Tuning In to TV

New additions

Eric Roberts is joining the cast of the original Starz series “Crash,” the Hollywood Reporter says.

The actor will be joined by five more new cast members - Dana Ashbrook, Linda Park, Jake McLaughlin, Tess Harper and Julie Warner - on the second season of the Lionsgate TV-produced drama.

Dennis Hopper is back, along with fellow returning cast members Ross McCall, Jocko Sims and Moran Atias.

“Crash,” Starz’s first original drama series, from the producers of the best-picture Oscar winner of the same name, has begun production on its 13-episode second season in Albuquerque, N.M. The new season is slated to debut Sept. 18.

Set in Los Angeles, the second season of “Crash” will continue to revolve around the intersecting lives of Angelenos from the city’s diverse social strata.

Mr. Roberts will play Seth, a billionaire entrepreneur who plans to give L.A. a long-desired new professional football team. Mr. Ashbrook (“Twin Peaks”) will play Jimmy, a charismatic gambler who plays fast and loose with the law. Miss Park (“Jurassic Park III”) will play Maggie, a children’s book author who writes of a joyful life but has trouble living it.

Mr. McLaughlin (“In the Valley of Elah”) will play Bo, a former high school pitching ace and shoo-in for the big leagues who was derailed by career-ending injury. Miss Harper (“No Country for Old Men”) will play his mother, Wendy, a middle-class San Fernando Valley shop owner forever reliving Bo’s glory days; and Miss Warner (“Doc Hollywood”) will play Andrea, an ambitious and manipulative right-hand woman to Seth.

Mr. Hopper reprises his role as legendary record producer Ben Cendars, just out of rehab and searching for clues surrounding a mysterious death. Mr. McCall plays former LAPD cop Kenny Battaglia, now a lowly strip mall security guard.

In the first season, Mr. Sims’ Anthony was Ben’s former driver and protegee, whom Ben turns to for help in his search. Miss Atias is Inez, who has forsaken stripping and is making serious cash working as a hostess at an exclusive men’s club.

The series production team is led by new showrunner Ira Steven Behr who executive produces alongside Paul Haggis and Bob Yari. Bobby Moresco, Ted Nunan, Don Cheadle, Mark Harris, Jorg Westercamp and Thomas Becker, all involved in the 2005 Oscar-winning movie, co-exec produce, with Glen Mazzara serving as consulting producer.

Court says ‘nyet’

A Russian court has dropped the case against adult cartoon channel 2X2 for screening the series “South Park,” which religious groups claim stirs national hatred.

The case was brought last year by the Russian Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith, Variety reports. The group said one episode - “Mr. Hankey’s Christmas Classics,” broadcast in early January - “insulted the feelings of religious believers and incited religious and national hatred.”

The group was particularly concerned about the potential impact of the series on younger viewers.

Story Continues →