Nellie Andreeva

24 alumna Annie Wersching has landed the second lead opposite Scottie Thompson in Ed Bernero’s ABC drama pilot Partners. Lawrence Gilliard Jr. (The Beast) has also been cast in the project, a cop drama centered on two female police detectives, Mattie (Thompson) and Jess (Wersching), who are fiercely loyal to one another since they’re also secretly half-sisters. Gilliard will play Dr. J.

Jake M. Johnson and Max Greenfield have landed 2 of the 3 male leads opposite Zooey Deschanel in Fox’s Liz Meriwether comedy pilot, known as Chicks and Dicks. It is described as a young ensemble comedy about the sexual politics of men and women and centers on Jessica (Deschanel), an optimistic but unlucky-in-love elementary school teacher who, after her most recent break-up, moves out of her apartment with her ex and moves in with 3 juvenile guys: the beer-loving hunk Schmidt (Greenfield), the sweat pants-prone Coach and bartender Nick (Johnson). Johnson, repped by UTA and 3 Arts, is coming off No Strings Attached and next co-stars in Ceremony.

The O.C. alumna Rachel Bilson, who has been in negotiations to star in the CW hourlong pilot Hart of Dixie, has now closed a deal for the project, from writer Leila Gerstein, WBTV and Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage’s Fake Empire. It is a comedic drama centered on a young New York City doctor (Bilson) who inherits a medical practice in a small Southern town inhabited by an eclectic and eccentric group of characters.

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