News Brief: Shemar Moore on 'Y&R' Script; 'Scandal' Recasts First Daughter; Rebecca Mader, Colleen Zenk to 'Blue Bloods'

Shemar Moore and Kristoff St. John.

* Shemar Moore and Kristoff St. John reworked The Young and the Restless script for his return on September 10 and 11. "The original script did not pay enough attention to the Winters family history — they had us discussing all this more recent stuff Malcolm didn't know anything about — so I got on the phone with Kristoff and we worked out a few ideas. We then went to speak with Mrs. Phelps [executive producer Jill Farren Phelps] and expressed our concerns and she was great. We were able to get in some great references to the past that I think the longtime audience will really appreciate. I hope and believe the fans will like what they witness, but I think they're going to wish that many other questions and topics had been addressed."

* There's a new First Daughter in town. Scandal has tapped Body of Proof's Mary Mouser to play Karen Grant, who was previously portrayed by Madeline Carroll,

* Matt Nable (Riddick) has been tapped to play DC Comics villain Ra's al Ghul on Arrow.

* Once Upon a Time has tapped Frances O’Connor to play Belle's mother in the upcoming fourth season. The 47-year-old actress will portray Colette, whom we'll meet briefly in the sixth episode, but find out she had an immense impact on Belle’s life. There’s a possibility to see her again later in the season.

Colleen Zenk on the set of Blue Bloods.

* Longtime As the World Turns star Colleen Zenk, nominated at this year's Indie Series Awards for her brilliant work in Thurston, will be guest-starring in an upcoming episode of CBS primetime drama Blue Bloods.

* Lost actress Rebecca Mader has landed a guest-starring role on Blue Bloods. Mader will play Tori, a sexy and brilliant attorney who is Erin's old law school classmate—and her most bitter rival. Now the highly paid partner in a top law firm, Tori specializes in getting notorious criminals off for the crimes they have committed, and she mocks Erin's "sanctimonious" disapproval.

* O.C. patriarch-turned-Covert Affairs honcho Peter Gallagher is joining Law & Order: SVU's upcoming 16th season in a recurring role. He will play Deputy Chief William Dodds, the charismatic and tough-as-nails boss who oversees all of the special victims units in New York City. He demands respect and hard work from the commanders that answer to him, and is used to getting it.

* Warner Bros has set Parenthood's Dax Shepard to write, direct and star in a screen version of CHiPS, that TV series that ran from 1977-83 and featured two officers who patrolled the highways of California armed with motorcycles and the tightest khaki cop uniforms in television history. Shepard will play Officer Jon Baker (played in the original by Larry Wilcox), while Michael Pena is attached to play Frank "Ponch" Poncherello, the role Erik Estrada originated.

Elizabeth Warren shoots Alpha House. Liz Clayman/Vulture

* Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren visited Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens yesterday to film a cameo for the second season of Alpha House, Amazon's political comedy created by Doonesbury's Garry Trudeau. And while Warren's certainly no stranger to television appearances, this marks her debut as an actress.

* Dominic Purcell has boarded CW comic-book drama The Flash as a DC Comics villain, reuniting with his Prison Break co-star Wentworth Miller in the 10th episode.

* Boychoir star Joe West is the son of Maura West, Emmy winning soap opera actress currently turning General Hospital into chaos as a beautiful 40s style female mobster. When I saw her in Roy Thompson Hall last night my first instinct was to call the police or duck. Her GH character means business. She told me Joe was her son, and that she has five kids! This one doesn't fall far from the tree.

* Ordnance Survey (OS), one of the UK's leading cartographical specialists, have taken on a unique project of providing the layout of the town of Weatherfield (England) in their database, including the titular street of 54-year-old soap opera Coronation Street.

* Nollywood heartthrob Desmond Eliot is shooting a 300-episode soap drama at a set located in Muthaiga, Nairobi. "The storyline is purely Kenyan and the set is located in Muthaiga. Right now the cast and crew is working at shooting all his scenes first before he leaves. We started shooting last week and and so far we have shot 22 episodes."

* While the time of the show is changing in some cities, General Hospital will continue its tradition of bringing intrigue, thrills, love and laughter to our afternoons. Kirsten Storms, who plays Maxie, plays a major part in this fall's storyline. And after 15 years in the business, she's ready to run and gun. "Soaps have taught me just a great work ethic, and we're always busy," Storms said. "I think it just teaches you to stay on top of your game."

* Before appearing on Broadway, Andrea McArdle already was an in-demand child actress, appearing in more than 50 commercials, playing Horshack's sister on Welcome Back, Kotter and snagging a two-year-role on the soap opera, Search for Tomorrow. "My father worked for Amtrak so we were able to ride the train free from Philadelphia to New York, so I was able to go to auditions, we wouldn’t have had the money otherwise to do that," she says. "It was my idea to do this. I begged them to let me go for my first commercial and the minute I did it, I loved every moment of it."

* Is there a difference between a soap opera and a telenovela? Telemundo stars Aaron Diaz, Eugenio Siller and Rafael Amaya explain.

* Former Hollyoaks actor Emmett Scanlan has been cast in Constantine as the DC Comics character Jim Corrigan. Corrigan is a police detective who is driven to stop injustice regardless of the letter of the law, leading him to be an ally for earth's protector John Constantine (Matt Ryan). Scanlan also plays a riot guard in the summer blockbuster Guardians of the Galaxy.