TV Chatting

Former Alias and Big Shots star Michael Vartan will co-star opposite Jada Pinkett Smith in TNT’s upcoming series Time Heals.  Pinkett Smith will play Christina Hawthorne, a strong but caring director of nursing at a North Carolina, N.C., hospital.  Vartan will play Tom Wakefield, the director of medicine at the hospital. Vartan replaces Jeffrey Nordling, who played the role in the pilot.

Geoff Stults has landed the lead in the ABC drama pilot Happy Town as Tommy, the town’s newly appointed sheriff who has to solve a murder, the town’s first crime in seven years. Lauren German has also joined the cast as a suspicious new resident of the town.

Martin Henderson has joined Inside the Box, the new ABC drama from Shonda Rhimes. The show is set in a Washington network news bureau and centers on Catherine, an ambitious female news producer, and her colleagues pursuing "the story" at all costs while juggling their personal animosities and crises of conscience.Henderson will play the male heartthrob type, Jake.  Jake is Catherine’s right hand — charismatic, with a great sense of humor and great chemistry with her.  Lloyd Owen has also joined the cast as a suave Englishman tapped to replace the retiring bureau chief.

Jericho alum Lennie James has joined CBS’ untitled legal drama about the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan. He will play a former assistant DA who works as a paralegal after getting disbarred.  Jason Clarke has also signed on to play the powerful, charismatic section chief who oversees four lawyers and a handful of paralegals in their overlapping cases.

Three leads have been cast in the yet untitled NCIS spinoff.  Louise Lombard, Peter Cambor and Daniela Ruah have been cast as leads in the pilot, which will air as an episode of NCIS in the spring.  Chris O’Donnell and LL Cool J are in talks to play the other leads in the spinoff. Lombard will play Clara, a former major in the military police.  Cambor will play the quick-witted Nate, an operational psychologist and a walking encyclopedia of American culture.  Ruah will play Kensi, a super bright young investigator who studied forensics and criminology in college.

Katie Cassidy, the daughter of David Cassidy, has been announced as a star of the new Melrose Place.  Cassidy will play the sexy and stylish Ella Flynn, an up-and-coming publicist with a big career ahead of her.  She joins Michael Rady, who was cast as aspiring filmmaker Jonah Miller.

And another star with a famous relative, Steven R. McQueen, grandson of Steve McQueen, has been cast as a lead in the CW’s Vampire Diaries.  McQueen will play Jeremy on the series, which is based on on Alloy’s series of books.

Denis O’Hare has joined Fox’s untitled Ian Biederman drama, which will follow Maggie (Christina Cole), a brilliant surgeon who endures adult-onset schizophrenia and thrives.  O’Hare will play a top schizophrenia doc who treats Maggie.

David Morse has been cast in ABC’s Empire State.  The Romeo and Juliet type drama will focus on a blue-collar man who falls in love with a wealthy woman. Morse, will play the young man’s strong-willed, caring father.

Ben Feldman has been cast in ABC’s drama See Cate Run about a young prosecuting attorney (Amy Smart) who one day is going to be a serious contender for president of the U.S. Feldmean will play an ADA who works with her and is her boyfriend.

Antwone Fisher star Derek Luke has joined the cast of NBC’s medical drama pilot, Trauma.  Kevin Rankin, Cliff Curtis and Jamey Sheridan are also in negotiations to star in the medical procedural about a team of EMTs. 

Guillermo Diaz has joined NBC/UMS’s other medical drama pilot, Mercy, a comedic drama about three nurses bound together in friendship. Diaz will play a male nurse working with them. 

Lipstick Jungle’s Lindsay Price has joined the cast as one of the three witches in ABC’s drama pilot Eastwick, based on the 1987 feature, The Witches of Eastwick.  Price will play, Joanna, a hardworking, shy reporter for the local newspaper. She joins Jaime Ray Newman, who was recently cast as a fellow witch.  This would seem to indicate that Lipstick Jungle is not coming back, despite official cancellation by NBC.

Jenna Elfman will lead CBS’ comedy pilot Accidentally on Purpose. Elfman will star as Billie, a San Francisco movie critic who finds herself "accidentally" pregnant after a fling with a younger man, and the unconventional family that comes from this "mistake."

Brittany Snow has signed to play young Lily in The CW’s forthcoming Gossip Girl spin-off.  Former American Dreams star Snow joins a cast that includes Krysten Ritter as Lily’s older sister and Shilo Fernandez as a brooding valley punk.  The backdoor pilot will air May 11 as part of a regular Gossip Girl episode.

Former ER star Ming-Na and Smallville alum Elyse Levesque have joined Sci-Fi’s Stargate Universe.  They join previously announced cast members Robert Carlyle, Lou Diamond Phillips, Alaina Huffman, Justin Louis, David Blue, Jamil Walker Smith and Brian J. Smith.  The third Stargate series is scheduled to premiere in October.  It will follow a diverse group of soldiers, scientists, and civilians who are stranded on an ancient ship in the far reaches of space. Ming-Na will play Camille Wray, an HR bigwig and the highest-ranking survivor. Levesque, will play Chloe Armstrong, the wild and immature daughter of a U.S. Senator.