Scoop! Patinkin's Minds Successor Found?

• Jul 20, 2007 05:37 AM ET
• by Michael Ausiello

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 initially, this would be much easier to deal with. He essentially just slapped us in the face."

" Did anyone see it coming? "We saw it coming in 1995 when he did it on Chicago Hope. Mandy's a volatile personality. He had his good days and he had his bad days. Sometimes the content of what we did would affect him more some days than others. Everybody thought he got the breath of fresh air he needed with the hiatus. I saw him in Monte Carlo about four, five weeks ago, and I said, 'I'll see you on [July] 9.' And he said, "Yep.'"

" Any lessons to be learned from this? "I'm hoping Mandy learns a lesson from his actions. He did it once, OK. This one's going to sting a little bit. At least it should sting. Bottom line is, he didn't show up to work - with no warning. He didn't tell anybody."

" On his recent legal troubles: "My problem is I always liked fast cars. The mistake I made was I was driving too fast. As far as any alcohol-related charges, they were all dropped. The lesson that I learned was, I've got to slow down."

" On those infamous nudie pics: "You mean of me frolicking on the beach? You know, the worst part of that whole thing for me was the frolicking, because, to me, it sounds like I was skipping or something like that. Look, I had no problems with [the photos]. What I have a problem with is their making such an issue out of me being gay. I'll say it right now: I'm not gay. Not even a little bit. I love women. Women are god's greatest creation. But I have no problems with people who are gay. My godfather was gay; he died of AIDS. I have dear friends that are gay. I'm very straight. The article said I got "caught." I didn't get caught. I willingly went to Hawaii. I willingly went to Maui, with two girlfriends of mine. I'm a single man. I had two girlfriends out there, and we wanted to go skinny-dipping."

" Was he, um, happy with those pics? "Lemme just say this: Thank god the water was fairly warm. That's all I'm going to say. It wasn't my best day. But it wasn't an awful day."

Told ya he was chatty!