Housewives Borrows a Neighbor From Boomtown
Neal McDonough is the future on Wisteria Lane.
The former Boomtown star will be joining the cast of Desperate Housewives this fall as a new addition to the neighborhood who could become more suit-clad prey for Nicollette Sheridan’s man-eater Edie Britt, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The blue-eyed McDonough most recently starred in the short-lived ABC series Traveler, the Sci Fi miniseries Tin Man andwe won’t hold it against himthe much-razzed Lindsay Lohan flick I Know Who Killed Me.
As Desperate fans know, the show jumped five years into the future toward the end of the fourth-season finale in May, so our heroines will be greeting an unfamiliar set of only-time-will-tell challenges in season five.
Joining McDonough on the block is Gale Harold (he briefly starred in the ill-fated Fox mystery Vanished), who will provide a personality for Ken, the mystery man Teri Hatcher kissed in the finale.
Casting Couch: Woodard Comes in From the Cold
Alfre Woodard is getting into the spy biz.
The Emmy-winning actress has signed on to costar with Christian Slater in the new NBC series My Own Worst Enemy, a sort of small-screen version of James Cameron’s movie True Lies.
Per the Hollywood Reporter, Enemy revolves around an easygoing suburban dad (Slater) who, when not watching over his family, moonlights as a debonair secret agent.
Woodard, who was Emmy’d for her Desperate Housewives turn, will play his tough-as-nails boss at HQ, who also interacts with the spy in his everyday life via her cover identity.
Enemy, which also features Saffron Burrows, Mike O’Malley and Yara Martinez, will air Mondays at 10 p.m. on the Peacock net, starting this fall.
In other casting news, Saving Private Ryan’s Adam Goldberg is joining forces with up-and-comers Emily VanCamp and Dan Byrd for the indie coming-of-age tale Norman.
The drama will follow a wisecracking troubled teen (Byrd) who pretends he’s dying of cancer. Complications ensue as he deals with new high school love (VanCamp) and his teacher (Goldberg).
After a stint last season on HBO’s Entourage, Goldberg joined the upcoming indie horror flick From Within. He’ll then return to the tube opposite Lost’s Harrold Perrineau in the new ABC series The Unusuals.
Norman is now filming in Spokane, Wash.
British Bachelor Calls On Shayne
"At times I thought you were the onemany times. I think you're amazing, and I wish you the best."
So said Matt Grant to the woman he didn't pick on the finale of The Bachelor: London Calling.
But so goes the pioneering ABC series, which wrapped up its 12th season Monday with Grant, a 27-year-old financier from London, popping the question to 22-year-old Shayne Lamas, an actress and the daughter of Renegade star Lorenzo Lamas.
"I came here to find someone for life. And I know, when I look in those beautiful brown eyes, that you'll always be there for me. And I hope you know that I will always be there for you. I don't have much more to say."
Then he got down on one knee, declared his love, and presented Lamas with a multicarat sparkler.
Meaning Chelsea Wanstrath, 24, got the shaftalbeit a much nicer-sounding shaft, thanks to the British accent (which, really, can alleviate anything).
Grant did almost lose his cool for a moment when Wanstrath, understandably vexed after getting the whole "I'm falling in love with you…but" spiel, expressed disbelief that he could have picked Lamas, whom she considers "the falsest person here."
"If you think I would end up with the falsest person, then you don't know me," Grant told her, a slight edge in his voice. They walked on in silence for about 15 seconds before he apologized.
"I'm sorry, I think you do know me, though," he said.
Way to not burn bridges in case the other one doesn't work out.
"I did have feelings for [both of] the final two, and that's something that we as a couple have to sort of go beyond," Grant said in a conference call with reporters last week. "We've talked about it. We understand that we were put into an unrealistic situation, albeit it's reality television. We had to accept it wasn't going to be easy afterwards. We had deep and frank conversations about what was going to be shown and how things are."
Asked whether he was really in love with the last woman standing, however, he said, "Definitely."
"Without a doubt. As far as love at first sight, I am not a big advocate of that. But that said…when I first saw her I knew I was in trouble in a good way and that it could be [the one]."
Whether that means wedding bells will be ringing anytime soon is another story.
"Time is important, as well, and obviously the worst thing you can do is rush it," he said. "Things have been kind of rushed already, so it's time to just take a deep breath and work out our plans and our futurewhether it be in the U.S. or U.K.and then, when the time is right, get to the altar."
Of course, it's not as if Grant and Lamas have history on their side, considering nine out of 10 previous Bachelors and their respective Chosen Ones have parted ways or called off their ABC-sponsored engagements. (Byron Velvick from season six is still hanging in there, barely, with fiancée Mary Delgado.)
And last season's stud, Brad Womack, didn't go with A or B. He went with C, none of the above.
But Grant apparently doesn't put a lot of stock in history. Not the reality-TV-related kind, anyway.
"I'm not bothered by it. That's their lives. It has nothing to do with me," he said. "I'm always an optimist, and half-full is not completely full. We're just going to give it the best shot we can, but I'm confident we'll survive, we'll succeed."
Meanwhile, love will be in the air again as soon as next week. The fourth installment of The Bachelorette, featuring Deanna Pappas, one of Womack's nonchoices, premieres Monday.
An extra gives tidbits on Lost
Lost spoilers are serious business. I know what I’m talking about since I’ve been roaming the web and poking my sources for spoilers about the ABC series even before it premiered on September 22, 2004. Information about upcoming episodes was rather easy to find the first two years of the hit series. But as Lost got more popular and the mysteries more and more important and… mysterious, security around the show got tighter in order to keep spoilers leakage to a minimum. Luckily for us, extras always delivered the goods. This week, Whitney Matheson, who writes the “Pop Candy” column at USA Today, relays information an extra sent about her experience on the set and the episode she will appear in. Spoilers ahead!
The extra, named Cleo, recently moved to Hawaii and has been trying to appear on the show ever since. She eventually got cast as an extra for episode 4.12, “There’s No Place Like Home,” which will air on May 15. Even if Cleo signed a confidentiality agreement stating that the show would sue her for $5 million dollars if she spilled the beans, she decided to give a tidbits about the scene she was in: Cleo saw Jack, Sayid, Kate, Hurley, Nadia, and Aaron. Kate, Hurley and Sayid greet each other outside a church. She also said that this scene is not connected to the coffin we saw in last season’s finale.
It is unknown how Nadia fits in all of this but spoilers for upcoming episodes reveal that Sayid will attend Nadia’s funeral. At first, it was believed that the funeral would occur in episode 4.09 but Lost is known for shooting scenes out of order so we never know. The Nadia funeral could even appear in two episodes.
Lost returns with new episodes on April 24.