day 225

casting craze

as a lot of your favorite fall tv series head back into production, some crazy casting news is making its way out. desperate housewives hasn't started back up on production yet, but they are just about ready to roll. to fill the shoes of a now-dead edie (nicolette sheridan), sopranos star drea de matteo has landed the role of a feisty italian who moves to wisteria lane - with husband and kid in toe - to stir up trouble. with at least one of the housewives (either susan or catherine) getting married to mike delfino, producers wanted to add in a young, hot wife. plus, whenever a new cast member comes in, they usually bring a new mystery ... now that chris meloni and mariska hargitay are officially back on board for 11th season of their (and nbc's only) hit show, law and order: svu - they'll both be making about $400,000 an episode, making mariska the highest paid actress on tv - more casting is underway for the new season. the show has turned to a revolving door of sorts for the assistant district attorney spot. stephanie march, who was with the show from 2000-2003, is returning to ada alexandra cabot's suits later in the season, but christine lahti, who is known for chicago hope and was most recently seen in the beyonce thriller obsessed, will appear in at least 4 episodes as a fill in ada. sounds like quite the casting coup ... in more legal show news, lifetime's new original series, drop dead diva, which premieres this weekend and follows the trials (no pun intended) and tribulations of a supermodel who dies and wakes up in the body of a plus-sized lawyer, has nabbed liza minelli and designing women's delta burke to play dueling psychic sisters who take each other to court for opening competing shops across the street from one another. rosie o'donnel will appear in the episode with the actresses in a recurring role as the local judge ... the bitch is back on one tree hill. while she's been absent for the past 2 seasons, and thus about 7 years, daneel harris is returning to tree hill as her character rachel gatina. the show will take another time jump this upcoming season, jumping one year to better help explain the absences of chad michael murray and hilarie burton and the introduction of new characters, like nathan's sports agent played by lipstick jungle star robert buckley (who won the role out over brian austin green) and one of haley's older sisters who returns home. no word on how rachel will stir up some shit, but she is sure to due so. she'll make her first return appearance in the season's 2nd episode and stick around for at least 7 eps ... in more cw show news, 90210 has found their answer to the now fired dustin milligan's ethan. i think it's pretty safe to assume ethan is the kid who annie hit in the first season finale, as dustin was not invited back to the show for a second season and reportedly won't be making any story line wrap up appearances. to fill the golden boy role, the zip code serial has cast former soap star and abercrombie model trevor donovan. google him and you'll probably come to the same conclusion i did - he's just too old. but, oh well. it's tv and it's not like any of the other actors look like high school sophomores anyway. trevor will be a "heavily recurring" jfk jr type who works his way into the world of the characters we've come to know. the cw's biggest series, gossip girl, has cast former privileged (and reba) star joanna garcia to play a new love interest for nate (aka chace crawford). she'll be a southern charmer who has a history in beauty pageants. i guess that means joanna will be going back to her old, blonde look. i hope she is supposed to be an older character. again, she's a little older looking than the rest of the upper east siders ... and, finally, rapper/tv star/designer eve has taken on the role of a rival choir director on fox's new series, glee. the role was reportedly originally offered to whitney houston, but she turned it down to focus on her forthcoming album.

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