Mitch goes to The Mountain

[Al Forno]

Daily Variety
March 23, 2004

Bellows 'Cooking' at CBS

Morales, Lancaster also cast in upcoming pilots

By MICHAEL SCHNEIDER

"Ally McBeal" star Gil Bellows has signed on to take "Cooking Lessons" at CBS.

Other castings Monday included Esai Morales ("NYPD Blue") in the CBS pilot
"Sudbury," as well as Sarah Lancaster ("Everwood") in the Eye's "Dr. Vegas."
Also, several names have been added to the WB projects "The Mountain" and
"Prodigy."

Bellows will play Professor Mocha in "Cooking Lessons," which also features
Paula Marshall, Lisa Lackey and Faye Dunaway. Project, from Warner Bros. TV and
the Tannenbaum Co., revolves around a food columnist and her friends.

Emily Fox is writing the pilot, to be directed by Ivan Reitman. Eric and Kim
Tannenbaum are also attached. Bellows more recently starred in the Eye's "The
Agency" as well as the NBC telepic "James Patterson's 1st to Die."

Morales, meanwhile, joins "Sudbury" as the character Gary. Warner Bros. TV
pilot, from Becky Hartman-Edwards, Denise DiNovi and Sandra Bullock, revolves
around sisters with magical powers.

Morales' other credits include "Resurrection Blvd." and "American Family."

Lancaster will appear opposite Rob Lowe and Joe Pantoliano in "Dr. Vegas" as
Veronica.

Drama, from John Herzfeld, Lawrence Bender, Mark Sennet and Kevin Brown,
revolves around a Las Vegas casino inhouse doctor. Warner Bros. TV, CBS Prods.
and Bender-Brown are behind the project.

Added to "The Mountain" are Mitch Pileggi ("The X-Files") as Colin Dowling and
Chad Everett ("Mulholland Drive") as David McBride.

Also, Elizabeth Bogush ("Titans") has joined the cast as Maxine Dowling; Tommy
Dewey ("What I Like About You") has been cast as Stephen Dowling; Alana De La
Garza ("Las Vegas") will appear as Maria; and Penn Badgley ("Do Over") will
play Sam.

"The Mountain," from Warner Bros. TV and Wonderland, is exec produced by McG,
Shaun Cassidy, Stephanie Savage, David Barrett, Gina Matthews and Grant
Scharbo.

Over on the Frog's "Prodigy," new cast members are David Newsome ("Like
Family") as Stephen Duncan; Phillip Rhys ("Nip/Tuck") as Brett; and Rudolf
Martin ("CSI") as Lucien Durand.

Meanwhile, Max Martini ("Line of Fire") has joined the cast of ABC's Warner
Bros. TV pilot "Gramercy Park" as Michael Warner. And "I'm With Her" star Teri
Polo will guest star in the pilot for NBC's untitled Marsh McCall laffer, also
from Warner Bros.