Dana Delany by Stephen Lovekin/WireImage.com
OK, so apparently it's the fourth time that's the charm. Although Dana Delany turned down the role of Desperate Housewives' Bree three times back when the prime-time soap was but a gleam in Marc Cherry's eye, she may finally plant roots on Wisteria Lane after all.Setside sources tell me that the China Beach Emmy winner is in advance talks to become a new series regular. And get this: Her character is the spitting image of Bree. According to the casting breakdown, Katherine is a "conservative Republican with an all-American wholesomeness and a mastery of passive-aggressiveness."Tell me that doesn't sound like someone we know.Unlike the new mom-to-be, however, Katherine is a former neighbor who is coming home after an absence of more than a decade, with a younger man for a husband (described as "the best-looking gynecologist in town") and a 17-year-old daughter who sounds like she could assume Andrew's mantel as the show's biggest JV troublemaker.So how do we feel about Delany's move ...
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Question: At the risk of angering the Gilmore Girls masses, I like Christopher. Is he actually going to get his chance with Lorelai this time around?
Answer: Cover your eyes, L/L fans. (Yes, he is.) David Sutcliffe was very cagey about the rekindling of Lorelai-Christopher, but I did manage to get him to confirm rumors that they'll be jetting off to Paris for a romantic rendezvous during November sweeps. But, unfortunately for Sutcliffe, they won't be going to the real Paris. He says there was a "30-second conversation" about doing a location shoot in France, but saner (i.e., budget-conscious) minds prevailed, and now "Paris is on the backlot of Universal." BTW, Sutcliffe's no dummy: He knows the majority of Gilmore fans loathe his character. "It's a 70/30 split," he ventures. "I do have my fans, but I have my detractors as well."
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Question: So? Spill! What Supernatural scoop did you gather at the CW launch party?
Answer: Jared Padalecki showed up with his arm in a sling. He told me he broke his wrist while doing a Supernatural stunt, and producers were subsequently forced to write it into the show. As a result, look for Sam to have a nasty run-in with a demon around Episode 5.
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Question: Please tell me that Ryan and Julie's meeting at the Mermaid Inn on The O.C. does not involve anything of a "Mrs. Robinson" nature.
Answer: And ruin all the fun? Never! I'll give you something else instead: Summer's never-before-seen step-monster will be back this season, and she'll cause major problems for Dr. Roberts and Julie.
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Meanwhile, NBC has already greenlit a 13-episode order for the new drama Kidnapped, starring Timothy Hutton and Dana Delany as the wealthy parents of an abducted 15-year-old boy. Will Denton plays the kid, Mykelti Williamson is his bodyguard, Jeremy Sisto is a rogue investigator, and Delroy Lindo is the lead FBI agent on the case.
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Battlestar Galactica
OK, I know it's Dana Delany, but I think that given her obsessive collecting of files and other tin-foil-hat doings, we're not dealing with the compassionate Colleen McMurphy here. But before I'm proved right (with the hostage taking) and wrong (about the conspiracy-nut angle — she was actually correct about Adama having a Cylon onboard), we get to see poor Billy proposing to Dee, only to have his heart ripped out. It obviously tears her up inside, though, since she immediately dolls up and tells Apollo all about it over a romantic dinner on Cloud Nine.
Then everything goes Die Hard, with Delany's bitter widow, Sesha
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Question: [Quoting from my Dec. 12 column]: "Pasadena's quick fade means that it probably had little to do with the genesis of Housewives, but watching it now, it clearly was ahead of its time. If it were being pitched and produced today, chances are it might actually have succeeded." So why not recast it (or keep as much as the original cast as possible — I bet Dana Delany needs the work) and put it back on the air? Fox could start with a shot-for-shot remake of the original 13 scripts, or a "reimagining" of the original scripts, or completely new scripts that keep the same premise, the same characters and the same tone. Networks pour millions into new shows, most of which fail, so why not bring back Pasadena, which failed before but would likely succeed now? I don't understand why networks only try ideas once. Memo to Fox: Resurrect Pasadena!
Answer: First off, Dana Delany (one of my all-time faves, dating back to the China Beach glory days) is back at work already, cast in the
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Question: What did you think of the Knots Landing reunion? It had very much the same setup as the Dallas one, but I think this one was a lot more successful. Maybe it's because the cast seemed to genuinely like each other. Seeing the clips really made me miss it, and as much as I love Desperate Housewives, it can't compete with Knots. As crazy as the plots could sometimes get, the characters were always believable, and I think that is what put it above the rest.
Answer: The Knots reunion was indeed better than the Dallas debacle, but then, the show itself was better than Dallas through most of their concurrent runs. Knots was always my favorite of the classic '80s prime-time soaps, and even when I was alone on that critical limb, I was never ashamed to declare myself a fan. It was the most consistent, the most sustained, the best acted and written and (within reason) the most realistic of the evening soaps, yet also deliciously campy when it chose to be. There's little question that
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Question: Some years ago I saw a Lifetime TV-movie with Dana Delany (the reason I stopped channel-surfing) in which she and her husband adopt his sister's children when the sister and her husband die on the same day, she of cancer and he in a commuter train accident. A few years later I was reading Kurt Vonnegut's TimeQuake, in which he describes adopting his sister's children under identical circumstances. He also mentioned that one of the adopted boys works in TV, so can you tell me whether this movie was written by said adopted Vonnegut child? Answer: The Dana Delany movie you saw was A Promise to Keep (1990) and is about writer Kurt Vonnegut 's adoption of his orphaned nephews. But it wasn't written by one of the children; it was based on the memoir Ange
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