Hart Bochner plays a creatively-blocked writer and Debra Messing's new love interest (or one of a few, wink, wink) this season on The Starter Wife. Erin Fox had a chance to chat with Hart about his Bohemian character who starts a writing workshop to get his own creative juices flowing, and ends up meeting Molly (Messing) – and sparks fly.
Find out about Hart's character and more after the jump!
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Debra Messing, The Starter Wife
The Starter Wife 9 pm/ET USA New
After last summer's successful miniseries, Debra Messing is back in the role of discarded Hollywood housewife Molly Kagan, whose happy ending didn't quite stick.
Degrassi: The Next Generation 8 pm/ET The N New
NUMB3RS 10 pm/ET CBS New
South of Nowhere 9 pm/ET The N New
American Idol Rewind 8 pm/ET TV Guide Network Repeat
Handy Manny 9 am/ET Disney New
Get the full details on tonight's shows after the jump.
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Debra Messing by Kelsey McNeal/USA Network Photo
USA Network at Sunday's TCA sessions revealed an Oct. 10 premiere date for Debra Messing's The Starter Wife, a full-on series based on the mini (based on the book). The cabler also announced that In Plain Sight has been picked up for a second season.USA has also greenlit a trio of pilots: Covert Affairs, about a CIA linguist partnered with an ex-boyfriend; Operating Instructions, concerning a female inner-city surgeon home from Iraq; and Stiffs, in which a morgue employee and his medical examiner brother solve homicides. — Matt Mitovich
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Hart Bochner by Melinda Dahl/ WireImage.com
The Starter Wife, which returns as a USA Network series this October, has added a slew of new faces. Per Variety, Hart Bochner has been cast as Zach, a writing teacher who becomes a new love interest for Debra Messing's Molly. As previously reported, David Alan Basche (Lipstick Jungle) is replacing Peter Jacobson (House) as Molly's ex-husband, Kenny, while Danielle Nicolet (3rd Rock from the Sun) is Mol's new gal pal and Brielle Barbusca takes over as daughter Jaden.Judy Davis, Chris Diamantopoulos and Criminal Minds' Joe Mantegna (in a special guest appearance) will reprise their roles from the miniseries. — Matt MitovichRelated:• Starter Wife Gets a New Ex-Husband • Starter Wife Is Restarted as a Series
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Since Peter Jacobson is busy playing House , Debra Messing's Starter Wife will get a new ex when the mini returns as a USA Network series in October. David Alan Basche, who most recently had a run NBC's Lipstick Jungle , is taking over the role of Kenny Kagan, the Hollywood mogul Messing's character once was wed to, says the Reporter. — MWM
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The Starter Wife by Matthew Rolston/USA Network Photo
USA has renewed The Starter Wife, thus enlightening me to the fact that miniseries even could be renewed. Debra Messing will return in the title role.... Per Reuters, on Nov. 14, the last in Garth Brooks' string of nine sold-out pre-retirement concerts will be simulcast from the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri, to over 300 movie theaters.... Jenna Elfman and, like, half the creative team behind Dharma & Greg are suing 20th Century Fox for $15 million they claim they are owed in profit-participation payments.Wednesday's Today's News was written by Ben Katner.
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Question: First, thanks for your insight on all things TV. I have you to thank for many of my favorites (FNL, VM, BSG), and I was curious about the new HBO series True Blood. When I heard that Alan Ball was picking up the reins of this show, I bought the first book in the Charlaine Harris Southern Vampire series and was immediately smitten. She creates a very fun alternate world full of fascinating characters that could make for really great TV. I was further interested when it was announced that Anna Paquin was cast in the lead, though less so about Stephen Moyer (who was far from intriguing in The Starter Wife). Do you have any thoughts on True Blood?
Answer: I'm curious about this show, too, but I won't have any real thoughts to share until I actually see it. I haven't done my homework yet, but I'd like to read at least one of these books (reading, what a thought) before sinking my teeth — sorry — into the adaptation. I love the idea that HBO is getting back into the genre of the
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Frederic Fekkai and Debra Messing by John Shearer/WireImage.com
Debra Messing took a break from her prepping for Sunday night's Emmy Awards to toast the opening of Frederic Fekkai's new salon and celebrate The Starter Wife's 10 nominations. She came straight to the Gersh Agency party from Kate Somerville's Emmy Gifting Suite where she had received an "Ultimate Kate facial." In honor of her nomination she wore a dress from The Starter Wife. For the Will & Grace alumna, Emmy prepping is almost like a second job. "Oh my goodness, it's head-to-toe prepping. It's facials, hair cut, hair color, eyebrow plucking, manicure, pedicure and of course the dress fittings and picking out jewelry shoes and bag. This is all today, tomorrow and Sunday."Also at the Gersh bash, Grey's Anatomy's T.R. Knight said he'll probably spend Emmy morning picking up his dogs feces, as that's all he's been doing lately. When asked if the other cast members are happy for each other he joked, "We all hate each other by now." Grey's McSteamy Eric Dane and wife Rebecca Gayhear...
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David Milch by Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com
• Sources tell Variety that for his next trick, David Milch (Deadwood, the deader wood John from Cincinnati) is working with former NYPD Blue exec producer Bill Clark to develop a drama about a Vietnam vet who joins the New York City police force circa 1970s. • Hot off the success of The Starter Wife, Lifetime is teaming with author Gigi Levangie Grazer on a four-hour miniseries adaptation of Maneater, Grazer's novel about a woman who bleeps her way to the top in Beverly Hills.• Fox has ordered seven episodes of Nothing But the Truth, a "game show" (my quotation marks) in which contestants are strapped to a lie detector in front of friends and family and asked 21 intensely personal questions. You may know the show as "Thanksgiving."
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Jeffrey Donovan in Burn Notice by Dan Littlejohn/USA Network Photo
• Thursday's commercial-free premiere of Burn Notice dealt USA Network four million viewers, and was basic cable's top-rated show of the night in key demos. That said, it fell shy of such USA series debuts as The 4400 (6.2 mil) and Dead Zone (4.2 mil).• Burn Notice's lead-in, the final installment of The Starter Wife, drew 3.1 mil, a 25 percent drop from the mini's average.• Not too many folks cared to say Hey Paula. The reality series' back-to-back episodes premiered to 607,000 viewers, well shy of, say, Bravo's Top Design (1.76 mil) or even Being Bobby Brown (1.1 mil).• Last Tuesday's BET Awards (6.4 mil) gave the 7-year-old kudoscast its third-largest audience to date.
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