Sexy Brit Giles Matthey has booked a mysterious recurring role on the upcoming fifth season of True Blood.
The newcomer, whose sole acting credit is an episode of The Good Wife, will portray Claude, a fairy who in the Sookie Stackhouse novels is a distant cousin of the leading lady’s father. In the HBO adaptation, however, Claude will quickly set his sights on young vamp Jessica, E! Online reports.
The role of Claude was played last season, albeit briefly, by Lost‘s Neil Hopkins.
Ready for more of today’s TV dish? Well…
• And the title of Mad Men‘s much-anticipated Season 5 premiere is…. “A Little Kiss.” “I like the title to have some kind of synergy with the show so it will pique your interest,” showrunner Matt Weiner tells TV Guide Magazine. Mission accomplished, sir. Mad Men returns to AMC with new episodes on Sunday, March 25.
• Food Network’s Food Network Star will undergo some changes in its upcoming eighth season (premiering May 13), per Variety. Winners will now be chosen by the fans instead of a panel of professionals, with current judges Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis, as well as host Alton Brown, shifting duties to mentor a team of finalists.
• Eve Best has landed a guest spot on Up All Night, TV Guide Magazine reports. The Nurse Jackie vet will play a bigwig who takes ownership of Ava. Also dropping by NBC’s freshman comedy are Nat Faxton (The Cleveland Show) and Ben Falcone (Joey), playing the Brinkley’s gay neighbors.
• SOAPnet will air a four-hour, Robin/Patrick-centric marathon of General Hospital on Sunday, Feb. 12 beginning at 3/2c. And just like that, we’re more worried than ever about Robin and her seemingly doomed fate on ABC’s sole-surviving sudser.
• FOX will re-air last Sunday’s episode of American Idol this Tuesday at 8 pm.
• Bravo’s new Hills-esque docu-series, The Shahs of Sunset, is set to premiere Sunday, March 11.
• Starz’s upcoming series Da Vinci’s Demons, which reimagines the Renaissance era artist as a superhero, has cast British actor Tom Riley (Monroe) in the lead role, per Deadline.
• ABC has given the green light to 666 Park Ave, a supernatural drama pilot from Fringe writer David Wilcox. Based on the novels by the same name, the potential series centers on a haunted New York City apartment complex.
• CMT has renewed The Singing Bee for a fourth season, a fifth overall as the musical competition began its run on NBC.
