Channel Surfing: Alexis Bledel Scrubs in for "ER," Cassidy and McQueen Book Roles at CW, TARDIS to Get Makeover, "Day One" Nabs Four, and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

Former Gilmore Girls star Alexis Bledel will guest star in NBC's two-hour series finale of ER, where she will play a new intern named Julie Wise in the finale, which focuses on a 24 hour-long shift at County General Hospital. Casting marks Bledel's first major television appearance since the end of Gilmore Girls on the CW. Elsewhere, former Grey's Anatomy cast member Melissa George has been cast as the female lead in CBS' untitled US Attorney drama pilot from writer/executive producer Frank Military; George will play Susan, an ADA and ex-wife of the section chief (Michael Lange). (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Katie Cassidy (Supernatural) has been cast in CW's drama pilot Melrose Place, an update of the 1990s soap where she will play Ella Flynn, "an up-and-coming publicist with a big career ahead of her." Steven R. McQueen (Everwood), meanwhile, has been cast as one of the leads in Kevin Williamson's supernatural drama pilot Vampire Diaries, based on the Alloy series of novels. McQueen will play Jeremy, the younger brother of Elena, a teenage girl who finds herself caught between two vampiric brothers. (Variety, Hollywood Reporter)

Kim Raver (Lipstick Jungle) has been cast in drama pilot Inside the Box, where she will play an ambitious reporter who was once heralded as the next Diane Sawyer. More pilot casting announcements: Alyssa Milano (Single with Parents) will star in ABC's untitled Ricky Blitt comedy pilot; Ty Burrell (Back to You) will head to suburbia for ABC comedy pilot My American Family, John Patrick Amedori (Gossip Girl), Robert Wisdom (The Wire), and Jay Paulson (October Road) will star in ABC supernatural drama pilot Happy Town; Sharon Leal (Private Practice) and Brooklyn Sudano (My Wife and Kids) have been cast in ABC drama pilot Limelight; and Leah Pipes (Life is Wild) has joined the cast of the untitled Dave Hemingson legal drama pilot at ABC. Whew. (Hollywood Reporter)

David Lyons (ER), Carly Pope (24), Adam Campbell (Harper's Island), and Thekla Reuten (Sleeper Cell) have been cast in NBC sci-fi drama pilot Day One, from writer/executive producer Jesse Alexander (Heroes). [Editor's note: very curious to see just what Reuten does with the crucial role of Lynne, whom I am already in love with after reading the pilot script.] (Hollywood Reporter)

Anjelica Huston will reprise her role as Cynthia Keener later this season on Medium; she'll also be joined by guest star Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development) who will appear in an episode slated to air in May. Other casting tidbits: Ed Asner will guest star in CSI: Miami in April and Christa Miller (Scrubs) has joined the cast of ABC comedy pilot Cougar Town, opposite Courteney Cox. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

David S. Rosenthal (Gilmore Girls) has been named executive producer/showrunner on ABC comedy pilot Canned, lifting the showrunner-contingency on the project. Rosenthal will perform executive producer duties alongside Peter Traugott and pilot writer Kevin Etten. Elsewhere, Pamela Fryman (How I Met Your Mother) will direct CBS comedy pilot Accidentally on Purpose, which stars Jenna Elfman. (Hollywood Reporter)

The New York Times investigates the intriguing character actors on the latest season of FX's Damages, including Darrell Hammond, Philip Bosco, Mario Van Peebles, Tom Aldredge, and Tom Noonan, who plays dogged Detective Huntley. “I don’t think about character or story very much,” said Noonan. “I walk away if those discussions come up on the set. Not rudely, not if someone’s talking directly to me. But back story, motivation — those words don’t mean much to me." (New York Times)

Tonight's episode of CSI: Miami will feature an embrace between Calleigh Duquesne (Emily Procter) and Eric Delko (Adam Rodriguez), after seven seasons of tension, which results in the duo embarking on a secret relationship that threatens to complicate their lives--both personal and professional--as well as that of their boss, Horatio Caine (David Caruso). "It's a huge addition to the show," said Rodriguez. "The audience waited a long time to see this, and for them to finally get the payoff, I hope they're enjoying it as much as we are." (USA Today)

The Sarah Silverman Program executive producers Sarah Silverman, Dan Sterling, and Rob Schrab have threatened to quit after they learned that Comedy Central wanted them to cut their budget by more then 20 percent, despite the fact that the series still has yet to receive an official third season pickup. (Hollywood Reporter)

Doctor Who's TARDIS is set to get a makeover when Matt Smith assumes the mantle of the Doctor beginning in 2010. Look for both the interior and exterior of the time-traveling space craft to get a vastly different look for Season Five, as the series moves into high-definition for the first time. (Digital Spy)

CBS has shot a pilot for reality competition series America's Strongest American, in which everyday Americans will complete in strength challenges. The project, hosted by Ben Bailey and Michelle Merkin, is executive produced by Embassy Row's Michael Davies and Barry Frank. (Hollywood Reporter)

No Doubt will appear in the May 11th episode of Gossip Girl, where they will perform Adam and the Ants song "Stand and Deliver." That episode is slated to be the backdoor pilot for the unnamed Gossip Girl spin-off starring Brittany Snow and Krysten Ritter, set in 1980s San Fernando Valley. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

"Bruno" Sashays to Universal to the Tune of $42.5 Million

Universal has reportedly pay $42.5 million to win the heated bidding war for worldwide rights to Bruno, Sacha Baron Cohen's follow-up to Borat, which opens Friday.

According to reports, Universal's price (which could have bought the entirety of Staines, Ali G's hometown) managed to edge out competition from other interested studios including Dreamworks, Sony, Warner Bros., and 20th Century Fox, and will cover the film's estimated budget, said to be in the range of $20-25 million.

For those of you not familiar with Bruno, he's another character played by the uber-talented Sacha Baron Cohen (Da Ali G Show): a flamboyant Austrian fashionista/reporter who jet sets between the runway shows of New York (watch out, Tim Gunn), the nightclubs of Miami (that goes for you too, Uli) and, um, the American Deep South, usually annoying the hell out of anyone he meets and managing to nearly get himself killed. The film, like its predecessor Borat, will showcase the Bruno character, who was introduced on HBO and Channel 4's Da Ali G Show.

It's extremely disconcerting that Universal would pony out this kind of dosh, given that Cohen's Borat doesn't even open theatrically until this week. (Sidebar: I attended a screening of Borat last week and have to say that for the first 3/4 of the film, my face hurt from laughing so much, but in the end it does go way too far overboard and ends up collapsing on itself with a painfully extended sequence. You'll know which one I mean when you see it.)

I worry for the fate such an expensive endeavor, especially when Bruno is a feature adaptation of an even more culty TV series character than Borat that is light-years away from attaining the kind of awareness that the Kazahk reporter had. Especially since 20th Century Fox, which is distributing Borat, scaled back that very theatrical release to a mere 800 screens, due to concerns that "the movie wasn't registering high enough in awareness tracking," according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Ouch. Or, as Bruno himself might say, "Ich don't think so."

Has Universal made a shrewd investment in a future mega-hit... or overpaid for what will be a whimper instead of a bang? Only time will tell. In the mean time, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan hits theatres nationwide this Friday.