The Casting Call 03.20.09

The Casting Call brings together the latest casting news to keep you informed on who is showing up on which show. Find out who is joining your favorite show as a series regular, a recurring character, a guest star or special cameo. The Casting Call could reveal upcoming story-lines, so be aware, there may be spoilers ahead.

90210 (The CW)
Lily Collins, daughter of musician Phil Collins, will appear in two episodes of The CW’s drama 90210 this season. In the penultimate episode airing May 12 and in the May 19 season finale, she will play Phoebe, a West Beverly student and rival of Annie (Shenae Grimes). Collins, a broadcast journalism student at USC, is a red-carpet correspondent for Nickelodeon.

Accidentally on Purpose (ABC)
Jon Foster is set to star opposite Jenna Elfman in ABC’s comedy Accidentally on Purpose. The show stars Elfman as a movie critic who gets pregnant after a fling with a younger man (Foster).

Back (CBS)
DB Woodside has been cast in CBS’ drama pilot Back. The show centers on a man (Skeet Ulrich) who returns home to discover he was reported missing eight years earlier. Woodside will play a psychiatrist.

Cop House (Fox)
Rachael Harris and Ajay Naidu have been cast in Fox’s comedy pilot Cop House, directed by Brett Ratner. The show is set at a halfway house for troubled cops. Harris will play the only female cop at the house, sent there for posing nude in Hustler. Naidu will play a cop with a drinking problem. They join previously cast Tony Hale. Ratner will direct the pilot under his deal with 20th and executive produce alongside writer Adam Resnick, Marty Adelstein and Michael Thorn.

Desperate Housewives (ABC)
Gloria LeRoy is joining Desperate Housewives as a neighborhood fixture who we’ll first meet next month, right around the time Nicollette Sheridan takes her last breath as Edie. Her character, Rose, “will figure into Edie’s exit in a surprising way” – one that involves an increasingly cuckoo Orson, a violent act, and a touch of dementia. And not necessarily in that order.

In other Desperate Housewives casting news, Sarah Knowlton has been tapped to play a woman who may or may not be having an affair with Tom.

Empire State (ABC)
Gail O’Grady has joined ABC’s Empire State. The show is a contemporary Romeo-and-Juliet tale about a blue-collar man (Mike Vogel) who falls in love with the daughter (Beau Garrett) of a wealthy businessman who is his father’s nemesis. O’Grady, repped by APA and Shelter Entertainment, will play the man’s aunt, owner of a popular local bar. Also cast in the pilot is Ana de la Reguera.

Limelight (ABC)
Gray-Cabey (Heroes) will get to show off his musical talents in ABC’s performance-arts drama Limelight. Also cast in Limelight are Oded Fehr, Kyle Riabko and Jessy Schram. Limelight is a soap about the teachers and the students at a New York performing-arts academy. Fehr will play the school’s larger-than-life and overbearing artistic director. Riabko and Schram will play aspiring young actors auditioning for the academy, and Gray-Cabey will play the school’s music prodigy.

Maggie Hill (Fox)
Alfre Woodard has joined Fox’s Maggie Hill. On the show, about a brilliant surgeon (Christina Cole) with schizophrenia, Emmy winner Woodard will play the tough and whip-smart chief of cardiothoracic surgery who is Maggie’s mentor.

Miami Trauma (CBS)
Elisabeth Harnois has been picked to star in the CBS medical drama pilot Miami Trauma. WBTV/Jerry Bruckheimer’s Miami Trauma focuses on a team of trauma surgeons. Harnois will play one of the central roles, a talented first-year trauma resident.

No Heroics (ABC)
Arielle Kebbel has landed a lead on ABC’s comedy No Heroics. The show revolves around four B-list superheroes living among us. Kebbel, repped by Endeavor and Precision, will play the sweetheart of the group.

The Good Wife (CBS)
Christine Baranski has been cast as a regular and Chris Noth a guest star on CBS’ drama pilot The Good Wife. The show centers on a politician’s wife (Julianna Margulies) who gets a job as a junior associate at a top law firm. Baranski will play the top litigator at the firm and in all of Chicago. Noth will play former DA in jail because of a sex scandal.

Three Rivers (CBS)
Katherine Moennig and Daniel Henney have been cast to star in CBS’ transplant surgery pilot Three Rivers. The show is about organ transplants as seen through three points of view: the doctors, the donors and the recipients. Moennig will play a self-destructive lung/heart transplant fellow. Henney will play a wealthy kidney/liver/pancreas transplant specialist.

Untitled Justin Adler Pilot (NBC)
Nick D’Agosto (Heroes) and Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville) are set to star in NBC’s untitled Justin Adler comedy. The Adler project, from Sony/Tantamount, revolves around a grown-up family. D’Agosto will play the youngest sibling, who brings his girlfriend to meet the family. Also showing a lighter side is former Smallville villain Rosenbaum, who will play the married middle sibling freaked out over his recently adopted baby.

Untitled Jerry Bruckheimer Pilot (ABC)
Reiko Aylesworth has joined ABC’s untitled Jerry Bruckheimer drama. WBTV’s untitled Bruckheimer project is a mystery about amateur detectives, one of them played by Aylesworth, who is currently recurring on Lost.

Untitled Kelsey Grammer Pilot (ABC)
Melinda McGraw has landed the female lead opposite Kelsey Grammer in his ABC comedy pilot. The untitled Grammer project stars the former Frasier star as a Wall Street tycoon forced to reconnect with his family after losing his job. McGraw will play his wife.

Untitled Ricky Blitt Pilot (ABC)
Kyle Bornheimer is set to play a lead on ABC’s untitled Ricky Blitt comedy pilot. WBTV’s Blitt project stars Eric Christian Olsen as a guy in his 30s torn between his needy best friend (Bornheimer), a financier and hopeless romantic, and his new girlfriend (Alyssa Milano), who has kids. Also cast in the pilot is Kelly Stables who will play Milano’s fiercely protective younger sister. For Bornheimer, the pilot is formally in second position to CBS’ Worst Week, which looks unlikely to return.