CSI Plans for Grissom's "Liev" of Absence

This just in from CBS, and as first spilled here in the Ausiello Report by my barely able-to-control-himself buddy:"Tony Award-winning actor Liev Schreiber joins the cast of CSI in his first appearance in a broadcast television series, playing the recurring role of a seasoned CSI who has established a strong reputation in various police departments across the country before joining the veteran team at the Las Vegas Crime Lab.""I think he's one of the finest actors of his generation," exec producer Carol Mendelsohn says in the press release, noting that CSI first approached Schreiber early this summer. "It was a long shot — he really doesn't do television — but he was patient and I think amused, as we promised that we'd create a character he couldn't refuse to play. [We] got a wonderful, complex character as a result." Adds Schreiber: "I am a fan [of CSI], how could I say no?" Schreiber (The Manchurian Candidate, RKO 281) first appears in Episode 12, to air in January 2007.