Mandy Patinkin by Michael Desmond/Touchstone Television
It's official. Doris Roberts and I are the only two remaining showbiz "names" that haven't been approached about replacing Mandy Patinkin on Criminal Minds.Early on, you'll recall, Oscar winner Geena Davis was considered to be the front-runner to get the job. But she took a pass, according to my spy, because she wasn't keen on "the nature of the show." (Funny — she didn't seem to have a problem with "the nature" of the Geena Davis Show, and that was god-awful.) Michael Keaton nixed the gig, too, presumably because he wasn't ready to do TV full-time.And they're just the tip of the iceberg. To give you some idea of just how wide a net the show's producers are casting, I've listed some celebs that are under consideration below, with a few key letters asterisked out to protect their anonymity. Of course, if Shemar Moore wants to blab their identities, too, who am I to shush him?Among the stars who've been approached and took a pass:**b ***k*n*J*** **t**owSi****ne* **av*r Among the ...
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Geena Davis by Steve Granitz/WireImage.com
The search for Mandy Patinkin's replacement on Criminal Minds may be over.At CBS' press-tour soiree this evening, Minds man Shemar Moore essentially confirmed what I've been hearing all day: Geena Davis has emerged as the front-runner to succeed Patinkin. Moore, who was in a very chatty mood, also name-dropped Michael Keaton as a possible successor, but sources tell me that Keaton has officially passed. What else did Moore have to say? Loads. • On Patinkin's abrupt exit: "I don't like that he did this the way he did this. I don't. I don't think it's right. He left us hanging a little bit... no warning, no nothing. We all showed up to work on Day 1, and he didn't. And we've been scrambling. But we're going to be all right without him. I just feel like he needs to take responsibility for his actions… [and] just acknowledge us, because it's an ensemble, it's a team.... We just want the courtesy and the respect that we deserve. And we felt like if he had given us that initial...
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Mandy Patinkin by Nigel Parry/WireImage.com
As first teased in Michael Ausiello's TCA press tour diary, CBS and Criminal Minds lead Mandy Patinkin have agreed to disagree and thus part ways effective immediately, meaning that fans of the hit crime drama have seen the last of Jason Gideon. "Mandy Patinkin asked to be released from his role on Criminal Minds. We have honored this request, which was not in any way connected to contract renegotiations or salary issues," says a statement from CBS Paramount Network Television and ABC Studios (which produces Minds). "His departure... will be explained to audiences in an episode to be filmed in the near future and broadcast early next season. We thank Mandy for helping to make Criminal Minds a strong and successful series, and we wish him the best in his future endeavors. A new character will be added to the series for next season."A statement issued on behalf of Patinkin, in turn, reads: "Due to creative differences, Mandy has asked not to return to Criminal Minds this season. Mandy...
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Mandy Patinkin in Criminal Minds by Cliff Lipson/CBS
This just in: Sources confirm that Mandy Patinkin has agreed to return to Criminal Minds for one episode this fall to wrap up his story.The news comes just hours after Minds exec producer Ed Bernero posted this blistering message on the show's No. 1 fansite regarding Patinkin's vanishing act:"There have been several reports recently in the media about the Mandy Patinkin situation on Criminal Minds. Firstly, they are true — Mr. Patinkin has left the show. What's troubling to us, though, is that the reports tend to suggest or hint that the producers, the studios or CBS have something to do with what has happened. Phrases like 'maybe cooler heads will prevail... ' and the like have been used. Let me make this clear: This is not about a contract renegotiation, this is not about money, this is not about something Mr. Patinkin asked for that wasn't provided — in fact, everyone involved in the show has for two years bent over backward to give him anything he wanted. Mr. Patinkin ...
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Greetings from the loverly Beverly Hills Hilton, site of the 2007 Television Critics Assoc. Press Tour! My annual two-week orgy of scoop, swag and snacks got off to a inauspicious start yesterday when our 737 was forced to return to the gate at JFK not once, but twice. The first time to let two passengers off the plane, and the second time – this one coming just seconds before liftoff – to fix a mechanical problem. We finally made it to LAX, only to find another jet parked at our gate – pushing our delay well past the two hour mark. The moral of this story? Never travel on Friday the 13th. My frown was quickly turned upside down when I discovered two cases of Diet Snapple waiting for me in my room at the Hilton, a gift from my good friends over at Judge David Young, a new syndicated court show debuting this fall! (Check local listings.) Don't let this discourage you from sending your own Snapple care packages. I'll have those two cases finished off by tomorrow at the...
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Mandy Patinkin by Nigel Parry/CBS
Another summer, another CBS actor forgets to set his/her alarm. Multiple sources confirm that Mandy Patinkin is being written out of the season premiere of Criminal Minds after he failed to report to work. Reps for the show declined comment, but it's safe to assume that the actor/chanteuse is embroiled in some kind of nasty contract standoff with the network. (The work stoppage was first reported by the sleuths over at E! Online.)Coincidentally, Minds just put out a casting call for a character that fits Patinkin's description. What odd timing, eh? When are these CBS stars going to learn? I mean, Les Moonves fired Valerie Harper from a show called Valerie! Much more to come on this fast-moving story. In the meantime, would you still watch a Patinkin-less Minds? Yes, ***m*s ***s**, we know you would, but what about the rest of ya? Sound off below!
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Mandy Patinkin and Keith Carradine, Criminal Minds
In the pantheon of Criminal Minds madmen, Frank (Keith Carradine) deserves a special spot in hell. The twisted sexual sadist is said to have tortured and killed more than 100 people in the back of his RV over the course of 30 years. To add insult to fatality, he's the only suspect the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit ever let escape. "He is absolutely the worst. The most psychotic. The most compassionless," says exec producer Edward Allen Bernero. A sort of Hannibal Lecter on steroids. Or, as Mandy Patinkin, who plays BAU senior agent Gideon, puts it, "the Times Square of horror."
Chillingly, he's also based on a real person. While interviewing actual FBI profilers, Bernero and coexec
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The best thing I saw on Super Bowl Sunday? Pan’s Labyrinth. But that’s a different story (or a different column). Anything to get out of doors (even in the frigid cold) to skip the first few hours of pre-Super Bowl hype.The worst thing I saw on Super Bowl Sunday? A typically unpleasant, thoroughly predictable episode of Criminal Minds that followed the big game. More on that later.In between, we had a game played in torrential rain that had plenty of reversals (how slippery was that football, anyway?) and was plenty exciting, especially to a former Indiana resident and current Peyton Manning fan. The buzz about Super Bowls is that this is usually the one night of the year when you actually watch the ads and zip your TiVo through the game. This year, that would have been a mistake.I lost count of the number of moronic Bud Light ads I had to sit through just to get to the two memorable ads for classic Budweiser. As usual, there was a classy one involving Clydesdales, this ye...
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Paget Brewster, Criminal Minds
As Gideon's squad of serial crime fighters adds sexy Paget Brewster to their ranks, TV Guide debriefs the former Mrs. Huff on what exactly her Criminal Minds (Wednesdays at 9 pm/ET) mission entails. (Psst... it apparently involves "fancy footwork" with the boss.)
TV Guide: What convinced you to sign up for Criminal Minds?Paget Brewster: I was in New Orleans shooting a movie, and I called my agent and said, "I've been doing my laundry in hotel bathtubs for three months, and I'm lonely. I haven't seen my family or friends. I want to be on a TV show — I want to be home at five." He called a week later and said, "Would you meet with Criminal Minds?"
TV Guide: So it must have gone well.B
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Criminal Minds' Mandy Patinkin
Call it Stealth Television. Last season, CBS' Criminal Minds (Wednesdays at 9 pm/ET) simmered just below pop culture's boiling point. Now a solid hit, the show's true-to-life stories of the FBI's hunt for serial killers, rapists, arsonists and terrorists frighten — and fascinate — millions of loyal fans. Many of whom may be harboring such questions as:
Is there a real Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) at the FBI? Yes, it is considered an elite team of agent profilers. "Of the 12,000 FBI agents," says star Mandy Patinkin, "only 26 are in the BAU."
What led series creator Ed Bernero to want to write about this subject? He's a former Chicago cop whose 10 years
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