Kathryn Morris UK

It’s late in the month and the picture above is not of Kathryn so that can only mean one thing: it’s the latest CCCC-up, where KM UK keeps track of the on-going careers of the other Cold Case cast members.

I don’t follow Law & Order: SVU so I only happened to stumble on the big news about the show and Danny Pino (Scotty Valens on CC) the other day.  It was a bit of a shock to read.  Apparently Danny will not be returning to the show when the 17th season starts in the autumn.  He’s done 4 years as Detective Nick Amaro, joining the long running drama in 2011, after Cold Case finished.  I get the impression Amaro was not written out in the finale, the decision was probably taken after filming was completed.  They will have to some how explain the character’s absence in the early new episodes though.  It’s still very early days but there is no sign of Danny taking on other projects yet.

Tracie Thoms (Kat Miller on CC) is, as always, racking up those star-miles with at least two new projects on the go.  Wet Hot American Summer: First Day Of Camp is a short comedy series for Netflix.  8 episodes is short by US sitcoms standards but it is more than many British shows have.  The cast is impressive in both width and depth.  Including a list of even half the ones you’ve definitely heard of could overwhelm this post.  How do Bradley Cooper, Kristen Wiig, Elizabeth Banks, Molly Shannon, Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, Christopher Meloni, and David Hyde Pierce sound?  And there are soooo many more, and most of them seem to be in all the episodes too.  It’s going to have to be a jam-packed 30 minutes.  But what’s it about?  The title certainly makes it sound an American Pie-style comedy about the American institution that is the summer camp.  The addition of the colon punctuation and subtitle to the name also gives away that this is a sequel.  The original, with very much the same cast, was a film from 2001.  The film is due for release in late July.  The second string to Tracie’s bow is a 2016 film called Border Crossing.  Josh Charles (The Goodwife and WHAS:FDOC I’ve just mentioned) and Julia Stiles (The Bourne Ultimatum).  It’s about a psychologist who rescues a drowning man he knows from a past criminal case he worked on.  Tracie’s role is not clear at this time.

There’s no new news on new projects for John Finn (John Stillman on CC) but there is some almost-news for a recent project of his.  The TV series/film An Bronntanas; which saw John star as a police office investigating a case involving coast guards, drugs and dead body; received three film nominations in the recent Irish Film & Television Academy Awards.  If you don’t want to know the results before the Irish TV broadcast of the event on Monday look away now.  It didn’t win anything.

Is it really a month since the previous CCCC-up?  Well, yes and no.  A quick extra update in early October means it is only 3 weeks.  This, however, is the real deal.  Welcome to the proper October 2014 round-up of news about the cast members of Cold Case that aren’t Kathryn.

We’ll start off with the basis for that special additional entry: John Finn (Lt. Stillman in CC).  The Irish drama An Bronntanas (aka The Gift) débuted on the TG4 network last week.  Hopefully those of you that wanted to see it got to do so.  It was a good week for John fans as he made a surprise guest appearance on the hit new US drama series Madam Secretary the previous Sunday.  The show stars Teà Leoni (Bad Boys) as Elizabeth McCord, the US Secretary of State of the USA.  Hilary Clinton held the position a few years ago.  It is in many ways the second most powerful job after President.  We’re used to seeing John as the strong silent type that you know will ultimately do the right thing, even if it means taking one for team.  He is often cast in a roles that involve wearing the uniform of a senior member of the armed forces such as a General on shows like NCIS.  For Madam Secretary though, he was different.  As US peace envoy Allen Bollings, John got to play a more ambiguous character.  He still had that air of a military man and you would think as a negotiator of peace deals there would be little scope for a bad side to emerge.  But it did.  Allen did not do as instructed by Secretary McCord and was not exactly brokering peace.  Allen had is own agenda.  John does quietly angry very well.  Hostilities nearly broke out with the middle east as a result.

I don’t watch Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (aka SVU), the long running drama series that Danny Pino (Scotty Valens in CC) joined after Cold Case ended, so I can only go by what I’ve read.  It seems that in the early stages of the current 16th season Danny’s Det. Nick Amaro has been getting amorous with Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish).  Scotty finally bagged the blonde cop that many thought he should have done many years ago 😉  Speaking of Amaro, he’s going to be branching out from New York-set SVU with a guest appearance in the new-ish show by SVU creator Dick Wolf.  The title Chicago P.D. probably tells you most of what you need to know about the programme that recently started its second season in the US.  Danny/Nick is down for episode 7 which is due to air on November 12th.  Scotty was the only CC character to cross-over into another show with a less than satisfying guest role in CSI: New York.

As usual we could write a book, or at least a lengthy post, just about Tracie Thoms (Kat Miller in CC) and her work since our last CCCC-up.  The play Lost Lake, which is due to première on the 11th of November at the Manhattan Theatre Club, New York, has been in previews for the past few days.  Lost Lake stars John Hawkes (The Sessions) and Tracie.  She’s a mother who has taken her children away on a much needed holiday.  He’s the owner of the the cabin by the lake they stay in.  In addition to all that Tracie is due to star, as the lead no less, in a new web series currently under development called Send Me.  It’s a drama about a university lecturer (Tracie) that has the power to send people back in time to see the slave trade in action.  As is often the case these days funding is being sort for the project from the general public.  You can find more details and a link to their Indiegogo page on the website.  Coming up in December (January in the UK) is the release of a new movie adaptation of the musical Annie.  In the past few days details of the soundtrack have been revealed.  Tracie is not specifically listed as a singer but there’s little doubt she’ll be making her presence felt aurally in the larger ensemble pieces.  Whilst most of the songs are sung by cast members Quvenzhané Wallis, Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, Bobby Cannavale, and Rose Byrne; Australian pop/jazz singer Sia and Beck also feature.  The  soundtrack is due to be available a couple of weeks before the film.

More next month.