day 323

casting news!

i know, you're excited. i haven't talked about show casting news a long time now. but with midseason filming approaching, shows are getting underway in casting for sweeps and recasting roles. first up, nbc's parenthood. parenthood was supposed to be nbc's best and brightest show of the new season, until it was plagued with problem after problem. the first problem occured when the show was filming its pilot and the nbc exec in charge of dramas dropped dead on set. that pushed production back a couple days. then, when the show was about to begin production on the regular season, star maura tierney was diagnosed with breast cancer and production was stalled again and the show was pushed from being the keystone of the fall schedule to midseason, premiering in january or february of next year. when tierney's prognosis was worse than expected, and her treatments were going to impede on the show even more, she completely dropped out of the project. it's been a little over a month since tierney's departure was confirmed and, in that time, the parenthood execs have been struggling to find a new leading lady that will renew interest in the show. in the running currently are two big names: helen hunt and lauren graham. while this would mark helen hunt's return to network tv, it looks like graham is more likely to nab the part. graham already has a contract with the network (a show was developed for her, but it didn't make it past the pilot process). graham is familiar with the single mom role she'd be playing on parenthood after 9 seasons on the wb's and gilmore girls, and seeing her in a more dramatic role would be an unseen twist. plus, graham adds some more interest as she is a tv cult-follower's dream casting coup ... and, in grey's anatomy news, the producers have landed 24 and lipstick jungle's kim raver as a new surgeon at the hospital who has a connection to owen's past. kim will pop up mid-season and be on the show in a recurring basis, with the option to become a full time cast member much like jessica capshaw's dr. arizona robbins. should be interesting, but it seems like kim has been the angel of death for many shows on television lately. hopefully she won't be grey's jump-the-shark moment.