva. Witches of East End will return on July 6 on Lifetime. (Vlada Gelman and Andy Swift at TV Line)

Actor Niko Pepaj (Bunheads and The Protector) will have a recurring role on MTV’s Awkward playing Sergio, a confident and unflappable young man who works with Sadie (series regular Molly Tarlov) on the food truck. (The Deadline Team)

TV TRAILERS

ONLINE SERIES NEWS

Actor Manolo Cardona (Reign and Covert Affairs) has joined the cast of the Netflix drama Narcos, which is the true-life story of the growth and spread of cocaine drug cartels across the globe and attendant efforts of law enforcement to meet them head on in brutal, bloody conflict. It centers on notorious Colombian cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar (Wagner Moura) and Javier Pena (Pedro Pascal), a Mexican DEA agent sent to Colombia on a U.S. mission to capture and ultimately kill him. Cardona will play Eduardo Mendoza, the baby-faced chief of the National Prison System, an inexperienced, kind, idealistic man-child with a can-do attitude who was wrongly blamed for Escobar’s escape from La Catedral. (The Deadline Team)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Actor Clayne Crawford (Rectify) has landed a role in the thriller flick Spectral that is being described as a supernatural Black Hawk Down that will star James Badge Dale (Rubicon and 24). There are no specific details on the film, but Crawford will play Sergeant Calvin Toll, a focused but short-fused military lifer. The cast also includes Max Martini (The Unit, Revenge and Castle). (Jen Yamato at Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!