Angela Bassett shatters the quaint quietude of a San Fernando Valley bistro with a triumphant laugh. She's just been asked to describe her new role as Dr. Catherine Banfield on the 15th and final season of ER (premieres Thursday, Sept. 25 at 10 pm/ET, NBC). "I'm the boss!" she all but bellows. "I'm the queen! I'm the chief of the ER! I come in, snap my fingers and tell everybody who's used to doing things in their old familiar ways what to do and how to do it. I tell 'em, 'It's my way or the highway!'"
Looks like County General has an attending diva in its halls.
Not that we'd expect anything less from the first leading TV role for the powerhouse who earned a Golden Globe, an NAACP Image Award and an Oscar nomination for her take-no-prisoners portrayal of Tina Turner in 1993's What's Love Got to Do With It."Angela's got such huge
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Angela Bassett will take on her first full-time TV series role when she joins the cast of ER this fall for the NBC drama's final season. According to the Reporter, Bassett will play "a tough attending" (check!) with "a troubled past" (check!) who's returning to Chicago after helping a tsunami relief effort in Indonesia. The arrival of Bassett's character "promises to shake County General's ER to the core" (hat trick!). — MWM
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Eva Longoria and ex-flame Jason Biggs investigate allegations against an elementary-school principal (Rob Corddry) in the comedy Lower Learning.... Also per the Reporter, Angela Bassett and Noah Wyle have joined the Rod Lurie thriller Nothing But the Truth.... Crooner Chris Isaak is a sex- and alcohol-obsessed father in an adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' The Informers.... According to Variety, a May 1, 2009, release has been set for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, starring Hugh Jackman and perhaps also Liev Schreiber (as a young William Stryker).... After gaining 20 pounds and a beard for the role, Ryan Gosling has parted ways with Peter Jackson's take on The Lovely Bones, due to "creative differences." Mark Wahlberg steps in as the new Jack Salmon.
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Per the Hollywood Reporter, Amy Adams is in talks to play the nun caught in the middle when a Catholic-school principal (Meryl Streep) accuses a priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman) of pedophilia in Doubt, based on the Pulitzer-winning stage play.... Angela Bassett has been cast as the single mother in Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns.... David Strathairn is Elizabeth Banks' hubby in the horror remake A Tale of Two Sisters.... The young-adult novel Stargirl is being adapted for the big screen.
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Most actors would kill for a regular role on a series — particularly any piece of the criminally successful Law & Order franchise. But initially, Courtney B. Vance was skeptical when L&O creator Dick Wolf offered him the part of Assistant District Attorney Ron Carver on Law & Order: Criminal Intent (on NBC, Sundays at 9 pm/ET) back in 2001. Not only was Vance reluctant to tie himself down to one project, he didn't like the idea of leaving his wife, Angela Bassett, back in Los Angeles while he shot the show in New York City. Eventually Vance signed on, and this past January, L&O: CI reached a major milestone: 100 episodes. The residuals alone co
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