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Casting Couch: Universal Media Studios Casts Wide Net on Several Series

Just a day before network upfront presentations are scheduled to kick off, there has been a flurry of casting activity here in Hollywood.

Boston Legal's Saffron Burrows has joined the cast of NBC's drama series My Own Worst Enemy, starring Christian Slater and Mike O'Malley about a well-mannered family man Henry, whose alter ego Edward is a spy and all-around international man of mystery. Burrows will play Norah, Edward's girlfriend and Henry's psychiatrist.

Production on the first episode is slated to get under way soon. My Own Worst Enemy, from Universal Media Studios and writer/executive producer Jason Smilovic (Kidnapped), was ordered to series in April off of the pilot script; no pilot was shot.

Frances Fisher (In the Valley of Elah) has come aboard an eight-episode arc on the next season of Sci Fi's drama Eureka, where she will play Samantha Thorne, a corporate fixer assigned to clean up the mess at Global.

In a major casting coup, indie actor extraordinaire Eric Stoltz will join the cast of Battlestar Galactica spin-off prequel Caprica.

He'll play Daniel Greystone, the deeply flawed human creator of the Cylons, who finds himself in a moral battle with Joseph Adama (Esai Morales), the conflicted attorney father of the future Admiral William Adama (Edward James Olmos).

In the two-hour backdoor pilot, Stolz's character will be married to surgeon Amanda (Lost and Deadwood's Paula Malcomson); their daughter Zoe will be played by relative newcomer Alessandra Toressani.

Speaking of Caprica, executive producer David Eick will take over as showrunner on NBC's drama The Philanthropist--which itself was also, like My Own Worst Enemy, ordered to series directly off script--following the departure of Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson, who had conflict with the network about the tone of the series: they wanted escapism, Fontana and Levinson gritty realism.

Either way, Eick definitely has his work cut out for him.

Stay tuned.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Big Bang Theory/How I Met Your Mother (CBS); American Gladiators (NBC; 8-10 pm); Gossip Girl (CW); Dancing With the Stars (ABC; 8-9:30 pm); Bones (FOX)

9 pm: Two and a Half Men/Rules of Engagement (CBS); One Tree Hill (CW); Samantha Who? (ABC; 9:30-10 pm); House (FOX)

10 pm: CSI Miami (CBS); Medium (NBC); The Bachelor: London Calling (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Gossip Girl.

The naughty teen soap continues tonight with a brand new episode! On tonight's episode ("Woman on the Verge"), Serena falls back into her old ways after revealing to Blair the real reason she left Manhattan; Blair, Nate, and Chuck must put aside their conflicts in order to help Serena, who is too ashamed to tell Dan what is actually going on; Rufus' band reunites for a gig at Rolling Stone-sponsored concert and he's surprised when Lily shows up, especially as it's the same night as her wedding rehearsal dinner.

Comments

Ooooh...Eric Stoltz in Caprica. Very cool choice. And I'm still very excited about the possibility of the fabulously talented Polly Walker being in it as well!

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