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."

A priest from Boston is in jail today for stalking and threatening Conan O'Brien. Father David Ajemian was arrested at Rockefeller Center when he attempted to attend a taping of Late Night with Conan O'Brien, according to today's New York Times. He's having a psychiatric examination and will be in court today.

NYC police say Father Ajemian sent threatening letters--some of them written on parish letterhead(!)--to O'Brien for the past year. He sent them to the studio, but also to Conan's home. Yikes.

PBS' Frontline series will air "Hand of God" on Tuesday, January 16 at 9pm. The 90-minute special tells the story of Paul Cultera, who, in the 1960s at the age of fourteen, was sexually abused by his priest, Father Joseph Birmingham in Salem, Massachusetts. It wasn't until thirty years later that Cultera decide to confront the Catholic Church and launched his own investigation into whether or not the Archdiocese of Boston was moving Father Birmingham from parish to parish and putting other children in danger. Cultera placed ads around towns where Father Birmingham had lived, which resulted in many more people coming forward and alleging abuse. Birmingham allegedly abused almost 100 different children.

"Hand of God" was filmed and directed by Joe Cultera, Paul's brother.

Despite all the publicity leading up to Friday's premiere of The Book of Daniel on NBC, it still didn't do so hot in the ratings. The two-hour premiere, which aired from 9-11 pm on Friday, averaged about 9 million viewers. That's fewer than Close to Home, Numb3rs, In Justice, and 20/20, which all aired against Daniel on CBS and ABC. In Justice and 20/20 barely beat Daniel, each with a little more than 9 million viewers.

I watched The Book of Daniel out of pure curiosity. I like Aidan Quinn and I wanted to give the guy a chance. Plus, I wanted to see whether all the ruckus was justified. It wasn't.