TV Chatting

Jessica Capshaw, who has guest-starred on five episodes of Grey’s Anatomy this season as pediatric surgeon Dr. Arizona Robbins, has signed a contract to remain with the show through the end of this season. Her character is a potential love interest for Dr. Callie Torres.

Oscar winner Anjelica Huston will be coming back to Medium to reprise her role as Allison’s ex-boss, Cynthia Keener later this season. Arrested Development star Jeffrey Tambor will also guest star in an episode this May as a mysterious man who shows up at the Dubois house.

Ed Asner will make an appearance on CSI: NY in April as a clockmaker who’s trying to keep a lid on his mysterious past. Asner is, of course, most famous for his role as Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Oz star Dean Winters is busy this season.  He has upcoming guest appearances slated for 30 Rock, Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, Life on Mars and Rescue Me. He has also been cast in the ABC drama pilot Happy Town.

Bill Lawrence’s real-life wife, Christa Miller, will join the cast of his ABC comedy pilot, Cougar Town. Courteney Cox, Dan Byrd and Busy Phillips will also star.

Neil Hopkins, who played Charlie’s heroin-addicted brother Liam in LOST, will play Sean McNamara’s believed-dead sibling Brendan on Nip/Tuck.  He is slated to be introduced at the end of the show’s sixth season which will premiere in 2010.  Hopkins’s character will be a recovering methamphetamine addict who has been living on a nature preserve.

The Office is bringing back Amy Ryan to reprise her role as Holly Flax for the season finale of the show.  Executive producer Greg Daniels tells EW’s Michael Ausiello that he is also "very open" to working out a more permanent arrangement with Ryan. "Because [Michael and Holly] have such a deep connection, I don’t think she can blow in and out every so often," he explains. "It would be too hard for him as a human being. So, we’re hoping to find some very significant things for them. And if we can get her to sign on for a really long period, we’ll do it."

Chuck finally has a dad and it’s…Scott Bakula.   Bakula has signed on to play the estranged father of Chuck and Ellie in at least three episodes beginning in April.  "Chuck made a promise to his sister, Ellie, that he was going to find their dad in time for her wedding," explains show creator Josh Schwartz. "And it’s something that Chuck becomes consumed with pursuing during the second half of the season.”  When Chuck finds his dad, he’s not the man he used to be.  "He’s living in a trailer, he’s disheveled, he’s paranoid and he’s claiming constantly that Ted Roark (who we reported yesterday will be played by Chevy Chase) has stolen all his ideas from him."

Kate Walsh is getting yet another love interest on Private Practice when Swingtown’s Josh Hopkins joins the show for five episodes as a surgeon.

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CBS has announced that country singing star Taylor Swift will appear on an upcoming episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Swift will play Haley Jones, a teenaged girl whose family runs a seedy Vegas motel. Over the course of a year, Haley goes through a series of changes that have tragic consequences.  No air date has been announced for Swift’s episode.

The 19-year-old Swift was 2008’s best-selling artist. She also stars in the upcoming Hannah Montana movie with Miley Cyrus, due out in April.

CBS also teased that William Petersen may bring Grissom back to Las Vegas for the show’s 200th episode. "Grissom will come back in an organic way, to visit or be on a case with the people that are his family," said executive director Carol Mendelsohn.

CSI airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS.

Oscar nominee Laurence Fishburne has officially joined the cast of CSI as William Petersen’s successor.

Fishburne will first appear in the ninth episode of the season. He will play a former pathologist, now working as a college lecturer who is teaching a course in criminalistics. His focus is on understanding how and why people commit acts of violence, some of which he sees within himself. He runs across the CSI team during a murder investigation, eventually joining the Las Vegas Crime Lab.

CSI executive producers Carol Mendelsohn and Naren Shankar put Fishburne at the top of the “dream list” which also included John Malkovich and Kurt Russell.

Fishburne, who was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as Ike Turner in What’s Love Got to Do With It, is also known for his performances in the Matrix series, Akeelah and the Bee and most recently 21.

“I am elated and delighted to be joining the cast of CSI, said Fishburne. “I look forward to a wonderful collaboration with the creative and talented team of such a successful and distinguished show.”

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