Regina King by Rebecca Sapp/WireImage.com
John Wells – the mighty force behind The West Wing and ER – has cast his new LAPD project with Regina King, Kevin Alejandro and Michael McGrady for NBC.According to The Hollywood Reporter, King will play Lydia, a smart, sympathetic detective in the Hollywood division.Alejandro will play Nate, a happily married detective with several kids, and McGrady will play a detective who deals primarily with gang-related crimes and is obsessed with his family's safety. All that's missing is the wise-cracking "goofball" character, but it's still early in the casting process. What's Justin Long up to these days?And for all you The O.C. fans out there, stay tuned, because Benjamin McKenzie is also in talks to star in LAPD. Ladies, start your fangirl engines! — Erin FoxRelated• Wells Finds LAPD Arresting
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NFL quarterback Vince Young, Framed
Over the last few weeks, the Independent Film Channel and Reebok have teamed up to present a nexus of actors and athletes called Framed. In each episode, a Hollywood personality goes behind the camera to direct a short film starring a larger-than-life figure from the world of sports. In tonight's episode (10:30 pm/ET), actress Regina King frames NFL quarterback Vince Young. TVGuide.com spoke with the heralded Tennessee Titans signal caller about his acting debut and letting cameras catch his off-the-field life in his hometown of Houston.
TVGuide.com: What about the Framed series interested you?Vince Young: Basically, everybody knows the athlete Vince Young, but I want more people to understand me as a person. Reebok understands who I am and they also want fans to get to know the players a little bit more. Bu
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Per Variety, a contemporized, all-African-American remake of Lawrence Kasdan's The Big Chill is in the works, with Regina King already in the ensemble.... Per the Reporter, Jennifer Aniston will produce and possibly star in Goree Girls, a 1940s-set musical about singing inmates in a women's prison.... William Hurt has joined the Edward Norton-fronted Incredible Hulk, playing Gen. Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, the father of Dr. Banner's love interest/a man committed to capturing the big green guy.... Rachel Weisz is the dead girl's mother in Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Lovely Bones.
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Kelli Williams, Murder on Pleasant Drive
With a title like Murder on Pleasant Drive, you can just tell that this Lifetime movie (premiering tonight at 9 pm/ET) is going to delve into something twisted. Based on a harrowing true story, Murder stars The Practice's Kelli Williams as Deanna Whelen, a single mom whose own mother mysteriously vanishes from her New Jersey home shortly after she begins dating a man named — get this — John Smith (
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Per the Hollywood Reporter, Madeleine Stowe has scored the lead in the Fox drama Southern Comfort, playing a woman who takes over her mobster husband's biz when he gets sent to prison.... Jonathan Silverman has joined the ABC comedy In Case of Emergency.... Christine Taylor has been cast in the ABC comedy 52 Fights.... Adam Baldwin is joining Taye Diggs in ABC's Day Break.... Regina King is in talks to join Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon and Kelli Williams in ABC's legal comedy Women in Law.... Tia Mowry has replaced Cynthia Addai-Robinson in CW's Girlfriends spin-off, The Game.... and speaking of the new network, CW has given its first pilot order to Runaway, a drama from Sex and the City creator Darren Star.
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[Editor's Note: The Teen Choice Awards were rebroadcast on Wednesday night on the TV Guide Channel.] I have to say right away, our TV Guide Channel kicked butt on the official red carpet two-hour preshow, and I'd state this even if I didn't work here. Kimberly Caldwell, Rosanna Tavarez and Chris Booker were awesome hosts and set the proper tone for Fox's awards show. Speaking of which…8:00 pm Gwen Stefani opens the show with her No. 1 hit "Hollaback Girl." Can I stress how much I love the original, unedited version and how much I detest the edited version? I know it's network TV, but why perform the song if it has to be edited? Sing "Rich Girl" or something else. All those "shhh" sounds go right through me. OK — got that off my chest.8:06 I said this about the MTV Movie Awards and I'll say it here. How does Andy Dick continue to get booked on these awards each year? So. Not. Funny.8:12 Jim Car
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From Jerry Maguire to Daddy Day Care, Regina King has played the eternally patient wife/mother role a heck of a lot. But in her latest film, Ray, the 33-year-old actress finally gets the chance to take a walk on the wild side.
King plays Margie Hendricks, a backup singer for Ray Charles (played by Jamie Foxx) who also happened to be Charles' longtime mistress. Jealous, catty and conniving, Margie is light-years away from the parts King normally plays. "When I auditioned, they thought I was reading for Della [Charles' wife]. And I'm like, 'Do I have to read for Della?' They said, 'No, who do you want to read?' and I told them, 'Margie, of course!'"
"Don't get me wrong," King says. "I would not change my résumé for anything. But to have the opportunity not to play the wife was terrific. Every day I was looking forward to going to work just to be the bad girl."
King will cont
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