One of the perks of my job is getting to go to set visits of new TV shows. Back in the fall, I got an invite to go behind the scenes of NBC's mid-season drama, The Black Donnellys. Produced by Academy Award winners Bobby Moresco and Paul Haggis (from last year's Crash), the show focuses on lives of four Irish brothers who end up having to control their neighborhood and defend it from the Italian mob. Despite the low ratings of the first two episodes, I'm still pulling for this show. Watch it tonight at 10 ET, and tell me what you think. But before you do, find out what Olivia Wilde, one of the only women on the set, has to say about getting the part, her relationship with the guys and whether she's similar to her character. Plus, don't miss more behind-the-scenes pics of the guys.
My new buddies, Jonathan Tucker and Olivia Wilde Olivia Wilde, who turned 23 on Sunday, is strikingly gorgeous with a shade of warm brown hair I would kill for. Sitting inside the diner where she works on the show (it may be a set, but it looks fully functional -- right down to the menus and the bar stools), Olivia tells me how nervous she was before the audition. "I knew it was going to be a really tough audition process. Not only because of knowing that both Bobby and Paul have very high standards, but knowing that the show, they were not just going to go for the regular type of people -- the pretty people or the popular people." Before reading the script, Olivia had told herself she was absolutely not doing another television series. She had previously worked on The O.C.; she was Marissa Cooper's blonde, lesbian friend, remember? In any case, she had resigned herself to films only, but after one look at the script, she remembers thinking, "Oh, sh*t!" because she was immediately drawn in and thought, "I have to play this character." She says didn't know why, didn't any find any immediate similarities between Jenny and herself, but she knew she had to do it. Sitting next to Olivia, with a boyish charm that could convince pretty much anyone to do anything (and let's not forget those washboard abs we saw in episode two), Jonathan Tucker, who plays the series' main character, Tommy Donnelly, echoes Olivia's thoughts. "Sometimes you choose roles," he says, "and sometimes roles choose you, and I think that specifically applied to all of us on this project." Read on for more on Olivia and behind-the-scenes photos from my day on set!
