Craig Ferguson knows how to turn almost any topic sexual. He caught Maria Bello off guard with a conversation about the infamous hat she wears on 'Prime Suspect.' She brought the hat with her on 'The Late Late Show' (Weeknights, 12:37AM ET on CBS), where she put it on Ferguson's head.

He thought it made his head look huge, so he put it on hers. He'd said earlier that he thought she had a lovely head, but he liked it with the hat on as well.

"It looks good," he said. "I'm surprised that you chose to wear a hat, because you're famous for your head."

The day the promising pilot for 'Prime Suspect' (10PM ET Thursday, NBC) aired, I said I was going to delay reviewing until I'd seen more of the cop drama. As we all know from bitter experience, sometimes "promising" shows turn labored and hackneyed by the time the third episode airs (if not before).

That's absolutely not the case with the excellent 'Prime Suspect,' which is one of the best new dramas of the fall. (Showtime's 'Homeland,' which was renewed for a second season Wednesday, is the best, but 'Prime Suspect' certainly deserves to be mentioned in the same sentence.)

I'm writing now to urge you to watch the struggling NBC drama, and not just because ubiquitous guest star Mark Sheppard will be appearing in the show's ninth episode and I want 'Prime Suspect' to stay on the air until then (and beyond).

NBC's new programming strategy? 'Prime Suspect' on all the time!

The network previously placed 'Prime Suspect' in the Mondays at 10PM timeslot formerly held by 'The Playboy Club,' but now the show will air on Tuesday, Wednesday and in its regular Thursday at 10PM home.

Have no fear, 'Parenthood' and 'Law & Order: SVU' fans, it's just during the week of Oct. 24. According to Vulture, 'Parenthood' and 'SVU' were scheduled to have rerun episodes during that week.

The latest U.K. remake hit the airwaves last night as Maria Bello took on 'Prime Suspect' (Thu., 10PM ET on NBC). The "woman in a man's world" aspect of the show feels a little outdated -- though maybe that's just wishful thinking -- considering the plethora of strong, capable female detectives on television, but Bello is very compelling as Det. Jane Timoney.

In this opening salvo, we saw just how committed and dedicated she is to being a detective, which makes us curious why the guys are so sure she slept her way to her current position. If she did, that would seem out of character, as she's more focused on doing the job right than any of them.

While the procedural elements were firmly in place, and every other character that isn't Timoney is completely two-dimensional, Bello still manages to present a beautifully crafted character that feels real, flawed and strong.

Maria Bello has big shoes to fill when she debuts as the star of 'Prime Suspect' in the fall, so she'll doubtless be relieved to know that the rebooted version of the gritty cop drama has received the blessing of the writer and star of the British original.

Producers of the U.S. remake told reporters that while the new series is lighter and has more humor than the original, it has won the approval of series creator Lynda LaPlante and star Helen Mirren.

Executive producer and writer Alexandra Cunningham ('Desperate Housewives') said that LaPlante had written to them approving their updated concept of the series.

"She couldn't be happier that Maria is shouldering the character ... She is happy it is being modernized, and there's nobody better to do it than Maria. And Maria reminds people of Helen Mirren in her strength and her complete lack of vanity."

The NBC adaptation of 'Prime Suspect' exchanges Scotland Yard for the NYPD's homicide squad, and Helen Mirren for Maria Bello. But if it was going to make Aidan Quinn exchange New York for Los Angeles, he wasn't going to do it, he said Thursday on 'Today' (weekdays, 7AM on NBC). The show is set in New York, where Quinn lives, and most of the pilot was filmed there, but the series will film in Los Angeles.

That was almost a deal-breaker for Quinn, who has a family back East. "It involved moving to L.A., and I've lived in New York, and I said, 'No, I can't,'" he said. The producers told him to just read his part, the lieutenant Quinn described as "the head of the dog and pony show," and that hooked him. Then he read the whole script, and said, "This is really good."

After a winter awards frenzy for some of Hollywood's most seasoned stars, it was the kids' turn Saturday to take center stage at Nickelodeon's Kids Choice Awards, just in time for spring break -- and with temps that felt like summer.

Forget Academy politics and catering to the foreign press. The annual award show allows fans to vote on categories that include include staples like favorite TV actress (Selena Gomez took the orange blimp this year) and demo-specific verticals like cutest couple ('New Moon''s fictional Jacob and Bella [Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart] beat out the Obamas) and favorite voice from an animated movie (Jim Carrey). Comedian Kevin James hosted the event, which featured performances from tween phenom Justin Bieber and Rihanna, plus the requisite celeb-sliming.

Sweltering afternoon heat didn't stop the likes of Rihanna, Will Smith and his family, the Jonas Brothers and more from swarming the orange carpet ahead of the show. While the KCAs is familiar turf for some, others were taking it all in for the first time.

Maybe Maria Bello is taking this 'History of Violence' thing a little too seriously.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the former E.R. co-star will headline the HBO series 'Emergency Sex,' based on the book 'Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures: A True Story From Hell on Earth'.

The series is inspired by the gritty tales of beleaguered U.N. peacekeepers Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait and Andrew Thomson, who were all stationed in war-torn countries like Cambodia, Somalia and Haiti throughout the early '90s.

Once upon a time, hot shot movie actors would never have deigned to stoop so low as to appear on -- gasp --- TV, but thanks to big screen talent like Glen Close ('Damages'), Alec Baldwin ('30 Rock') and Laurence Fishburne ('CSI) having made the leap, more and more "A listers" have begun to think of the old boob tube as less, well, boob-y.

In fact, during any given pilot season, the networks compile a "wish list" of movie stars they'd love to get their mitts on and this year's no different. The Hollywood Reporter details that this time 'round, Oscar nominee Julianne Moore and indie darling Maria Bello rest atop the list for several of the more meaty female roles.

It seems that Moore, who's been dipping her toes into the television pool with a [much-mailgned] guest arc on '30 Rock' would be the dream addition to the Peacock net's take on PBS' long-running 'Prime Suspect.' ABC, too, has its eyes on Moore for its upcoming comedic drama 'Scoundrels' but has also approached Bello and former box office heavyweight-turned-compulsive-tweeter, Demi Moore about the role of a mom who tries to get her family of small-time criminals back on the straight and narrow.

It's about time Maria Bello got her own series, because it seems like she's always playing the wife of someone. She hasn't done a lot of TV lately, not since ER in the 1990s. But at the movies, she's played the wife of Viggo Mortensen (A History of Violence), Nicolas Cage (World Trade Center), Tim McGraw (Flicka), and Brendan Fraser (The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor), to name a few.

Maybe Bello finally realized that in order to front a series, she'd have to do it herself! She's signed a deal with HBO to executive produce and star in a new series, according to Variety.

The untitled hour-long project follows a woman who's forced into a life of crime to support her three teenage sons after her husband is killed (so, no husband whatsoever in this series).

ABC had garnered a fair amount of press over this one because of the obvious tie-in to the Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie movie. The big news is that the creators of the movie are back for the TV show. Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Swingers) and Simon Kinberg (X-Men: The Last Stand) have signed on to try and transform their movie to the small screen.

Sometimes the wheels of TV production turn mighty slowly. In August of '05 Adam posted about Doug Liman signing a deal with NBC. Then, last January there was talk about his first project being a series adaptation of the movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

A year later, and the show is finally getting the go ahead for a pilot, but not at NBC. Somehow the show has now ended up at ABC. Liman, who directed the big screen version, will direct the pilot. It will be written by Simon Kinberg, who wrote the movie. Kinberg says of the series, ""It's essentially Married With Children with guns." Casting is under way with nobody officially attached to replace Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie at this time.

I'll be curious to get a look at it, just because it's Doug Liman, but my real hope for the show is that it will somehow lead to a DVD set of the completely unrelated CBS show, also called Mr. & Mrs. Smith. You might remember that from the fall of '96, starring Scott Bakula and Maria Bello.

Hi again. No new ER this week due to America's national pastime (the World Series, for the confused). So, I thought I'd take my usual Thursday night spot to pose a question to all fans of the show, past and present. Who do you miss from County General? There have been plenty of doctors and nurses who have come and gone through the doors of the emergency room. Some of them we were glad to see go, and we wish others would return for at least a guest appearance.

While I wait for your comments on the subject, here are the five ER cast members I miss.

John Carter (Noah Wyle) -- All right, I admit it, I had a "man crush" on Dr. Carter. In the very beginning of the series run I always felt the show was a bit empty when he wasn't around. Carter was the face of how things changed in the emergency room. Plus, he was one of those characters that we could root for, especially with events such as his stabbing and drug addiction and his rocky relationship with Abby. I wouldn't mind at all if he returned to ER for a few episodes this season.