Law & Order: Criminal Intent has hired a new captain: Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.
Mastrantonio will join the USA series for its ninth season, according to The Hollywood Reporter. She’ll be the first female captain for the Major Case Squad, following characters played by Jamey Sheridan and Eric Bogosian.
The casting of Mastrantonio also marks the end of a pretty major shakeup of the show that saw original stars Vincent D’Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe departing along with Bogosian and Julianne Nicholson. Jeff Goldblum, who joined the show this year as Detective Zach Nichols, will be the full-time lead of the show, and Saffron Burrows was recently cast as his new partner, replacing Nicholson.
The part will be Mastrantonio’s first regular role on a TV series. The Oscar nominee (for The Color of Money) did have a recurring part on Without a Trace a few seasons back. Her other credits include The Perfect Storm, Scarface, The Abyss and most recently, the 2008 CBS movie The Russell Girl.
Source: Zap2It
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Thanks for the news — too bad about D’Onofrio, Erbe, and Bogosian, but Mastrantonio should be able to bring the right gravitas to the captain role. One amendment, though – D’Onofrio was full-time lead of the show for the first I believe five years, until Chris Noth came on to relieve the pressure. D’Onofrio was great, but I liked the diversity of story and theme having alternate leads offered. All props to Goldblum, though — Raines was good practice for his Nichols, who brings a welcome wry humor to the cat-and-mouse game.