Simon Baker, Malcolm McDowell
It's a crazy, jam-packed night on The Mentalist (10/9c, CBS). The fate of psychic Kristina Frye (Leslie Hope) — abducted last season by serial slayer Red John — will at last be revealed. Malcolm McDowell returns as messianic cult leader ...
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Robin Tunney and Simon Baker
Patrick Jane got closer than ever to his psychopathic nemesis, Red John, in The Mentalist's Season 2 finale, but an end to Jane's quest for vengeance couldn't be further away.
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"Jane was pretty badly traumatized by his encounter with Red John," creator/executive producer Bruno Heller tells TVGuide.com "It wasn't on Jane's terms. He felt ... violated and to a degree humbled by the experience. Jane had always had some sense that this was an equal duel of wits. But the last episode showed it was certainly more of a cat-and-mouse thing going on, and that Red John was holding all the cards."
Worse, Red John abducted psychic Kristina Frye (Leslie Hope), the first woman Jane (Simon Baker) had allowed himself to get close to since the murder of his wife and child at Red John's hand. Heller says Jane will pull away from Lisbon (Robin Tunney) and the rest of the team...
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Sandra Oh, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Sela Ward
Every week, senior editors Mickey O'Connor and Adam Bryant satisfy your need for TV scoop. Please send all questions to mega_scoop@tvguide.com.
What's Cristina up to when Grey's Anatomy returns? — Jenni
ADAM: She won't be great. While Cristina is usually the rock the other docs lean on, her reaction to the traumatic season finale rampage takes longer to sort out than some of the other surgeons. In fact, when she is finally cleared to go back into surgery, an accident in the OR freaks her out so much that she collapses into a sobbing mess on the floor.
Can we get some more Modern Family scoop? — Rusty
MICKEY: If you were as tickled as we were to discover that Mitchell and Claire were once an figure-skating duo named Fire and Ice, you're going to love the next nugget...
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The Mentalist
The latest person to fall under Patrick Jane's spell on The Mentalist is Jane's new boss, Special Agent Madeline Hightower.
Check out photos of The Mentalist cast
"She's really fascinated by him," Aunjanue Ellis, who plays Hightower, tells TVGuide.com. "She respects him, and I think there's an element of her she sees in him. She's a strategist and she's able to, with a lot of fluidity, handle a wild card like Patrick [Simon Baker] and at the same time deal with the incredible bureaucracy that comes with having a job like that."
But make no mistake: Hightower, who makes her debut Thursday, is no pushover...
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Amanda Righetti
You might remember Amanda Righetti as Hailey on The O.C. or as Jenna on Fox's promising but ultimately short-lived Reunion. Now, on CBS' The Mentalist, Righetti has settled into the still-evolving role of Grace Van Pelt, a rookie investigator whose strong morals and relative inexperience are a conflicting combination. "It's always going to be two steps forward and two steps back for Grace," she says. TVGuide.com asked her what's up with her character's on-again, off-again flirtation with Rigsby (hint: it's off again), why she ends up hand in hand with Jane (!) and how she practiced her scream for that new Friday the 13th remake.
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Simon Baker by Avik Gilboa/WireImage.com
Simon Baker, who in his first time around the dance floor with CBS portrayed The Guardian (and more recently costarred in the short-lived Smith), has signed on to front The Mentalist. As previously reported here, the drama pilot concerns a man who uses his heightened power of observation to help solve crimes.According to Variety, Baker will be joined in the cast by Owain Yeoman (The Nine), Amanda Righetti (The O.C.), Shaun Toub and Tim Kang.
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Cole Hauser and Amanda Righetti by Skip Bolen/Fox
Someone over at Fox really likes Amanda Righetti. The onetime O.C. starlet — who followed up her stint in Newport Beach with back-to-back gigs on Fox's North Shore and Reunion — is joining the cast of the net's new drama series K-Ville. She'll be playing the recurring role of A.J., a potential love interest for Cole Hauser. As we'll learn in the Sept. 24 episode, the two characters share a common link. To say more than that would ruin the big twist at the end of the Sept. 17 premiere. And as you know, I don't ruin. Spoil, yes. Ruin, no.
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Reunion1993 Soundtrack: Gin Blossoms "Hey Jealousy"; Spin Doctors "Two Princes"; Soul Asylum "Runaway Train"; R.E.M. "Everybody Hurts"
Craig and his lying old "I'm in a wheelchair" self showed up at Sam's grave on her birthday. Will shows up as well, and they are confronted by some kid who is glad that Sam's dead. After they awkwardly segue back to 1993, we find out that a pill-popping Sam had thought she caused his mother’s death. But we can all rest — she's a good doctor. You know how I pretty much go on and on about Sam and Will's chemistry? Well, I always feel justified every time I see scenes between Alexa Davalos and Will Estes. When Sam confessed her pill addiction to Will, it was like practice for w
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Amanda Righetti
Tonight at 9 pm/ET, Fox hopes to reunite Reunion viewers with the relationship drama they sampled before MLB play-offs knocked it off the air for several weeks. To recap: Reunion follows the investigation of the murder of one of six friends whose past is recalled in flashbacks covering one year per episode. Although the victim has yet to be ID'd for the audience, based on those we have seen alive and kicking in the present-day scenes, Amanda Righetti's Jenna Moretti has a one-in-three chance of being the deceased. TVGuide.com made sure to chat up the O.C. alumna before she possibly went (gulp) 6 feet under.
TVGuide.com: Was it a tease to have Reunion debut and get some good notices, only to be plucked off the air?Amanda Righetti: Yeah, it's a pain to deal with that wh
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If Fox makes a hit of its new Hawaii-set soap, North Shore (premiering tonight at 8 pm/ET), then its other prime-time sudser, The O.C., could be missing one of its mischievous minxes when it returns in November. That's because O.C. hellion Hailey and North Shore trouble magnet Tessa are both played by Amanda Righetti, the hardest-working vamp since Heather Locklear. "I guess I'm sort of on a roll here!" Righetti tells TV Guide Online with a laugh. "I'm hoping that I can do both shows, but it's going to really depend on scheduling. It's like, 'Don't make me choose!'"
Like any actress who deserves her SAG card, Righetti wants nothing more than to stretch as an artist. But for now, she doesn't mind being Fox's go-to bad girl; for all their pot-stirring, pampered Hailey and streetwise Tessa are very distinct, she says. "Tessa came from a broken home and has had to fend for herself for a lot of her life. She's found her niche i
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