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Jason Mantzoukas (The League, The Dictator) is planning to have everyone in stitches on Modern Family. The actor-comedian will guest-star in an upcoming episode as a jeans designer who becomes a co-worker — and new boyfriend — of Haley (Sarah Hyland), EW has learned. READ FULL STORY »
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Great Scott! Christopher Lloyd is coming to Fox’s Raising Hope.
Not only that, but the actor will appear in a Back to the Future-themed episode of the comedy series.
Lloyd plays a loan collector named Dennis Powers who calls on the Chances for some old debt after Jimmy (Lucas Neff) and Sabrina (Shannon Woodward) consider buying a new car on credit. We’re told you can definitely expect Lloyd (who, of course, played Emmett “Doc” Brown in the time-travel movie trilogy) to end up in the driver’s seat of a DeLorean. Lloyd’s last primetime TV acting gig was an appearance on Fox’s Fringe last year.
Raising Hope airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on Fox. In case you missed it, here’s executive producer Greg Garcia talking to EW.com about this season.
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A rock star will join the rock stars who make FX’s most-watched drama.
Dave Navarro will guest star in the last two episodes of Sons of Anarchy this season as a member of the Biz Lats gang with close ties to Nero (Jimmy Smits). And here’s the added bennie of luring the famous guitarist to the motorcycle club: Navarro’s band Jane’s Addiction will do a cover of “Sympathy for the Devil” for the SOA finale.
Creator Kurt Sutter has had a particularly good time with his guest stars this season. Besides luring former Mouse House actress Ashley Tisdale to play a prostitute, Walton Goggins (Justified) played a transvestite last week.
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Men at Work, TBS’ comedy from Breckin Meyer that stars Danny Masterson and Michael Cassidy, has nabbed a Gossip Girl to appear in the show’s second season.
Jessica Szohr — best known as Vanessa on the CW drama — will play Jenny in an episode that tapes this Friday and will air sometime in 2013. Here’s the official logline: “Jenny is the drop dead gorgeous friend of Neil’s girlfriend, Amy. Jenny is rarely, if ever, without a boyfriend, so there is this rare window of opportunity that both Milo and Gibbs want to pounce on.”
Other guest stars slated for Men’s season two include Seth Green, Peri Gilpin, J.K. Simmons, Joel David Moore, John Michael Higgins, Sarah
Wright, Jason Lee, Bethany Joy Lenz and Ben McKenzie. Men in Work, which follows a newly-single dude named Milo (Masterson) and the friends who are helping him re-enter the dating scene, premiered in May. TBS already ordered 10 more episodes that’ll launch next year.
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Sure, The Big Bang Theory‘s Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) spent time on the International Space Station, but did he walk on the moon?
Famed Apollo astronaut and Dancing With the Stars season 10 contestant Buzz Aldrin will appear as himself in a cameo on the Halloween episode, “The Holographic Excitation,” CBS announced Tuesday. READ FULL STORY »
Party down at the greasy spoon diner! Ryan Hansen — best known for his stints on Veronica Mars (as Dick Casablancas) and Party Down (Kyle Bradway) — will guest star as a Willy Wonka-esque confectioner nicknamed Candy Andy in the Oct. 29 episode of 2 Broke Girls. But his real purpose for stopping by the cafe? He’s a potential love interest for Caroline Channing (Beth Behrs).
EW obtained this exclusive first look of Hansen, who will recur on the CBS comedy: READ FULL STORY »
Avert your eyes if you haven’t watched last night’s Glee…but for those who have you’re probably wondering, Who the hell is this Eli guy that Blaine cheated with?!?!?! Seen only in text messages, Eli is the mystery man whom Blaine admitted to Kurt about being with and caused the much-loved Glee gays to break-up.
Now, EW has learned that are no immediate plans to introduce Eli in the coming episodes. But we figure why not brainstorm who should play this troublemaker? It may be that I’ve seen too many Pitch Perfect trailers as of late, but I think Skylar Astin, who plays Anna Kendrick’s love interest in the acapella flick, might be a good choice. He’s cute and he can sing. Plus, he’s a Spring Awakening alum and would reunite him with his former castmates Lea Michele, Jenna Ushkowitz, and Jonathan Groff.
What do you think Gleeks? Who should play Eli?
Read more:
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‘Glee’ scoop: Details on tonight’s pivotal, emotional, and epic ‘Break-Up’ episode
‘Glee’ recap: Rabbit Feet and Makeovers
Follow Tim on Twitter: @EWTimStack
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After a decrease last year, the number of LGBT characters on the five broadcast networks has risen to the highest ever recorded, according to the “Where We Are on TV” report released today by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. The report released today lauded the cable networks for also increasing their overall LGBT character count this year, too.
Which networks are the most inclusive? After Fox lead the broadcast networks last year, ABC — with shows like comedy Happy Endings (above) featuring gay characters — has been named as the most gay-friendly network, with 10 of 194 (5.2 percent) regular characters identifying as LGBT. Over on cable, last year’s victor HBO was dethroned by Showtime, which this year had 12 LGBT characters, seven of which are series regulars on shows like Shameless and Weeds.
“This year’s increase of LGBT characters on television reflects a cultural change in the way gay and lesbian people are seen in our society,” says GLAAD President Herndon Graddick. “More and more Americans have come to accept their LGBT family members, friends, coworkers, and peers, and as audiences tune into their favorite programs, they expect to see the same diversity of people they encounter in their daily lives.”
The report — which studied 97 broadcast shows, as well as cable offerings — also delivered a slew of other facts and figures. EW has pulled out the most fascinating tidbits for you here:
• LGBT characters account for 4.4 percent of scripted series regulars on the broadcast networks in 2012-13. This is up from 2.9 percent in 2011, 3.9 percent in 2009, 2.6 percent in 2008, and 1.1 percent in 2007.
• There are a total of 31 LGBT characters on the five broadcast networks, as well as 19 recurring characters.
• ABC leads the broadcast networks with 10 of 194 characters (5.2 percent). Fox is in second with six of 118 (5.1 percent), followed by The CW with four of 81 (4.9 percent), NBC with seven of 166 (4.2 percent), and CBS with four of 142 (2.8 percent). The report singles out CBS’ “authentic and conscious effort” to increase diversity, as it is up from 0.7 percent LGBT characters last season.
• Regular LGBT characters on scripted cable television also rose this year to 35 (up from 29) for the 2012-13 season.
• Showtime leads the cable pack, with 12 total characters, seven of whom are regulars. The runners up include: HBO (9 characters), FX (8), Adult Swim (5), and ABC Family, MTV, Syfy, and TeenNick (4 each).
• As it was in 2010 and 2011, HBO’s True Blood is the most inclusive show on cable television with six gay, lesbian, or bisexual characters.
• GLAAD also analyzed the race/ethnicity and gender demographics of all 701 series regular characters in primetime television. There are more males (55.5 percent) to females (44.5 percent), and 78 percent of all series regulars are white. Compared to last year, African American representation has increased from 9.9 percent to 12 percent, followed by Latino (4.1 percent) and Asian-Pacific Islander (4.7 percent).
• Of the 31 announced LGBT regular characters in the 2012-13 season, 11 are people of color (35.5 percent). GLAAD counted seven regular or recurring black LGBT characters on broadcast television, up from zero last year.
• Lastly, GLAAD counted people with disabilities, of which there are four (0.6 percent) regular characters on broadcast television.
The full “Where We Are on TV” report can be viewed on the GLAAD website.
Tanner on Twitter: @EWTanStransky
Read more:
GLAAD lauds The CW, ‘Modern Family’ for treatment of gay characters
Fox, HBO most gay-friendly networks on television, says GLAAD
NBC’s ‘The New Normal’ pilot available online
Kermit’s no longer a fan of Chick-Fil-A
Shonda Rhimes wins GLAAD awards
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Charlie Harper may be gone, but his stalker isn’t!
EW has learned exclusively that Melanie Lynskey will reprise her role as awkward hanger on Rose for two episodes beginning Oct. 25. This time, she sets her sights on Walden Schmidt (Ashton Kutcher).
“I suppose she is never really out of stalker mode,” says Lynskey, who has recurred on the comedy since its first year. “I don’t want her to grow up! I’ve spent most of my career doing independent movies and playing roles that are sort of naturalistic, real women who are struggling. What’s so fun about this job is that I do it a couple of times a year and I get to be this person who exists in a different reality. Just the way she looks at the world is so bizarre. I don’t ever want her to change.”
That said, it still surprises her that the character resonates so much with fans. “I started as a guest star in the pilot, then they asked me to come back because there was something about Rose that people responded to,” recalls Lynskey, who currently co-stars in The Perks of Being a Wallflower. “That always troubled me a little bit!”
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The second season of Smash is shaping up to be full of musically talented guest-stars like Jennifer Hudson, Sean Hayes, and Jesse L. Martin. Now, EW has learned that Martin’s former Rent co-star Daphne Rubin-Vega will also be appearing on season 2 of NBC’s musical drama. The actress, who played Mimi in the original Broadway production of Rent, will play a Broadway publicist on the series. Sadly, she and Martin don’t have scenes together, nor will she be singing.
The second season of Smash returns in early 2013.
Read more:
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‘Smash’ scoop: Ellis and Dev are leaving the show! — EXCLUSIVE
Follow Tim on Twitter: @EWTimStack
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The future-flung heroes of Fringe, currently busy saving humanity from folically-challenged time travelers with noodle-baking psychic powers, are about to meet another kind of mentalist — and we’re not talking Patrick Jane or Sherlock Holmes. EW.com has learned that the producers of the soon-to-end Fox drama have cast singer-actress-poet Jill Scott in the role of Simone, described as “an incredibly intuitive woman, an oracle-like person.”
Look for Olivia (Anna Torv) to seek Simone’s assistance during an early season episode… in which the cortexiphan-juiced chosen one will eat a cookie and ponder that timeless truth: There is no spoon. (Oracle. Cookies. Spoon. It’s a Matrix joke, people! C’mon!) READ FULL STORY »
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Bradley Whitford has signed on to guest star on the third season of Shameless.
The West Wing alum will appear in two episodes of the upcoming season playing Abraham — a “powerful, well-dressed, sophisticated gay man who is a political activist.” Let’s hope he takes his cues from White House Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman and not his shady Cabin in the Woods character.
In addition to starring in The West Wing and The Cabin in the Woods, Whitford has also appeared in The Good Guys, The X Files and ER.
Shameless stars William H. Macy, Emmy Rossum and Justin Chatwin. The Showtime series will return for season 3 on January 13, 2013 at 9 p.m.
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Bradley Whitford to reunite with ‘West Wing’ co-star on USA’s ‘In Plain Sight’ — EXCLUSIVE
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An amateur detective with extraordinary powers of perception teams with a professional crime-fighter to solve murders and banter flirtatiously. Sounds like any number of shows on any given evening of television. Tonight on CBS, it’s The Mentalist, starring Simon Baker as the natural born Sherlock and Robin Tunney as his badge-carrying Watson. Your five things to know about season 5 (unless you don’t dig such tips and teases, so… SPOILER WARNING!):
New night, fresh start. After three years on Thursday at 10 p.m. (now occupied by Elementary, The Mentalist moves to Sunday at 10. Creator/showrunner Bruno Heller is treating the switch as a new beginning. An early episode — the 100th of the series — will be something of an origin story, chronicling Patrick Jane’s first adventure with the California Bureau of Investigation. In other words: A good time for newbies to jump aboard. It may also be a good time for lapsed fans to come back, as… READ FULL STORY »
James Hibberd
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Lynette Rice
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