January Jones says she's come to enjoy playing mean characters like 'Mad Men's' Betty Draper, and Regis Philbin is inspired by Jones' 'Unknown' co-star Liam Neeson to try out his Scottish accent again on 'Live With Regis and Kelly' (weekdays, syndicated).

"Now that [Betty Draper has] become stronger and more independent and, sort of, mean, I guess, I'm getting more offers to play mean people," Jones said, adding that it's much more fun to play unkind characters. "I don't want to be sweet and nice."

Last October, it was announced that Liam Neeson would replace Mel Gibson in 'The Hangover 2.' How'd he get the gig? The award-winning actor exchanged a few texts with 'Hangover' star (and his 'A-Team' costar) Bradley Cooper.

Cooper sent him a simple "Do you wanta be in Hangover 2?" text message while Neeson was drinking a glass of wine. "I was like, [he motions taking a sip and then texting] 'Yeah,'" he said on 'The Tonight Show' (weeknights, 11:35PM ET on NBC). Cooper texted back, "Tomorrow?" Neeson took another sip and replied simply, "Yeah." Ah, modern technology. Neeson also confirmed that he will be "covered in tattoos" in the film.

You don't understand how anyone can draw comedy from cancer? Well, what if we told you super-comedian Liam Neeson is involved? 'Taken' was hilarious. Wait, we're confused too ...

Showtime has announced Neeson will be joining Cynthia Nixon and Reid Scott as guest stars on their upcoming dramedy series 'The Big C.' The show premiers August 16 and Laura Linney as schoolteacher dealing with cancer. Oliver Platt plays her juvenile husband and Gabourey Sidibe plays her smart-aleck sidekick.

In a bit of bizarre news, Liam Neeson will appear on Bravo's 'Watch What Happens Live' this Thursday (Midnight ET/Wed., 11PM CT) to promote his new film, 'Clash of the Titans.' Viewers will be able to send in their questions online for what will reportedly be his only TV interview. The episode airs following the season 2 premiere of 'Top Chef Masters' (11PM ET). [TV Guide]

More casting news after the jump.

The upcoming A-Team movie has released its first cast photo (a larger version can be seen here), and I'll give credit where credit is due. Not only has Fox cast the movie perfectly, but they've gone out of their way to make the cast look like their 80's television equivalents. Okay, Rampage Jackson isn't wearing gold chains, but that's about it.

They even made Liam Neeson look like George Peppard. How cool is that? And of course that's the classic van in the background. Even if this movie ends up being a mindless action flick, then it's still following in the footsteps of its originator and will likely make $100 million that weekend.

I just wonder if anybody is actually going to be shot and killed in the movie. It never seemed to happen during the television show. More importantly, will any of the original cast members make a cameo?

Huh. I didn't even realize they had finished casting the big-screen A Team movie let alone started to film it. But above is the first pic from the set. That's Liam Neeson as Hannibal, Bradley Cooper as Face, Quinton Jackson as B.A. Baracus, and Sharlto Copley as Murdock (here's a bigger version of the picture). The film comes out next June.

[via Pop Candy]

I love it when a cast comes together, except this one.

Joe Carnahan's cast for the big screen A-Team remake has three out of the four main team members cast and is awaiting confirmation on the fourth.

So far, Liam Neeson has been confirmed to play Hannibal, Bradley Cooper has been fingered for Faceman, and mixed martial arts and UFC fighter Quentin "Rampage" Jackson will play B.A. The director has approached but not yet confirmed Sharito Coplay to play Murdock, debunking rumors that Jim Carrey, Robert Downey, Jr. or Woody Harrelson would be the team's fourth man.

If you haven't heard, Liam Neeson and Bradley Cooper might be in the big screen A-Team movie. I can certainly picture Cooper in Dirk Benedict's place, and I guess Neeson could make a good Hannibal, though he wouldn't have been one of my top choices. But how about Murdock, the crazy team member played by Dwight Schultz? Who could play him?

A week from now, HBO will probably be one of the big stories from the Primetime Emmys thanks to the success of the John Adams mini-series. But it's not sitting on that success, the premium cable net is banking on it. HBO announced today a mini series based on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln called Manhunt. That news would be interesting enough because the series will deal with the 12 days after Lincoln was shot when the assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was on the run. However, the guys that HBO have tapped to work on Manhunt are two of the best in television -- David Simon and Tom Fontana.

HBO knows Simon and Fontana's work really well. Simon was the creator of The Wire and Fontana's brainchild was Oz. This is also not a new collaboration. Fontana turned Simon's book, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, into the Homicide: Life on the Streets TV series for NBC.

The Kennedy Center Honors were taped this past weekend in Washington DC for a December 26th broadcast on CBS. This year's honorees include Andrew Lloyd Webber, Zubin Mehta, Dolly Parton, Smokey Robinson and Steven Spielberg. The moment making the internet and gossip blog rounds right now features Jessica Simpson flubbing the lines to Dolly's "9 to 5." You won't see that in the broadcast. In fact, what you see in the broadcast is an extremely pared down version of the live awards show.

(S05E06) The story for this week's episode was more involved, which is a good thing. A little plot goes a long way. When the plot gets too thin everything rides on the gags, and it is hard to pull off an episode with just gags. While the sex-ed story has been told many times, I liked the Family Guy take on it.

It gave them a good reason to bring out slutty Lois, and slutty Lois is usually pretty funny, like when she was trying to explain the wonders of sex to Meg. Or showing up for role-playing night dressed as Grimace? Good stuff.