The Casting Call 06.12.09

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.

Boardwalk Empire (HBO)
Michael Kenneth Williams, Dabney Coleman and Paz de la Huerta have joined the cast of HBO’s Martin Scorsese-directed drama pilot. Written by Terence Winter and to be directed by Scorsese, HBO’s Boardwalk Empire chronicles the early 20th century origins of Atlantic City and revolves around Nucky Johnson (Steve Buscemi), who runs a liquor-distribution ring, and Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt), his ruthless flunky.

De la Huerta will play Lucy, Nucky’s girlfriend, a hot party girl. Williams will play Chalky White, the defacto “mayor” of Chickenbone Beach, Atlantic City’s black section. He’s an intelligent ex-boxer and confidant of Nucky’s who rules his community with an iron fist. Coleman will play the Commodore Kaestner, Nucky’s predecessor and mentor.

Crash (Starz)
On the second season of the Lionsgate TV-produced drama, Eric Roberts is joined by five other new cast members: Dana Ashbrook, Linda Park, Jake McLaughlin, Tess Harper and Julie Warner.

Roberts will play Seth, a billionaire entrepreneur, who plans to give Los Angeles a long-desired new professional football team. Ashbrook will play Jimmy, a charismatic gambler who plays fast and loose with the law. Park will play Maggie, a children’s book author who writes of a joyful life but has trouble living it.

McLaughlin will play Bo, a former high school pitching ace and shoe-in for the big league, but derailed by career-ending injury. Harper will play his mother, Wendy, a middle-class San Fernando Valley shop owner forever reliving Bo’s glory days; and Warner will play Andrea, an ambitious and manipulative right-hand woman to Seth.

Hawthorne (TNT)
Sarah Lancaster (chuck) is set to visit TNT’s new nurse drama, Hawthorne, as the girlfriend of a patient (My Boys’ Reid Scott) who’s horribly injured in a motorcycle accident. Described as a woman who’s never had to face adversity, she finds herself struggling with her newfound fate. So in the name of love her boyfriend opts to undergo a high-risk surgery that could potentially kill him.

NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS)
Adam Jamal Craig has been added to the series as a regular. The CBS TV Studios-produced NCIS: Los Angeles, a spinoff from NCIS that will launch behind the hit crime procedural on Wednesdays this fall, stars Chris O’Donnell and LL Cool J. It’s set at the Office of Special Projects, a division of NCIS that’s charged with apprehending dangerous criminals. Craig will play a new character, Dominic Vaile, a new young agent.

Psych (USA Network)
James Brolin has signed on to appear in a season 4 episode entitled, High Noon-ish. He’ll play Hank, a sheriff in Old Sanora, a city which has recently found itself the victim of vandalism. Lassiter (Timothy Omundson) spent a lot of time there growing up and sees Hank as something of a father figure.

Sanctuary (SciFi Channel)
Former Stargate SG-1 star Michael Shanks will appear in an episode of SCI FI’s Sanctuary in its upcoming second season, Shanks’ managers at JDS in Los Angeles told SCI FI Wire. Shanks reunites with his former SG-1 co-star Amanda Tapping, who stars in and produces Sanctuary, in episode 209, entitled “Penance,” which begins filming next week in Vancouver, Canada; he’ll play a character named Jimmy.

United States of Tara (Showtime)
Viola Davis will appear in seven of the 12 episodes of the show’s upcoming season, playing Lynda B. Dozier, an unconventional artist who plays a significant role in the lives of Tara and her daughter Kate.