Maria Bello is returning to NBC with a role on 'Law & Order: SVU.' The Golden Globe-nominated actress, who played Dr. Del Amico on 'ER' and won raves for her performances in films like 'The Cooler' and 'A History of Violence,' will appear in two episodes of the long-running crime procedural. According to TV Guide, Bello will play a woman with a hidden past being investigated by Detective Benson (Mariska Hargitay). The gig reunites Bello with former 'ER' producer Neal Baer. The network has yet to schedule her episodes.

Plus, in other TV news today:

• Syfy is bringing first-person shooter video game series 'Red Faction' to the small screen with a two-hour original movie/backdoor pilot called 'Red Faction: Origins,' reports Deadline. The cable net is teaming up with video game maker THQ for the action-adventure project, which is set to premiere next March. No casting announcements have been made for the flick, which was penned by 'Warehouse 13' scribe Andrew Kreisberg.

Head after the jump for the latest 'Criminal Minds' spinoff casting news, to learn which TV vet is joining Betty White in 'Hot in Cleveland,' and more.

This seems to be a very active week for celebrity deaths, and it's sad to report that Carol Burnett Show veteran Harvey Korman has died at age 81. He died of a ruptured abdominal aneurysm at his UCLA Medical Center.

Besides The Carol Burnett Show, where Korman teamed for a ton of great sketches with Tim Conway (often cracking each other up), Korman appeared in many other shows since the early 60s, including ER, Ellen, Perry Mason, Route 66, The Red Skelton Show, Dennis the Menace, Hazel, Jack Benny, Gidget, The Lucy Show, The Munsters, The Wild, Wild West, F Troop, and many others. He was a regular on the sitcom Mama's Family and did the voice of The Great Gazoo on The Flintstones. Movies that Korman appeared in include History of the World, Part 1, High Anxiety, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Blazing Saddles, Son of Flubber, Gypsy, and others.

Do you ever get the feeling that all of the great classic stars and performers are dying and it's going to be a very different world in a couple of years? Rather depressing.

(S02E12) "Save it for your iVillage blog, Lemon." - Jack, to Liz

Tonight's episode of 30 Rock had more jokes and one-liners - the kind where you actually smile and laugh out loud - in just the two minute opening teaser than According To Jim and Unhitched have in an entire season (combined). It got me thinking that the show is sort of like the live version of Family Guy: lots of crazy one-liners and non-sequiturs, often punctuated by a bizarre, seconds-long flashback. And I mean that comparison in a good way. There's no other comedy that's running on all cylinders like 30 Rock is right now.

While Liz deals with having Dennis back in her life, Jack looks for a new celebrity spokesman for the Republican party and Kenneth gets involved with an old TV star.

This isn't a very good day for companies under the Fox banner. First Zsa Zsa's husband, and now this.

Veteran comedienne Carol Burnett is suing Twentieth-Century Fox because they used her animated "charwoman" character (the cleaning lady with the mop and bucket from The Carol Burnett Show) in an April, 2006 episode without her permission. She's asking for $2 million.

I think I have to start taking law classes or something, if these celebrity lawsuits keep coming at this pace. I think I remember this episode. It showed the charwoman as the maid at a porn shop. If the show can be sued for pop culture references like this, the lawsuits will never end, since the show has about 20 of them in every episode, and some aren't too flattering.

[via TV Tattle]