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Just because he plays Jacob, the enigmatic leader of the island on "Lost," doesn't mean Mark Pellegrino has any answers. Try to pry secrets from him about the show's final season, and he laughs. "I would love to tell you—if I actually knew," he admits. "It's all in the brains of the creators and writers, and none of us know." The character of Jacob was often spoken of but never seen until the final episode of the show's fifth season. Not being a regular viewer of the show, Pellegrino had no idea that he was auditioning for such a mythic role. "There's so much secrecy surrounding the show that they literally send out false sides with false character names. I think his name was Jason in the sides, and all I knew was I was doing a scene on the beach with somebody," he recalls. "It wasn't until the...

CBS' Cold Case is hot for Danny Pino. The actor has joined the cast of the new crime drama series from Jerry Bruckheimer TV, Warner Bros. TV and CBS Prods. as a regular. The project, executive produced by Bruckheimer, Shaun Cassidy, Jonathan Littman and Meredith Stiehm, centers on a female detective on a Philadelphia homicide squad who works on cases that have never been solved. Pino will play a new homicide detective joining the team. In the fall, Pino was the first actor cast in Steven Bochco's futuristic cop show for Fox, NYPD 2069. He also co-starred in the Tom Fontana-Barry Levinson drama pilot for HBO Baseball Wives and had a recurring role on the FX cop drama The Shield. Pino, who starred on the WB Network comedy series Men, Women & Dogs, is repped by Endeavor and manager Geordie Frey of GEF Entertainment.

Kyle Chandler has joined the cast of NBC's drama pilot The Lyon's Den, while Teri Polo and David Sutcliffe have been tapped as the leads in ABC's untitled Chris Henchy/Marco Pennette comedy pilot. Meanwhile, Marisa Coughlan and Busy Philipps have been cast as the leads and Miguel Arteta (The Good Girl) has been tapped to direct the CBS drama pilot presentation Criminology 101, lifting the cast-contingency on the project. At the WB Network, Ian Gomez has been cast in the comedy pilot Exit 9, while newcomer Sophie Winkleman has got the lead in the network's drama pilot Chasing Alice. In other casting news, Anna Gunn (ABC's The Practice) has joined Steven Bochco's futuristic cop drama NYPD 2069 for Fox and Paramount Network Television, and David Cubitt has joined the cast of the NBC drama pilot EDNY.

Danny Pino is the first actor recruited for Steven Bochco's upcoming futuristic cop series NYPD 2069. The Fox Broadcasting Co. project, from Steven Bochco Prods. and Paramount Network Television, centers on Alex Franco, an NYPD detective from the year 2003 who was left brain-dead after a murder attempt, cryogenically frozen and awakened in 2069. Pino will co-star as a 28-year-old NYPD detective in 2069, a member of a four-person squad who keeps his emotions in check and is impressed by Franco, the new addition to the team, who eventually becomes his partner. Gregory Hoblit will direct the pilot for the show created by Bochco, Nicholas Wooton and Matt Olmstead. Pino co-starred in the Tom Fontana-Barry Levinson drama pilot Baseball Wives. He recently joined FX's cop drama The Shield as a recurring. Pino, who also co-starred in the WB Network's comedy series Men, Women & Dogs, is repped by Endeavor and manager Geordie Frey of GEF Entertainment.