TVSquad

TV viewers -- or anyone for that matter -- haven't heard from Molly Shannon in a while. Though her IMDb profile has shown that she's been busy, the last time I saw her in anything was in a memorable guest role on Scrubs three years ago. Her absence was kind of surprising, given how funny she was on Saturday Night Live. But it looks like Shannon is on her way back, in an NBC comedy pilot called The Mastersons of Manhattan.

The Hollywood Reporter, in an article that contains a ton of casting news, reports that Shannon will star with Natasha Richardson in the serialized soap. The two play socialite sisters, the younger of whom (Shannon) is on trial for murder. Yes, I did say earlier that it was a comedy, if you want to check.

The highlight of the rest of the article's casting news is that Ving Rhames will be cast in ABC's pilot for Football Wives, which is based on the British series Footballers' Wives. Of course, in the American version the wives in question will be married to professional football players instead of professional soccer players. Rhames plays the GM of one of the teams.

Oh, and for anyone who thinks The Nine has a glimmer of a chance of returning, Chi McBride has been cast in an ABC drama pilot called Pushing Daisies. My guess is that it's not a second-option pilot, which would mean that The Nine is as good as dead.