TVSquad

This season, Law and Order was looking for a way to get some new energy and interest in the long-running NBC Emmy-winning series, so on the judicial end of the show, they promoted Sam Waterson's Jack McCoy to DA and cast Linus Roache as Assistant District Attorney Michael Cutter. Roache is one of those familiar faces that you've seen on other shows, maybe a movie or two, but here on Law and Order he's making you sit up and take notice. At least that's how it is for me. After watching the first two new episodes when the show returned recently, I wanted to know more about this guy. For starters, why did he remind me of a young Bobby Kennedy?

Well, it turns out that Linus Roache played Robert Kennedy in the mini-series, RFK. The Kennedy connection was even alluded to in last week's episode; at the end of the show, after McCoy had to defend his decision to prosecute overzealous New York City cops by taking the stand in open court, Roache's character, Cutter, gives him a tie pin that once belonged to RFK. With the last line of the show, Cutter says, "I found it on EBay."

Chazz Palminteri, perhaps best-known for his role in The Usual Suspects, is coming to series television. He just signed on to co-star in a new cop series on ABC, called Drift. It's about a detective with insomnia. Palminteri plays the guy's boss. According to his IMDB profile, Palminteri just finished shooting three different movies, all set for release later this year. And he was seen alongside Ving Rhames on TNT last year in an modern-day version of Kojak.

Remember how actor Lillo Brancato (The Sopranos, A Bronx Tale) was involved in the shooting death of Daniel Enchautegui, the off-duty Bronx police officer who attemped to stop Brancato and a friend from burglarizing the house next door? Well, now he's sorry. Really, really sorry.

According to a story in the New York Post (registration required), the actor was breaking into the house with Steven Armento, 43, the father of Brancato's ex-girlfriend, after a night of drinking. The men were after a stash of valium in the house, which had belonged to an acquaintance of Brancato's who died in July.