Casting news from ER: Stanley Tucci, star of the very short-lived CBS drama 3 Lbs last year, will join the show later this year for a multi-episode stint.

He's going to play "a brilliant ICU turned ER chief," in just one of many big changes that are coming to the show. TV Guide wonders if this means that Goran Visnjic will be replaced, since it has been reported that Visnjic might not return next season (though producers are trying to get him to agree to star in a few episodes here and there).

This is interesting casting, going for an older guy instead of a resident hunk (sorry, nothing against Tucci's hunkiness). This guy deserves a weekly show. I remember a TV movie from years ago, a pilot for a series produced by Tom Selleck, that had Tucci as a detective. The show never made it, so I hope this works out.

[via TV Tattle]

We all know that war and famine still plagues a large portion of the globe, but most people feel there's not much they can do about it, short of throwing money at the problem. In the case of Ed Artis, Jim Laws and Walt Ratterman, however, they actually travel into some of the most dangerous parts of the world to help people directly. Artis, Laws and Ratterman --a retired army medic, a doctor, and a renewable energy expert, respectively-- risk their own lives to make sure people get the help they need.

Have you noticed that the name of Eric Dane's character on Grey's Anatomy, a doctor, has the same name as another famous TV doctor?

Dane's character is named Dr. Mark Sloan, which was also the name of Dick Van Dyke's character on Diagnosis: Murder. Is the name a tribute to Van Dyke's character? No, it's not, according to an ABC publicist. Just one of those funny coincidences.

Which is probably a good thing, since fans won't want to think of Dick Van Dyke wearing only a towel around his waist. Of course, now that I've put that image in your head, how can you not think of it the next time you see him?

[via TV Tattle - also mentioned by Lee Goldberg]

A British study of 69 children ages 7 to 12 found that the kids, when having blood samples drawn, experienced less pain if they were watching cartoons than when their own mothers tried to soothe them. My first inclination, which was also echoed by Dr. Brenda McClain of Yale University, is that when a parent is obviously trying to console a child, the child becomes more anxious because they believe something must really be wrong. Kids tend to be smarter than people give them credit for, and they pick up on things like that. Nevertheless, other researchers insist that this means television is having more of an impact on kids than their own parents. I don't see it as anything so dramatic, but what do you guys, especially those of you with kids, think? I just wonder when the kids get to have their revenge and jab the researchers with sharp objects. It seems only fair.

[via Lost Remote]