NEWS: Nazanin Boniadi Joins SCANDAL; Kinky Sex on B&B; Mixed-Race Families on TV; EXTANT Adds Annie Wersching

Nazanin Boniadi joins SCANDAL for major Season Three arc
The actress, perhaps best known for playing FBI analyst Fara Sherazi on the third season of Showtime's HOMELAND, will recur in the final eight episodes of SCANDAL's third season. Details about her character are being kept under wraps. Boniadi previously played Leyla Mir on GENERAL HOSPITAL.

Don Diamont Gets Kinky on THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL
Diamont's Bill Spencer is about to get kinky with, of all people, psycho-villain Quinn Fuller (Rena Sofer)!

"We're not cable but we certainly take it as far as we can — and I don't think there's ever been anything like it in daytime," Diamont says, noting that the sex-with-whips action drew lots of attention at the CBS studio. "Suddenly, our crew seemed to double. I was, like, 'Who are all these people?'"

Where Is My Family on TV?
According to a 2012 Census Bureau report, mixed-race Americans, while still a small minority, are one of the fastest-growing demographic groups in the country, driven by immigration and an uptick in intermarriage. Yet while there are some very public examples of seemingly stable mixed-race families — the de Blasios of New York or even Kim, Kanye and sweet baby Nori come to mind — they are remarkably absent from our screens. (Our biracial president does get his share of screen time, of course.)

How THE WALKING DEAD Breaks Every Rule We Know About TV Hits
To simply chalk up the success of THE WALKING DEAD to the viability of the horror genre is to misunderstand the show. It's never been some splatterpunk thrill ride like the “Saw” film franchise; there’s actually just as much an arthouse sensibility to TWD as there is to other AMC shows like MAD MEN and BREAKING BAD. And as Sunday night's episode indicated, the series doesn't adhere to conventional storytelling. Then there’s the tone of TWD, which is so bleak it practically thumbs its nose at mass appeal. Throw in the fact the show hasn’t minted any true breakout stars and attracts zero awards buzz, and these gaudy ratings are even more inexplicable.

HBO Adapting Indie Feature A Teacher As Drama Series
The series centers on a high school teacher in her late 20s in the midst of a torrid affair with one of her students.

GREY'S ANATOMY Midseason Premiere Pits Arizona Vs. Callie, Alex Vs. Owen
Per the official synopsis for the Feb. 27 episode, titled “Take It Back’ and picking up about 10 minutes after Jackson’s fall finale outburst, “The doctors face the consequences of the events that took place at April’s wedding. Meredith feels betrayed when Derek goes back on a promise, Alex is furious after returning to the hospital and hearing the news about his father (returning guest star James Remar), and Arizona and Callie decide whether or not to move forward together. Meanwhile, Bailey realizes she was wrong about the motive behind Ben’s decision to move back to Seattle.”

GAME OF THRONES star Michelle Fairley star joins Fox's 24 in major role
She’ll play Margo, the British widow of a notorious terrorist. This is a role that was previously filled by actress Judy Davis, who had to exit the production due for personal reasons.

DEVANITY's Final Curtain....
"Dressing up, putting all that moxy on and sass and sprinkling instead of your magical fairy dust, your evil dust and going in guns blazing!" said upcoming DEVANITY guest star Sheree J. Wilson.

ABC's TROPHY WIFE to Parody SCANDAL Later This Season
"We have an episode coming up that becomes a SCANDAL parody, co-creator and executive producer Emily Halpern said of the episode, which will air in April. "Diane has a bit of a failure, which as we know is very unlike her, and she winds up sort of binge-watching a lot of Scandal episodes and channels her Olivia Pope."

Annie Wersching joins CBS summer series EXTANT
Wersching will recur as Femi Dodd, a member of the Yasumoto Corporation board who endeavors to insure that in our race toward a technologically advanced future, we don’t leave our humanity behind.

HOUSE OF CARDS game announced, and quickly sold out
In a promotional move, Netflix launched HouseOfCardsAgainstHumanity.com, which partners the card game Cards Against Humanity with the Washington-based drama. In the actual card game, players compete in mad-lib-esque challenge by offering various terms — usually vulgar in nature — to blank phrases.

Former ONE LIFE TO LIVE and 30 ROCK actress Katrina Bowden Lands Leading Role in TNT's PUBLIC MORALS
Bowden has been tapped for the female lead opposite Ed Burns in the TNT pilot. She will play a seemingly sweet and innocent prostitute with street smart edge.

Victoria Justice thriller gets MTV series order
Cyber thriller EYE CANDY centers around Lindy (Justice), a beautiful but reclusive hacker whose blog exposes everything from terrorist plots to suspected killers. After her roommate convinces her to try online dating, Lindy is targeted by a dangerous cyber stalker, whom she believes is one of her suitors. When things take a deadly turn, she teams up with the city’s cyber-crime unit to catch the killer.

Courtney B. Vance Joins ABC's Military-Medical Drama WARRIORS
Vance will play Dr. Hennessy Fiske, an orthopedic surgeon with a subspecialty in neurology who is a genius at designing prosthetics. The still-growing ensemble also includes Eloise Mumford.

MASTERS OF SEX: Nobody Said That Then!
A few examples from MASTERS OF SEX, which is set in St. Louis in the early nineteen-fifties:

“I’m going to pass on the bacon.” People played a lot of bridge back then, but “pass on,” as a metaphor for skipping or refusing something, was not yet in use.

“This is way more than you owe me.” No. No way. No one used “way” this way in 1953, not even Valley Girls. (Valley Girls had not yet been invented.) “This is much more than you owe me” would be way more authentic.

“If this place were a meritocracy, they’d be throwing money at you.” The word “meritocracy” was coined in 1958. It would not make its way to flyover country for several more years after that.

“Breaking news.” You might have heard this phrase in the newsroom of the New York World-Telegram, circa 1953, but it filtered down to the general public decades later, especially via cable-news chyrons. In the fifties, the closest civilian equivalent would have been “We interrupt this program to bring you a special bulletin.”

“Trust me, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” Nobody said “Trust me” back then. Everybody said “Believe me.”

ORPHAN BLACK: Tatiana Maslany's fans start an Indiegogo fund to give her an award
ORPHAN BLACK fan Sarah Evans has started her own crowdfunding campaign to get Maslany her own award. If enough funds are raised, a special hand-crafted statue will be delivered to Maslany to show her exactly how much her fans believe in her. "When Tatiana Maslany was snubbed for an Emmy I decided to take things into the fans' hands," Evans explains on the Indiegogo page. Evans is looking to raise $2,000 for the statue, which will cover the creation of the hand-crafted award, three replicas for fans who donate $500 or more, and shipping and handling costs and fees.

HOLLYOAKS' James Sutton: 'Life gets worse for John Paul'
The schoolteacher was at the center of tragic scenes last month as he was raped by his student Finn O'Connor (Keith Rice), and life hasn't got any easier as the 16-year-old is still bullying him at Hollyoaks High with help from his troublesome friend Robbie Roscoe.

"At the moment, we're shooting April and May's scenes and I'm filming the nastiest stuff yet," Sutton said. "Things are about to get even more dark for John Paul."

Hollyoaks newcomer Ojan Genc: 'Browning's son wants answers'
"Alex's intentions are good and innocent," Genc said of his character, "but he does come into a difficult situation that I think anyone would struggle to deal with. All he wants is answers and closure, but you'll see that there are also some similarities between him and his dad."