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ABC Snags Katie, Launches 'Mars'

Posted on: Thursday, 17 July 2008, 06:00 CDT

By Robert Bianco and Gary Levin

As a show and a character, ABC's Eli Stone is back from the dead. And coming along to boost the long-term chances of survival: guest star Katie Holmes.

It's a reunion of sorts for Holmes and Eli producer Greg Berlanti, who worked together on Dawson's Creek. "We really wanted to bring eyeballs to the show and do anything we could to get people talking," he says. "So I went and I begged her."

Holmes is scheduled for the Oct. 21 episode as an attorney, but she won't be practicing law, Berlanti says. "She's doing a lot of work in the episode. She's in a significant part of the episode."

And, he says, like most of the characters on this fantasy drama, "she's singing and dancing."

From the network's standpoint, the value of going Holmes is fairly obvious. Says ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson: "For a show we believe had a tough loss from the strike, it helps with promotion."

So what about star Jonny Lee Miller's ex-wife, Angelina Jolie, a reporter asked -- would she ever do a guest shot? "You'd have to ask her, I'm afraid," Miller says.

More ABC news Wednesday:

*Katherine Heigl has made clear she was unhappy with her "material" on Grey's Anatomy. That's how she explained declining to be considered for an Emmy, after winning as best sup- porting actress last year. (Nominations are due today).

But McPherson rejected what some have seen as an effort to get out of her contract. He believes Heigl will be a happier camper next season: "She's absolutely staying with the show. There's an unbelievable story line for her that's essential to everything that's going on with the season."

*Life on Mars is taking on another life. A British hit about a present-day cop who finds himself back in the '70s, the show was originally adapted by Boston Legal's David E. Kelley. But he's gone, and the show has new producers and a mostly new cast, including Sopranos star Michael Imperioli, who says joining another series wasn't an easy decision.

"I definitely was picky. Something like The Sopranos that fulfills your creative drive for such a long time and challenges you was a hard act to follow. ... The idea of doing a New York detective in 1973 just really appealed to me." And returning to a life of crime? "Most of the stuff I've been doing is either a cop or a robber, but if that pays the bills, that's OK."

The short-run British original offered three choices: The cop was either insane, in a coma, or time traveling. "We are changing the mythology," says executive producer Josh Appelbaum. "For us, there are many, many more options." Indeed, he promises viewers will see a dozen possibilities by the second episode.

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Source: USA TODAY

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