Finally, Cannes Dealing! Radius-TWC Nabs Director’s … 
Hammond On Cannes: Wet Fest’s Official Competition … 
‘Vampire Academy’ Adds ‘Modern … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Shark Tank’ Finale Up, … 
Friday Box Office: ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ … 
Cannes: Worldview Options Andrew Dominik’s Marilyn … 
UPFRONTS 2013: The Overachievers 
‘Mike & Molly’ Creator Mark Roberts To … 
Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts Set For … 
Hammond On Cannes: Weinstein Brings Out Stars For 2013 … 
Cannes: Fake Gunshots Interrupt Canal Plus Live Broadcast … 
‘The Great Gatsby’ Starts With $5.4M … 
Cannes: Music Box Snags Competition’s ‘Michael … 
UPDATE: Amazon Studios Begins Pilot Pickups; … 
Bruce Rosenblum Bids Classy Goodbye 
RATINGS RAT RACE UPDATE: ‘American Idol’ Hits … 
UPDATE: ‘Iron Man 3′ Box Office Crosses $1B … 
Upfront Market: Will Auto Makers Subsidize TV … 
Cannes: Thief Makes Off With $1M+ In Chopard Jewelry Meant … 
‘Scandal’ Finale On Small Screen And Onstage At … 
‘Modern Family’ Gets Cable Makeover For Launch … 
EXCLUSIVE: The lead in the NBC drama pilot Playboy is being recast.
Third Watch alum Eddie Cibrian has been tapped for the role, replacing Jeff Hephner, who landed the part last week after a marathon of auditions. The decision was made after the pilot’s table read. Sources close to the show say that Hephner, who had never played a major role on a series before, was great in the tests, and the producers love him as an actor, but he didn’t work out in the pilot, whose cast includes Laura Benanti, Amber Heard, Naturi Naughton and David Krumholtz. Cibrian, who was finalist for the Playboy lead, is expected start immediately as the pilot is slated to begin filming in Chicago on Tuesday.
Playboy, from 20th Century Fox TV, Imagine TV and writer/executive producer Chad Hodge, is set at the Playboy Club in Chicago in 1963. It centers on Nick Dalton (Cibrian), described as “the ultimate playboy.” He is an attorney in Chicago and a Keyholder at the glamorous, exclusive club. A fixer who knows how to make problems disappear, he has mysterious ties to the mob. The pilot, directed by Alan Taylor, also co-stars Jenna Dewan-Tatum, Leah Renee and Wes Ramsey.
Cibrian, repped by ICM and Steve Sauer, recently co-starred on CSI: Miami for a season and did an arc on NBC’s freshman drama Chase this season.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
Loading ...
Great casting and supposedly a great script.
Not a great script. Middle of the pack for this pilot season.
“Eddie Cibrian To Play The Lead In ‘Playboy’”
Like in real life?
Hephner must have really blown it at the table read. To get as far as he got with approval from everyone only to be fired after a table read! Should be a cakewalk at that point.
Networks make fear based decisions all the time. Believe me, it had nothing to do with that guy “blowing it”. This is just the first of what will be MANY recastings this season (usually more women than men for some reason). Pilot season is a brutal process for actors and you’re not safe until the show gets on the air. My heart goes out to the kid who got fired because the network is scared that their script is crap.
I agree with You Know Nothing, 100%
Hephner did not “blow it” — he probably kicked ass. The more likely scenario is the network/studio has been pursuing Cibrian all along but couldn’t come to terms on a deal or Cibrian was committed to another project that didn’t work out, for whatever reason, and now his window is open. Happens all the time.
This is one reason that pilot season is such a clusterf–k. Lesser known actors are put through these insidious paces to secure a gig, while the powers-that-be secretly covet the buzz-gathering actor appearing in a Sundance flick or a movie/tv actor, with more visibility, who decides to do series television.
This is behavior that will never change but that’s okay. That’s why you bend the network/studio over when you have the leverage of a hit show in your favor.
So should we start the cancellation countdown now? His addition just made the show cheesy.
Wow, this pilot sounds truly cursed. Even if Eddie had a great test and read, public opinion of him SUCKS. There’s no way he can hold his own as the lead of a network show. Adios Playboy! Mid-season at best.
You said it. Cibrian is wildly unpopular – I can’t see his casting as a plus in any way.
He’s very much like a Jon Hamm type of actor.
Ha! Yeah right, if Jon Hamm were talentless, cheesy, classless, and unappealing maybe. Oh please.
Don’t even go there. Comparing Jon Hamm to Eddie What’s-his-face is like comparing a fine wine to a turd in a bucket.
Tanker, that post made my day. The best analogy I have seen yet. EC is gross and the show will suck with him on it. I thought he was so so on his other shows (only because he had such a strong cast around him). I for one will not watch this. The concept sounds just lame.
I feel bad for the rest of the talent on that show to be associated with this dink.
LOL!!!!
Nice one!!!
Say what you will about Cibrian’s personal life but he LOOKS like a “Playboy” and has movie star good looks no matter how many tabloid covers he’s on. The camera is his friend.
Casting crew blew big time.
Uh, oh LeAnn. Your “Love” is going to be out of town shooting and you know what that means….when the cats away….his eyes will be wandering on all those hot co-stars….just ask his ex-wife.
I think Eddie will nail this one. It’s like the role cut out for him. I assume NBC had initially wanted to go with a fresh face with Jeff.
God this show sounds terrible…so Eddie is a perfect fit!
I left my wife and kids and am shacking up with a country music star who has put me on an allowance. Wait, that’s NBC calling to offer me the lead in a new series………..
This casting is abominable. Poor Jeff Hephner, working his ass off to be cast in a great role only to lose out to a widely-recognized douschebag like Eddie Cibrian. I thought this pilot was going to be EDGY and SEXY, but now I feel like it is Melrose Place 3.0….BORING!!
Whoa. Remember when Us Weekly cast your pilot? I thought this show was supposed to be classy. Dude is a scumbag.
Ugh. How much did this mistake cost Bob Greenblatt?
Sadly only about $40k.
Hephner must have showed off his piece at the table read. According to Andy he is working with serious inches. I’m digging the casting of Eddie Cibrian. He is a side trim bandit.
Does this make Hephner available for LOGJAMMERS???? He is perfect for the role of Stan Skids.
dude, are you serious? this guy’s not getting close to that project. i heard their wish list for Skids is: Peter Stormare, Crispin Glover, and AJ Benza.
I heard it was going to be Jimmi Simpson if BO Kings didn’t work. He would have been perfect. Hephner is trash – did you see Easy Money??? (probably not)
I really dont think that the rest of America knows or gives a shit about Eddie’s personal life. If the show is good, people will tune in. Not everyone in the America reads US Weekly everyday and tune in to TMZ everyone on this website does.
Cibrian is good looking but he can’t act and he’s a puke in real life.
You nailed it on the head. He is an ok actor and I think Jeff Hephner would have been way better in this role. Very sad that EC is going to bring down the whole production with his prescence.
The only good thing is going to be watching LR loser her sh*t when he gets around all those hotties on the show. Once a cheater always a cheater.
Wiser words have never been spoken.
I was wondering how long it would take before this guy’s personal life got jumped on here. When you’re talking about judgmental, hypocritical Americans, sure enough, it didn’t take long. Second post in, woo hoo.
Loved Cibrian on CSI:Miami. He had a cool presence. An actual attractive person on TV as opposed to a reality show fatty or Rogen-esque frat boy dork, what a concept. Since I actually work and don’t read gossip rags I had no clue about this Leann Rimes thing. Who cares.
With the man’s background, him playing a guy in the ’60s when people didn’t cry and point fingers at every little thing seems like a great move!
That said, wonder if Bible-thumping, Red State, Tea Party, Gun-totin’, Middle America is ready for a show like this. Probably not. Look at Swingtown.
And people wonder why network TV is all cops, doctors, lawyers and reality show garbage.
Good luck Eddie!
Did the U.S. kill your dog or something?
Not the whole U.S. just the 49% who are fucking morons.
Eddie was great on Invasion.
He’s Cuban. He has that machismo thing. That’s just how they are. As long as Cibrian stays away from my non existent girlfriend, we’re good.
Frankly, after what Jeff Hephner’s character did on the OC, trashing Sandy’s office. I didn’t care to see him in this. I don’t see how casting Hephner from Hellcats makes the show any more “EDGY or SEXY” than w Cibrian. Hephner comes off too much like a fraternity face boy.
I don’t think most of America is enthralled in the LeAnn Rhimes/Cibrian saga. The character is a cad. The actor is a cad. If it walks like a duck…
Typical: A dude mistaking machismo for lack of character.
I WOULDN”T do that to a girl. Trust me I’d be having a lot more fun if I threw my moral compass out the window. Lee Ann isn’t much better, she cheated on her husband.
Just noticed many of the anti-Eddie people here are women, big shock. The feminazis have elevated cheating to capital crime/Hitler status. Guys mess up, that’s what we do. But it’s OK when a woman does it? I’m not hearing any outrage there. *crickets*
Don’t judge the man judge his work. Which you haven’t seen yet on this show by the way.
You guys would have been great at the Salem Witch Trials.
Actually glass house, if you’d even been following the triangle, which its more than obvious you ahven’t, you’d know that 90% of the hate is toward LeAnn, NOT Eddie. Eddie so far, has got off with nary an attack on him. Women always turn on their own, which is why no one attacks Eddie and everyone attacks LeAnn.
You’re right, Marlia, I *ahven’t* been following the triangle. :rolleyes: And all the attacks *here* are on Eddie. Too bad we don’t live in your universe where people are perfect. Let’s see how your life would be if TMZ and US Weekly was following you around and airing all your secrets (don’t act like you don’t have any).
Still rooting for Cibrian in this role. Let’s hope it gets picked up.
Wtf? OVER-REACTION, much? All I said was the truth, which is that LeAnn is attacked far more than Eddie. Eddie has virtually been invisible in this and the only reason why he is getting attacks here, is because the article is about him. Clearly I struck a nerve. Grow up and take a chill pill. Its not that serious.
LOL @ take a chill pill. She of the fake outrage. *I* was responding to *your* post so enough deflection please and let’s focus. SMH.
(Don’t sweat it, Marlia. I took your point even if glass house didn’t.)
This whole thing sounds like a lame attempt to cash in on the Mad Men craze anyhow. But we could accept Jon Hamm as Don Draper the cad, because it was just a tv show. Seeing Cibrian play a cad won’t be much fun because we know in real life he IS a douchebag.
This is a prime example of panicked casting. After replacing Hephner, it’s basically looking around and plugging in a warm body. It makes no sense for a show that may sound sleazy to female viewers to cast a lead who is sleazy to people who know about him, if they know of him at all. From a critical perspective, it also makes the show seem like even more of a 60′s knockoff – in cable you get Jon Hamm, in network you get Eddie Cibrian. One can’t help but wonder if the network regrets giving CD’s Lapadura and Hart this opportunity, it doesn’t exactly seems like they’ve hit it out of the park.
Exactly. Makes NBC look like a flailing mess, again. Hey, remember when they promoted THE CAPE by putting actual capes on all the statues in NYC? Whatever they’re smoking, I want some.
Read the scripts months ago and was surprised when they cast Hephner. He never struck me as right for the part. Eddie is a much better choice looks wise and chops wise. He’s way more believable in the part.
I agree. It’s strong script and I was thrown off by the casting of Hephner when I first heard about it. Regardless of Eddie poor personal decisions, his chiseled look and demeanor truly fit the role.