Channel Surfing: Lena Headey Crowned for "Thrones," HBO Goes to the Mattresses for "Boardwalk Empire," Pam Gets New Mom on "Office," and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan is reporting that former Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles star Lena Headey has signed on to star in HBO's fantasy drama pilot Game of Thrones, based on the novel series by George R.R. Martin. Headey, who toplined the now-canceled Terminator, would play Cersei Lannister, described by Ryan as "a woman of royal blood who is every bit as smart, cunning and devious as the powerful men around her." She joins a cast for the pilot (directed by The Visitor's Tom McCarthy) that includes Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage, Mark Addy, Jennifer Ehle, and a slew of others. Headey's character is the sister of Jamie Lannister (Coster-Waldau) and the wife of King Robert (Addy). (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

Elsewhere at HBO, the pay cabler has given a series order to period drama Boardwalk Empire from executive producers Martin Scorsese and Terence Winter (who also created the series). Twelve episodes (including the pilot) have been ordered and are expected to air late next year, with production starting this fall in New York. Set in the 1920s, the series follows the life of politico/gangster Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi) during the growth of Atlantic City. Buscemi will be joined by Kelly Macdonald, Michael Shannon, Michael Pitt, Shea Whigham, Dabney Coleman, and Stephen Graham. (Variety)

Linda Purl (Bones) has been cast as the mother of Pam Beesley (Jenna Fischer) on NBC's The Office, where she will appear next month at Pam and Jim's wedding. Purl replaces Shannon Cochran, who guest starred as Pam's mom in a Season Two episode of The Office. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

AMC has ordered a fourth season of period drama Mad Men. (Televisionary)

ABC has signed two separate talent holding deals with Martin Henderson (Inside the Box) and Leah Remini (The King of Queens). Under the deals, Henderson will star in a drama pilot for the network, with Henderson meeting with writers shortly to discuss potential properties. Remini, who appeared in ABC's comedy pilot Married Not Dead this past development cycle, will appear in a comedy pilot. (Hollywood Reporter)

Debi Mazar (Entourage) has been cast in a recurring role on ABC's Castle, where she will play Paula Haas, Castle's book agent. Her first appearance is set for October. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

20th Century Fox Television has signed two separate overall deals with Family Guy writers Mark Hentemann and Steve Callaghan. Under the terms of the deals, Hentemann and Callaghan will become executive producers and showrunners on Family Guy (following the decision made by David Goodman and Chris Sheridan to step down as showrunners on the FOX series) and will also develop new projects for the studio. (Variety)

Saturday Night Live will add at least two new female cast members to its roster, hiring The Groundlings' Nasim Pedrad and UCB's Jenny Slate for next season, which kicks off September 26th on NBC. (The Wrap's TV MoJoe)

A. Smith and Co. have acquired the US rights to Japanese game show Pressure Study, in which seven contestants are forced to work together in order to complete seven rounds of questions that will test every facet of their combined knowledge. Series, which will be retitled Under Pressure, is currently being pitched to networks. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Have a Burning Question for Team Darlton, Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, or Michael Emerson?

Lost fans: you don't have to make your way to the island via Ajira Airways in order to ask a question of the creative team or the series' stars. Televisionary is taking questions from fans to put to Lost 's executive producers/showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and stars Matthew Fox ("Jack Shephard"), Evangeline Lilly ("Kate Austen"), and Michael Emerson ("Benjamin Linus") for a series of on-camera interviews taking place this weekend. If you have a specific question for any of the above producers or actors from Lost , please leave it in the comments section below . I'll be accepting questions until midnight PT tonight and, while I can't promise I'll be able to ask any specific inquiry due to the brevity of these on-camera interviews, I am looking for some insightful and thought-provoking questions to add to the mix. So who knows: your burning question might get asked after all.

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What's Done is Done: The Eternal Struggle Between Good and Evil on the Season Finale of "Lost"

Every story begins with thread. It's up to the storyteller to determine just how much they need to parcel out, what pattern they're making, and when to cut it short and tie it off. With last night's penultimate season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, we began to see the pattern that Lindelof and Cuse have been designing towards the last five seasons of this serpentine series. And it was only fitting that the two-hour finale, which pushes us on the road to the final season of Lost , should begin with thread, a loom, and a tapestry. Would Jack follow through on his plan to detonate the island and therefore reset their lives aboard Oceanic Flight 815 ? Why did Locke want to kill Jacob? What caused The Incident? What was in the box and just what lies in the shadow of the statue? We got the answers to these in a two-hour season finale that didn't quite pack the same emotional wallop of previous season ...

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See You in Another Life: Thoughts on The Series Finale of Lost

"No one can tell you why you're here." I'm of two minds (and two hearts) about the two-and-a-half hour series finale of Lost ("The End"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and directed by Jack Bender, which brought a finality to the story of the passengers of Oceanic Flight 815 and the characters with which we've spent six years. At its heart, Lost has been about the two bookends of the human existence, birth and death, and the choices we make in between. Do we choose to live together or die alone? Can we let go of our past traumas to become better people? When we have nothing else left to give, can we make the ultimate sacrifice for the greater good? In that sense, the series finale of Lost brought to a close the stories of the crash survivors and those who joined them among the wreckage over the course of more than 100 days on the island (and their return), offering up a coda to their lives and their deaths, a sort of purgatory for found, r...

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