Grey's Anatomy

Addison Montgomery for a possible L.A.-set spinoff, I can’t quite stop thinking about the Magic 8-Ball.

I can’t quite make up my mind as to whether I want Addison to move south from Seattle and take up with the new crew of doctors at the beachside “wellness center.” If the point of the possible new series is to prove that (fictional) doctors in their 30s are no better at making life choices than (fictional) doctors in their 20s, well, point made. A little too emphatically, if you ask me.

The thing about the first year or two of “Grey’s Anatomy” is that viewers were on a journey with the young(ish) characters, who were discovering who they were and what they wanted. We expected them to make mistakes and to possibly learn from them (although, sheesh, the “Grey’s” characters are really slow learners, given the maddening number of times they like to repeat their mistakes). There’s something depressing about the fact that the generation of doctors ahead of Meredith and her friends are actually, if anything, more pathetic than the five Seattle Grace interns.

Let’s see, we’ve got an alternative-medicine doc who can’t commit since he was widowed, a shrink whose personal life is a mess, a golden couple who divorced for vague reasons and a pediatrician who continually meets losers via the Internet. Well, I’ll say this much for the doctors of the fictional Oceanside Wellness Group — they make the folks at Seattle Grace look like they have it together. Having said all that, actress Kate Walsh is nothing less than mesmerizing as Addison Montgomery.

I would watch this woman if she were starring in an hourlong infomercial about, I don’t know, exercise equipment. She not only has a glow about her, she not only looks fabulous in designer shoes, but she also — and this is important — can really act. She brings a sense of almost klutzy vulnerability to Addison, who — so far — hasn’t been given a streak of coldness, shrillness or unspeakable rudeness (which the writers have done, at one time or another, with most of the other Seattle Grace doctors, sigh).

All things considered, I’d like the delightful Addy to end up somewhere good, where she can get into sexy and soapy and believably dramatic situations, and not get dragged down by a lot of melodramatic and predictable baggage from those Oceanside doctors. Although, who knows, with time, the new doctors could grow on me (though Amy Brenneman’s whiny character needs a complete overhaul). But of course, what you and I think matters not a whit.

ABC will likely give the Addison spinoff the go-ahead for fall, the “Grey’s” writing staff will continue to pad out plots that seem to be stretching out forever (can Alex’s patient remember who she is already? Can Burke and Cristina get married already — or not? As for Meredith and McDreamy — I’m so over they decide to do anymore).

But so what? The show still has skills. The death of Thatcher’s wife was gutting, thanks in no small part to Jeff Perry’s great work as Meredith’s dad.

I’m intrigued, almost against my will, by the Izzie-George situation. Yes, I’m still involved in these stories and these people, despite my continual bellyaching about them. Just take care of my Addison, “Grey’s” writers — wherever she ends up — mmm’kay?

Photo: Kate Walsh and Tim Daly in the May 3 Grey's Anatomy. in Grey's Anatomy | Permalink | Comments (16) Merrin Dungey has been cast in the two-hour “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff, according to ABC. Dungey will be familiar to “Alias” fans; the actress played Francie, the best friend (and sometime nemesis) of Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner).

Dungey has also been spotted on Summerland, Boston Legal and The King of Queens, among other shows. Also in the cast of the “Grey’s” spinoff are Chicago’s own Paul Adelstein (much more on that here), as well as Tim Daly, Taye Diggs and Veronica Mars' Chris Lowell. The star of the new spinoff, the pilot of which will serve as “Grey’s” Season 3 finale, is former Chicagoan Kate Walsh, who plays neonatal surgeon Addison Montgomery.

According to news reports, the two other female characters in the “Grey’s” spinoff, which begins filming this week, are a psychiatrist and a fertility specialist. It’s not clear which of those characters Dungey will play. University Park native Shonda Rhimes, as well as Mark Gordon and Betsy Beers, are the executive producers on the so-far-unnamed spinoff.

Rhimes wrote the spinoff pilot, which has Montgomery contemplating a departure from Seattle Grace Hospital. TV Guide's Michael Ausiello reports that Amy Brenneman ( Judging Amy ) has also joined the cast of the Grey's spinoff. in Grey's Anatomy | Permalink | Comments (15) here and vote Chicago-style – early and often!

in Grey's Anatomy | Permalink | Comments (2) Chris Lowell, better known as Piz on “Veronica Mars,” has been cast in the “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff. Fellow cast members in the spinoff, which stars Kate Walsh, include Paul Adelstein, Taye Diggs and Tim Daly. There are two major female roles yet to be cast on the show, but news of that should emerge soon – the special 2-hour “Grey’s Anatomy” finale that will serve as the new series’ pilot starts filming at the end of next week.

I hope this (and the good ratings for the new Pussycat Dolls show) doesn't mean bad things for a fourth season of Veronica Mars. I can't go to that place in my head, the place that says there's a chance that there may be no more VM after the five episodes the CW has promised to air later this season. Can't go there.

in Grey's Anatomy, Veronica Mars | Permalink | Comments (5) Chicago native Paul Adelstein, who can currently be seen as Agent Paul Kellerman in “Prison Break,” has been cast as one of the male leads in the upcoming “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff, which centers around Seattle Grace Hospital’s Dr. Tim Daly (“Wings,” “The Nine”) and Taye Diggs (“Day Break,” “Kevin Hill”) have also been cast in the unnamed spinoff series (which some fans have semi-jokingly dubbed “Montgomery’s Ward”). The pilot for that show, which has Montgomery thinking about leaving Seattle Grace, will function as the two-hour season finale of “Grey’s Anatomy” in May.

And as it happens, the woman who plays the flame-haired neonatal surgeon Montgomery is an old friend of Adelstein’s, with whom he waited tables at Bucktown's Café du Midi all those years ago. “I had a nice conversation with [Walsh] last week, we had a good laugh,” Adelstein said in a recent phone interview. “It’s bizarre enough to be a working actor, but it’s such a dream to be around someone who was there essentially at the beginning, and someone who I like so much.

“I said to her, ‘Do you remember that time I was driving you to a voiceover audition, it was 2 degrees and there was no heat in my car and we were late for a shift at the restaurant and you couldn’t pay the rent?’” Adelstein said. Both actors did workshops with John Cusack’s New Crimes stage troupe and at Evanston’s famed Piven Theatre Workshop; Adelstein and Walsh even appeared in the same episode of the Chicago-set series “Cupid,” which starred Jeremy Piven, but Adelstein said they didn’t have a scene together.

The actors kept in touch when they both moved out to L.A., and used to live so close to each other that Adelstein would sometimes ask Walsh to go over lines with him when he had a big scene or audition.

“It’s going to be so great to be able to look across the room at her and think, ‘I’ve known her for 15 years,’” added Adelstein, who said that shooting begins on the “Grey’s” spinoff in a few days. Over those 15 years, Adelstein has gone from being a respected Chicago stage actor with credits at Steppenwolf and elsewhere to a busy film and TV actor, racking up roles in everything from “Scrubs” and “Without a Trace” to “Memoirs of a Geisha” and “Be Cool.” But it’s as “Prison Break’s” wily Kellerman that he’s gained the most notice of late, and Adelstein’s new gig raises the obvious question – what happens to Kellerman, especially if the “Grey’s” spinoff becomes a full-fledged series in the fall?

Adelstein was diplomatic and would only say that things would end “on a cliffhanger” for Kellerman at the end of “Prison Break’s” current season. In any case, Adelstein says he can’t believe his good fortune” in nabbing a role on the new ABC show, which is being written by “Grey’s” creator and University Park native Shonda Rhimes. Adelstein wouldn’t say a word about what his role is or what happens in the two-hour pilot – Rhimes is well known for strictly enforcing a cone of silence around her projects – but he would say that the pilot for the new series is “character driven.

” “I think with even some of the strongest writers out there, you could swap out the dialogue between characters on the show,” but that isn't the case with Rhimes, said Adelstein, who noted that he and his wife, Liza Weil, who plays Paris on “Gilmore Girls,” are big fans of “Grey’s.” “Shonda not only writes great dialogue, she writes great characters. It’s all very specific.

She’s got a very strong voice, it’s funny and truthful and three-dimensional, which is great fun for an actor and rare.” “She’s able to write realistic yet outrageous situations that can be funny too,” he said. “It’s all there, that’s what makes it human and that’s what makes you empathize with the characters.

” Photo: Paul Adelstein as Paul Kellerman on Prison Break. in Grey's Anatomy, Prison Break | Permalink | Comments (21) the Feb. 15 episode of “Grey’s Anatomy,” Meredith Grey woke up in the what appeared to be the afterlife.

She immediately spotted two of Seattle Grace Hospital’s most famous former patients: Izzie’s dead fiancé Denny (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Dylan (Kyle Chandler), a bomb-squad guy who a year ago exploded into “pink mist. An hour or two before the highly rated Feb. 22 episode of “Grey’s” finished off the surprising Denny-Dylan story line, a helmeted figure roared up to the set of “Friday Night Lights” on a motorcycle.

Tucked into the biker’s black leather jacket was an adorable white-and-tan terrier. Even before the motorcycle guy took off his helmet, he had already scored major coolness points. It was Chandler, arriving for a night shoot outside Austin, Texas, for the NBC show, on which he stars as Coach Eric Taylor.

Taylor and “Friday Night Lights” may be the darling of the TV press at the moment -- as I’ve said in this space, “FNL” is my favorite network drama. But Chandler said in an interview the next day that despite his great love for “Friday Night Lights” (“It’s the best experience of my life by far in television,” the actor said), Dylan is still is the character that garners him the most recognition. “That show’s got so many viewers -- it was interesting, even after the first episode [on Feb.

15], where I just said, `Hey’ at the very end of it, I had more people coming up to me, going `You’re back, you’re back!,’ Chandler said. Or, according to the actor, they’d just say, as Dylan did, “Hey.

” Before that episode aired, news had leaked that Denny would be back on “Grey’s” in some capacity, but Chandler’s appearance on the show took viewers by surprise - you could almost hear a collective gasp when he reappeared on the hit medical drama. As for where those Meredith-Denny-Dylan scenes took place, well, maybe “afterlife” isn’t the right word. “This … wasn’t a typical Grey’s,” Marti Noxon, who co-wrote the Feb.

22 episode, said on the GreysWriters.com blog. “Half of it takes place… where?

In Meredith’s head? In heaven? We decided, for obvious reasons, not to get too specific.

” In a world of constant online spoilers (which even I can't resist sharing sometimes), it was cool that nobody saw Dylan’s appearance coming. Chandler said at first, even his own “FNL” crew members didn’t believe he’d been on “Grey’s” again. “A lot of people here are ticked off” that they didn’t know in advance, Chandler said.

(Though given the general laid-back nature of the show’s Austin crew, “ticked off” probably meant “gave him some gentle ribbing while eating Skittles.”) One crew member said, “Why didn’t you tell me, I got into an argument” with someone saying Chandler had been on “Grey’s,” Chandler said with a slightly bashful grin. I guess you don’t talk about stuff like that.

” Chandler filmed his scenes for the Feb. 15 and Feb. 22 episodes of the show over a long weekend in Los Angeles, he said.

And “Grey’s” creator Shonda Rhimes was grateful he could make it back to the show: “I was glad to see Kyle Chandler, who was gracious enough to fly out here and film on one of his very few days off from the very well-written `Friday Night Lights,’” she wrote on the “Grey’s” writers' blog. It’s partly thanks to “Grey’s,” in a way, that Chandler got his role as Taylor on “Friday Night Lights.” He was shooting the post-Super Bowl episodes on the same lot where executive producer Peter Berg was casting “FNL,” and he met with Berg around that time.

The rest is history. “It surprised me when [Grey’s] said they wanted me back on the show,” Chandler said. But it was certainly time well spent.

Meredith’s conversations with Dylan, Denny and other former Seattle Grace patients made for reasonably compelling drama (though I could do without a Major “Grey’s’ Event until at least May sweeps). Still, truth be told, my favorite scene, aside from the argumentative moments between Denny and Dylan, was the scene in which Dr. Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.

) said goodbye to Meredith’s deceased mother. He really knocked that scene out of the park, as Pickens quietly does on a regular basis. I am not relieved.

I’ll have much more from the set of “Friday Night Lights” in upcoming weeks. But for now, back to “Grey’s”: The show airs a repeat on Thursday, but there’s some casting news about upcoming episodes. Taye Diggs will appear in an upcoming two-hour episode of the show, and Shohreh Aghdashloo (“24,” “House of Sand and Fog”) will guest on the March 15 episode of the show.

And Hector Elizondo will appear soon as Dr. One final “Grey’s” note: Fans of “Buffy” will no doubt recognize Noxon’s name from the writing credits of that late, lamented show (which is currently getting an eighth season from creator Joss Whedon - via comic books). And speaking of “Buffy,” I’ve been digging Kali Rocha, “Buffy’s” Halfrek, as Dr.

Heron, a perkily competitive doctor at Seattle Grace. Don’t you sometimes half expect her to summon a Halfrek-style spell and get her way in that manner? Photos: Kyle Chandler on Friday Night Lights, James Pickens Jr.

on Grey's Anatomy. in Friday Night Lights, Grey's Anatomy | Permalink | Comments (27) Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff is pretty impressive. Montgomery, ex-wife of hot surgeon Dr.

Derek Shepherd (he’s otherwise known as McDreamy and/or Meredith Grey’s significant other), will star in a “Grey’s” spinoff that will air in May. Whether the unnamed series will be on ABC’s fall lineup will depend how the tryout fares in May. As far as the choice to head up the new series, what an excellent decision.

Montgomery made a memorable entrance to “Grey’s” at the close of the show’s first-season finale. She strode into Seattle Grace Hospital in her designer stilettos and asked if Meredith was the one who was sleeping with her husband. Yee-ow, talk about an entrance.

Montgomery was supposed to only stick around for half a dozen or so episodes of Season 3, but Kate Walsh, who plays Montgomery, did such an excellent job with the character that she became a series regular. Now Walsh is going to head up her own series, which I’m all for, since Montgomery is by far my favorite Seattle Grace doctor. Walsh has given depth and empathy to her portrayal of Montgomery’s divorce from Shepherd, and, let’s face it, her dalliances with McSteamy and her more recent flirtation with Dr.

Alex Karev are pretty darn hawt. Plus Walsh’s medical speciality of neonatal care will give her lots of opportunities for heart-wrenching story lines. If the pilot gets a full series, be sure to stock up on Kleenex.

The major problem I foresee is that “Grey’s” is an ensemble. Will ABC be able to capture lightning in a bottle twice and create another sexy, skilled ensemble around Montgomery? And the show’s writers will have to work hard not to repeat Grey's plots.

Another problem: She's the main reason I watch Grey's anymore. More importantly, what happens to Montgomery and Karev? I like their recent sort-of-relationship and hope it isn’t ended too soon by Montgomery’s new gig.

In any case, of all the “Grey’s” characters to spin off, Montgomery is the one I can truly see carrying a show on her own. Walsh gives this committed doctor an element of vulnerability and real likability. Plus she’s stylish, witty and easy on the eyes.

Just what the doctor ordered. in Grey's Anatomy | Permalink | Comments (25) In the closing minutes of the show, Meredith woke up in what looked like the afterlife. And if the afterlife includes visits from Denny Duquette (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and the rescue worker played last season by Kyle Chandler – both of whom appeared in her “afterlife” scene – then, let’s face it, the next life doesn’t look so bad.

Addison Montgomery for a possible L.A.-set spinoff, I can’t quite stop thinking about the Magic 8-Ball.