One of my favorite actresses is joining the cast of America's most watched drama series. That means about 20 million viewers a week will get to see her in action. The actress is Rena Sofer and she's been cast on NCIS as a hard-nosed, no-nonsense lawyer. The role could be long term or recurring, they're not saying yet.

In fact, they're not giving much away at all. Not even the character's name or when she starts. Thus far, it's hard to see where a lawyer would be needed in the current storylines, so it's likely that there's an arc on the way that will bring her along as a key element.

Rena has a load of primetime experience, having appeared on Heroes, 24, Couples, Blind Justice, Just Shoot Me... but for me she was never better than when she was on General Hospital as Lois Cerullo.

Good gravy, that was bad.

After being rather impressed with Army Wives, I thought the next original offering from Lifetime, Side Order of Life, would offer something just as engaging and worthwhile, but instead I was given a full hour of cookie-cutter characters, lame dialogue and a plot I've already seen in about eight million other TV shows, movies and books.