Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and Tony winner (what, couldn't score a Cleo?) Rita Moreno will guest-star on a May episode of Ugly Betty, playing (along with Six Feet Under's Justina Machado) long-lost Suarez family members. In the same ep, Rebecca Gayheart (Vanished) plays a woman Alex dated before his (her?) faked death. I see a chance here to put Aniston-Cox to shame. In other casting news, Billy Dee Williams is on board for SOAPnet's General Hospital spin-off. See Soaps News for deets.... Jane Lynch returns to Two and a Half Men on April 23.... Joey Lawrence is a serial killer on the April 25 CSI:NY.... ER alum Sherry Stringfield defends a child abductor on Shark April 26.... Joel Murray (Dharma & Greg) hangs with CBS' Men April 30 (in an eppy directed by Jon Cryer), while the hitcom's May 14 season-ender features a visit from Robert Wagner.
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Who's doing what and for whom this pilot season? Per Variety and the Hollywood Reporter:• Amber Tamblyn will star in CBS' Babylon Fields, a drama in which deceased people who are resurrected try to resume their lives. Good luck with that, gang.• Rita Moreno will play the matriarch of a rum business-owning clan in CBS' untitled drama starring Jimmy Smits.• Faith Ford is the wife of one of ABC's Carpoolers.• Laura Harris (24) has copped the fourth and final lead in ABC's Women's Murder Club.• But what about Brian? Krista Allen has come aboard NBC's Business Class, playing a rival soft-drink company rep.
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It started with a drive around Lower Manhattan last June. On the eve of the sixth season of NBC's Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Tuesdays at 9 pm/ET), star Vincent D'Onofrio told the executive producer he wanted the drama to be "more than just a straight procedural." After 100 episodes spent profiling coldhearted killers, "Vince said, 'Give me something personal to chew on. I want Detective Goren to face deep human emotions,'" says Warren Leight, the producer in the passenger seat that day.
This season, D'Onofrio got his wish. Oscar winner Rita Moreno was cast as Frances Goren, the detective's strong-willed, mentally ill mother who had been a crucial but unseen presence in Rober
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Question: It seems like every other movie I see advertised is based on a TV show, like The Dukes of Hazzard. But what about the other way around? I know there was a series based on My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but what other TV series have been based on a movie, and were any of them good?
Answer: There have been a handful of top-notch TV shows based on movies. The flop Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) was revived as Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003); Robert Altman's acerbic M*A*S*H* (1970) became the long-running M*A*S*H (1972-1983); Neil Simon
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