Guest Stars News (Page 4)

Just when you thought the Grey's Anatomy cast had gotten as big as it could - it started with nine, then grew to include Kate Walsh, Sara Ramirez and Eric Dane - TV Guide is reporting it could be adding a new member.

Elizabeth Reaser, 31, is slated to guest star on the show this season, with the door left open for her joining the cast full-time.

She has a long list of TV and film credits (which you can view here), which include a starring role on the TNT medical drama Saved.

After graduating from Juilliard School of Drama, she struggled to find work at first, but landed a part on the daytime drama Guiding Light, and since has become an accomplished film, television, and stage actress, landing numerous supporting and leading roles.

What will bring this actress to Seattle Grace, and how long will she stick around? As usual, we'll have to wait and see.

As the year draws to a close, Michael Slezak of Entertainment Weekly looks back at three of TV's most memorable TV characters... who met their maker in 2006. One of them is none other than our own Denny Duquette, the heart patient and fiancé of Izzie (Katherine Heigl), played so masterfully by Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

Here's his brief obituary:

Closet millionaire Denny Duquette died during May sweeps from complications following heart transplant surgery at Seattle Grace Hospital. He is survived by a fiancée, Isobel "Izzie" Stevens, a surgical intern who may have contributed to his death prior to attending a prom. (Don't ask.)

More importantly, though, Denny leaves behind a blueprint for how men can look hot and stubbly while stricken and attached to tubes, heart monitors, and even LVAD machines.

We miss you, Denny. We miss you.

He lives! Today's People Magazine features a picture of Uma Thurman riding off in a blaze of glory alongside co-star Jeffrey Dean Morgan on the set of her film, The Accidental Husband, in Greenwich, Conn., on Tuesday.

Morgan, as many Grey's Anatomy fans know very well, endeared himself to millions as ill-fated heart patient Denny Duquette in Season 2.

The love interest turned fiance of Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl) passed away in the season finale. Hopefully his short, but memorable time on Grey's Anatomy was just the beginning of many great things for this talented and handsome actor!

In reprising the character of Erica Hahn, a no-fills, abrasive and brilliant heart surgeon seen at the end of Season 2, Brooke Smith was one of the many highlights of last Thursday's thrilling episode, "From a Whisper to a Scream."

We're not sure how long she'll be sticking around - although we do know she will appear in this week's "Don't Stand So Close to Me" - we thought you might like to know a little about this talented actress.

Growing up in New York, in the shadow of show business as the daughter of powerful publicist Lois Smith, Brooke's big break came as Catherine Martin, the abducted young girl in The Silence of the Lambs.

Other key roles included Sonya in Louis Malle's Vanya on 42nd Street, as well as Dawn in Daniel Minahan's Series 7: The Contenders. Her TV credits include Law & Order, Six Feet Under, Heist and Crossing Jordan. Smith, 39, has more than three dozen movie and TV credits to her name.

Whether she is humming a Tom Petty tune, like her character does in Silence of the Lambs, or showing a different side of pregnancy as she did in Series 7, Smith is known for giving brooding, intense performances - as Grey's Anatomy fans have seen from the four episodes she's appeared in.

In addition to acting, she also enjoys filmmaking. She has directed a short film and a feature length documentary, and published interviews with actors Steve Buscemi, Ed Harris and Fred Ward (who also guest starred on Grey's Anatomy this year as Denny, Sr.), among others.

A medical school rival and frequent adversary (but nonetheless, respected colleague) of Preston Burke, Dr. Hahn adds yet another dynamic presence to Seattle Grace Hospital. Hopefully we get to see more of her.

In the pilot episode of NBC's Friday Night Lights, the retired coach of a winning high school football team warns his young replacement:

"With expectations like this, the only place you can go is down. That's the problem with being this good."

It is a line of dialogue that has proved haunting to the show's star, Kyle Chandler, who plays that inexperienced coach.

Chandler, who won many accolades for his performance as bomb squad captain Dylan Young on the two-part, post-Super Bowl episode of Grey's Anatomy last season, has had to fight to keep his spirits up in the face of low ratings, despite Friday Night Lights' critical praise.

Although the show's numbers were up last week -- 6.6 million viewers from 5.9 million the week before -- it still got brutally tackled by CBS' NCIS (15.9 million) and ABC's Dancing With the Stars (21.3 million). Lights' fourth episode (of nine filmed so far) airs tonight.

Chandler, using a football metaphor, is hopeful.

"I know we got a damn good team and can make it through the season," says one of Grey's Anatomy's most memorable guest stars in his Georgian drawl, which has become more pronounced while shooting Lights in Austin. "We're slowly moving the ball down the field. That's why I'll do anything to keep this show on the air."

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Looks like McVet is officially out of the picture.

A Grey's Anatomy fan has alerted us to the fact that recurring guest star Chris O'Donnell is busy filming his new movie, The Company, in Toronto, Ont. -- and sporting a markedly different look from that of Finn Dandridge.

We're hoping that Chris' baldness is part of his character (which is likely, seeing that he plays a CIA operative) and not his regular look. Some guys can pull it off, but he does shaggy batter.

The Company is a mini-series that traces CIA activities over a 40-year period, from the beginning of the Cold War through the demise of the Soviet Union. We're sad that Chris has left the world of Grey's Anatomy, but look forward to following his career as he embarks on new endeavors.

Thursday night's episode, "I Am a Tree," was a stellar one, marking the return of the Grey's Anatomy we know and love. We thought you'd like to read an excerpt from episode's writer, Krista Vernoff, who talks about it on the show's official writers blog.

Specifically, we were fascinated by the fact that the episode's memorable, brutally honest brain tumor patient, Benjamin, was played by Peter Paige (pictured below), one of Krista's best friends in life. Peter is also directing a new play written by Krista. See below!

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Finally, I have to take a moment to write to you about Benjamin. Oh my God, he broke my heart -- and not just because the actor who played him, the brilliant and multi-talented Peter Paige -- has been one of my very best friends for the last 20 years.

When they had to shock his heart on the table, I burst into tears -- and not just cause I’m four months pregnant and everything makes me cry and it almost killed me to see my Peter looking like he was maybe dying.

I love Benjamin because he makes me laugh. And he really made me think, just like he made Meredith think, about how much we should really run around all day controlling every impulse we have in favor of being "polite."

I mean, life is short, people die. If your hair conditioner isn’t working, don’t you want some to tell you? I know my Peter Paige tells me, which is why he’s my best friend.

Finally, I’m going to take this opportunity for a moment of unadulterated self-promotion. A play I wrote, "Me, My Guitar and Don Henley" is opening in New York on October 7 in a tiny little theatre in the East Village.

If you are an East Coast dwelling theatre-goer and you like my episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and you like my rambling and over-sharing, I think you will like my play, which is, coincidentally, directed by Peter Paige and includes a large amount of over-sharing.

If you don’t like my rambling and over sharing? Like, if you’re about to write to me and go, "Stupid Krista! Why do you think we CARE about you and your stupid life? GEEZ -- we wanna hear more about Meredith cause you’re stupid, you dummy" -- then you probably shouldn’t come see my play.

NOTE: If you do, here's the link.

Nine gay characters are depicted in network TV series scheduled for the 2006-07 season, a decrease from last year's 10, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) said in a press release Monday.

That's roughly 1.3 percent of 679 lead or supporting characters on the six major broadcast networks in the new season, according to the group's annual study. The figure last year was 1.4 percent.

The nine gay or lesbian characters appear on eight series, one of which, not surprisingly, is Grey's Anatomy -- a show renowned for its diversity.

Fans are probably aware that Joe, the affable proprietor and bartender at the Emerald City Bar, where the doctors often go for a drink, is a gay man. The actor who portrays him, Steven W. Bailey (above), is large and often unassuming, in contrast to how gay men are often portrayed on television.

Joe plays a small but quality role on the Seattle-based show. In one episode, the surgeons removed a tumor from his brain. On another, he attended Thanksgiving at Meredith's house with his boyfriend, Walter. We're glad to hear that he will still be around when Season Three gets underway... in less than a month!

Other series with recurring gay, lesbian or bisexual characters include Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, Big Day (all ABC), The Office (NBC), The Simpsons and The War at Home (both Fox).

Last week, we reported on the addition of child star Abigail Breslin to the list of upcoming Grey's Anatomy guest stars, as well as other spoilers.

This morning, we learned that veteran character actor Fred Ward has signed on for a guest starring role on the medical drama as well. He will appear on one of the first five episodes of the season, in what will be his first foray into prime time TV.

Ward, 63, has appeared in more than 70 movies, among them Escape From Alcatraz, Southern Comfort, The Right Stuff, Tremors and Sweet Home Alabama.

Grey's Anatomy is up for 11 Primetime Emmy Awards, including Best Drama series, which are being handed out Sunday. Will it win? Our readers seem to think so... but they may be a bit biased.

We just finished recapping the Grey's Anatomy spoilers we know going into next season thus far when we learned of another great guest star coming to Seattle Grace this fall.

Abigal Breslin, the 10-year-old star of the critically-acclaimed comedy Little Miss Sunshine, will guest star in an episode of Grey's Anatomy entitled "Sometimes a Fantasy" this season. The episode has not yet been given an air date, but it should be interesting to see who this young, rising Hollywood star portrays.

Prior to Little Miss Sunshine, Breslin's other film credits include Signs, Raising Helen, and The Princess Diaries 2 (which was written by the one and only Shonda Rhimes). Breslin joins Diahann Carroll, Chris O'Donnell and Eric Dane as notable guest stars on Grey's Anatomy's highly-anticipated Season 3, which stars Thursday, September 21 at 9 pm (just in case you forgot)!