New Californication poster art
July 31, 2009 by Jillian Cohan
We know Hank Moody’s headed to campus this fall, but just what kind of professor will he be? If the Californication Season 3 poster is any indication, anatomy lessons will definitely be on the syllabus. Check it out:

With Karen away in New York, Hank and Beccy will find themselves surrounded by a whole new cast in the coming season, with guest stars including Kathleen Turner (Romancing the Stone, Marley & Me), Peter Gallagher (The O.C.), Diane Farr (Numb3rs), Eva Amurri (Saved!), Embeth Davidtz (Mansfield Park), Ed Westwick (Gossip Girl) and Rick Springfield (80s rock legend).
Season 3 drops Sunday, Sept. 27th. Till then, get a load of Hank on campus in the sneak peek clip posted after the jump!
Image: Courtesy of Showtime
Former L Word star Pam Grier samples NYC foodie scene
July 30, 2009 by Jillian Cohan
After the L Word’s final season bowed this year, Pam Grier has been hanging at her Colorado farm and filming movies in New York.
While she worked on a new project co-starring Phylicia Rashad and rapper Common (we’re guessing it’s the romantic comedy Just Wright, even though she’s not on the credits list yet), Grier also took some time to sample the cuisine at the hot NYC restaurant DBGB.
As Food & Wine editor Kate Krader puts it, Grier is “a passionate foodie who keeps up with the New York restaurant scene from her Colorado horse farm” by reading New York Magazine and The New York Times. Grier also makes a mean steamed mussels dish, the recipe for which Krader shares on her blog.
Grier’s recent projects include the supernatural thriller The Invited, in which she costars with Lou Diamond Phillips. She’s also attached to Co-op of the Damned, a comedy currently in production and slated for release in 2011.
Image: Zuma Press
Brotherhood’s Annabeth Gish to star in movie adaptation of Patricia Cornwell best-seller
July 29, 2009 by Jillian Cohan
In her life after Brotherhood’s cancellation, actress Annabeth Gish has signed on for a Lifetime project based on the books of best-selling crime writer Patricia Cornwell.
Gish, shown here with her son at a celebrity carnival in LA to benefit the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, will play Special Agent Delma Sykes of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, who assists Massachusetts investigator Win Garano as he tries to solve a cold case.
The films, based on the books At Risk and The Front, also star Andie MacDowell (Sex, Lies and Videotape), Daniel Sunjata (Rescue Me), Diahann Carroll (Grey’s Anatomy) and Ashley Williams (Saving Grace). Lifetime has yet to announce a run date for the movies.
Gish’s other credits include series such as The X-Files and The West Wing, made-for-TV movies such as Murder on Her Mind, Candles on Bay Street, Stephen King’s Desperation, and True Women, co-starring Angelina Jolie. She also has appeared in films such as Mystic Pizza, Beautiful Girls and Double Jeopardy.
Image: Zuma Press
Tonight on Nurse Jackie
July 27, 2009 by Jillian Cohan
Season 1, episode 8: “Pupil”
Air date: July 27, 2009 on Showtime
As the season continues, Jackie’s having more and more trouble keeping her double life a secret. Her drug use is apparent to some, and it’s becoming harder to shield her work friends (and lover) from the details of her home life. Here’s what’s coming up tonight:
- All Saints gets swamped with patients — and the hospital is down by four nurses.
- Jackie, exhausted and impatient, gets annoyed with a new temp nurse, who is more interested in his iPhone than in helping patients. She tests him by promising a patient that the temp will pay him $50 if he doesn’t get all the help he needs in 5 minutes.
- Dr. Cooper accidentally finds out that Jackie has a kid. Unfortunately, he gossips about it to Eddie, which could prove disastrous to Jackie’s personal life.
- With the staffing situation so dire, Jackie tells Zoey she’ll have to handle patients on her own.
- Jackie warns Zoey to be wary of drug seekers, who have fooled Zoey in the past. Addicts are a “waste of time,” Jackie says (oh, the irony!)
- Jackie discovers that the temp nurse is abusing drugs. When she confronts him, he tells her it takes an addict to know an addict.

Images: Ken Regan/Showtime
Coming up on the next episode of Weeds
July 27, 2009 by Jillian Cohan
Season 5, episode 8: “A Distinctive Horn”
Air date: July 27, 2009 on Showtime
Man, have the Botwins got too much going on or what? New baby, new love interest, new business partner … and an old favorite from Agrestic in town for a visit (it’s not who you think).

Here’s what to look forward to on the next episode:
- The tension between Nancy and Esteban mounts as Pilar adds to the conflict.
- Andy, sans beard and ready to start fresh, goes to the women’s clinic and asks Dr. Kitson out on a date.
- Nancy looks to Andy for help, just as he’s focused on his new relationship with Audra.
- Lupita, absent since the family fled from Agrestic/Majestic, comes to Ren Mar to see the Botwins.
- When Celia tries to return all of her “You’re Pretty” supply, Raylene gets tough and threatens to send her back to jail if she breaks her contract with the company.
- Dean offers to help Silas and Doug get their dispensary back on track, but Celia sees an opportunity and steps in.
Image: Monty Brinton/Showtime
Highlights of the Weeds panel at Comic-Con
July 26, 2009 by Jillian Cohan
The cast of Weeds didn’t have as long to prep for their Comic-Con appearance as some of the other shows, but Hunter Parrish, Justin Kirk and Jenji Kohan got generally good reviews from the crowd for their panel last night (Kirk especially, for his whip-smart humor). Here are the highlights, based on tweets out of the event.
- The inspiration for the series came from a real pot-peddling mom Kohan knew growing up.
- Kohan thinks pot should be legalized (not that we’re shocked by that revelation).
- We only saw Nancy with a big belly in a few episodes this season because Mary-Louise Parker didn’t want to be pregnant the whole season.
- Kohan loves writing for Conrad, and she’s not opposed to bringing his character back at some point.
- The idea for the University of Andy webisodes grew out of the masturbation lessons that Andy gave Shane in Season 2.
- After Kohan learned that there are more medical marijuana dispensaries than there are Starbucks, she decided she need to have an herbal retail outlet on Weeds.
- The reason the “Little Boxes” theme song disappeared after Season 3: The Botwins don’t live in a little box anymore. No more Agrestic means no more theme song.
- When asked how many more seasons the show will run, Kohan was vague. “I try not to make long-term plans, she said.”
- The panel didn’t include sneak peek footage of next season (or of upcoming episodes), but Justin Kirk and Hunter Parrish gave fans a personal touch, staying after the session to schmooze and sign autographs. You’ll find a few fan photos after the jump.
Image: Twitpic by @bluemoondrinker
Top excerpts from the Dexter Comic-Con panel
July 25, 2009 by Jillian Cohan
Hey Dexter fans, if you couldn’t make it to San Diego this weekend, no worries: Showtime made the best of the cast’s Comic-Con panel available on YouTube. We’ve got the best clips here, including John Lithgow’s revealing comments about playing the Trinity Killer.
Check out that video now, then spool up the others after the jump to learn which other characters the cast would like to play, what it’s like working in different genres and what the stars consider their most challenging scenes.
Dexter’s Michael C. Hall out and about during Comic Con
July 25, 2009 by Jillian Cohan
We know Dexter star Michael C. Hall made lots of time for fans during his Comic-Con panel this week, and also at the after party at the Ivy Hotel (one tweet from a fan thanked the cast for being “some of the most down to earth party goers at Comic Con”).
Hall also took a break from the massive festival to take in the scene in San Diego. Here he is on Thursday, leaving a restaurant. No pics of the Mrs., co-star Jennifer Carpenter, but we’ll keep looking.



For more of the Dexter cast at Comic-Con, check out the show’s photostream.
Image: Fame Pictures
GQ names Weeds star Hunter Parrish “big man off campus”
July 24, 2009 by Jillian Cohan
In the last five seasons of Weeds, Hunter Parrish has grown from a scrawny but cute teenager into a blond MILF-bedding machine with the untarnished male beauty that one usually associates with Greek statuary.
GQ recently caught up with the 21-year-old actor, whom the magazine features in a prep-school themed photoshoot called “Big Man Off Campus.”
In the Q&A, Hunter dishes on the movie he’s filming, what went into his decision to bare his backside in that hot scene with Julie Bowen last season, and why he passed on the Zac Ephron role in High School Musical. Here are a few highlights:
- On working with Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin, who play his parents in an as-yet-untitled romantic comedy from director Nancy Meyers (The Holiday, Father of the Bride): “Meryl’s the easiest person to be with on set or in a scene, very giving and maternal” … but Baldwin was the one who got mac ‘n cheese and pizza delivered to the set when younger cast members craved comfort food.
- On his nude scene last season: He didn’t decide until the morning of the shoot — after he talk to his ‘rents. “It was nice to hear that they were supportive.”
- On the rumor he was offered the main role in HSM: He was one of five finalists. Then he had a chance at a Robin Williams movie. “I thought to myself: fly to Vancouver and meet the director for this Robin Williams movie, or stay and finish the auditions for the Disney Chanel movie? So I didn’t even go to the last audition.”
Catch more of Hunter Monday nights as Silas on Weeds.
Image: Newscom
10 details from Season 4 revealed at Dexter’s Comic-Con panel
July 23, 2009 by Jillian Cohan
The Dexter stars are off to host their party at Comic-Con, but the cast revealed some good stuff about the new season during its panel tonight.

Here are 10 tidbits from Season 4 we’ve gleaned from the slew of fans and reporters who shared deets from the event on the interwebs:
- John Lithgow’s Trinity Killer character is a complicated guy — otherwise he wouldn’t be able to get away with murder all these years. Lithgow and the writers are the only ones who know his whole backstory and plot arc (and the series creators only spilled the beans because they couldn’t get him to sign up otherwise).
- Hard core fans will be able to learn about Dex’s life — and how he developed his killing techniques — through a series of animated shorts, called Dexter Early Cuts. They’ll be online this fall.
- Dex, Rita, the kids and the new baby all move to the ‘burbs, where Dex isn’t able to sneak out as easily for kills. The ritual will remain, Michael C. Hall said, Dex just has to be more careful carrying it out because his neighbors are the drop-by types.
- After her promotion, Deb will continue her partnership with Joey Quinn and possibly tangle (in the sheets) again with Special Agent Lundy when he comes to town tracking the Trinity Killer.
- Julie Benz says Rita will remain clueless about Dex’s dark passenger — she wouldn’t believe it even if someone played the entire series for her on DVD. “I don’t think we’re equipped to see that side when its somebody you love.”
- Hall said the new baby shows no inclination toward violence … yet. “It’s possibly there, lurking.”
- Lithgow has filmed five episodes so far and has yet to work with any of the series regulars.
- Creator Clyde Phillips compared Dexter to the superhero protagonists who’re the bread and butter of Comic-Con. “There is a super hero aspect to what Dexter is … it’s not a conscious decision, but its a natural evolution about what we’re doing.”
- The entire cast would love to trade places with Masuka.
- Benz plans to get Lithgow drunk at tonight’s party, hoping he’ll spill the beans about the jaw-dropping ending of Season 4
Catch all the latest party arrivals on Dexter’s photo stream from Comic-Con.
Sources: Twitter, EW, Zap2It, Hollywood Reporter



