Private Practice News (Page 4)

Would you take a whirl with a spinooff of Dancing With the Stars? What about expanding your Grey's Anatomy universe? ABC sure hopes so.

Dance X will showcase choreographed group dancing rather than pairs. The spinoff will feature Dancing judges Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba, only putting together competing troupes.

Dance X extends the Dancing With the Stars brand, said Steve McPherson, the president of ABC Entertainment.

"We've gotten really good response on the show [Dancing With the Stars] from the choreographed dances that we've done," he said.

"They are what they are in real life: choreographers. They have to decide who to take out of their groups. It's this painstaking process, which has a real emotional element to it."

Meanwhile, Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes wanted to focus on Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh, pictured) in a spinoff, Private Practice, because the character "had kind of run her course on Grey's Anatomy."

Grey's Anatomy had "a lot of really difficult, emotional stuff going on for kind of a multitude of characters," McPherson said. "Shonda has certainly listened to some of the stuff that people didn't respond to and has changed accordingly."

The result is Private Practice, which debuts Wednesdays this fall.

Follow this link to watch ABC's early trailer for the new series!

Production has begun in Los Angeles on Private Practice, the new drama from the creator of Grey's Anatomy, Shonda Rhimes, featuring an all-star cast of Kate Walsh, Tim Daly, Taye Diggs (right), Amy Brenneman and Audra McDonald.

The series will air each Wednesdays from 9:00-10:00 p.m., ET, this fall on ABC.

For those of you who didn't catch the pilot, which was embedded in a two-part May episode of Grey's Anatomy, here's a short synopsis...

From Shonda Rhimes, the award-winning creator of Grey's Anatomy, comes Private Practice, a story about finding a way to begin the rest of your life.

Addison Forbes Montgomery is a renowned surgeon. Having left behind Seattle Grace Hospital, a broken marriage with Dr. Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd and her torn relationship with Dr. Mark "McSteamy" Sloan, Addison has moved to L.A. in search of sunnier weather and happier possibilities.

Addison reunites with her friends from med school, Naomi and Sam Bennett, joining them at their chic co-op, Oceanside Wellness Center, in Santa Monica.

Naomi, a fertility and hormone specialist and majority owner of the clinic, and Sam, an internist whose self-help books have made him the "common man's medical guru," are newly divorced.

They co-exist professionally and personally, for the sake of their teenage daughter, Maya, and their relationship is amicable, yet tense.

The center's resident pediatrician is Dr. Cooper Freedman, whose cluelessness in his profession is nothing compared to his rocky personal life. A serial Internet dater, most dates end badly for him; some in grand theft.

Cooper finds solace and counsel in his closest friend, co-op psychiatrist Dr. Violet Turner - but she's no luckier when it comes to love.

Able to deftly advise her patients with their troubled relationships, she's intense, determined, and unwilling to let outsiders see the obvious cracks in her veneer. But inside, Violet is crumbling after a recent breakup with an ex who has already moved on and married.

Dr. Pete Wilder (once thought to be named Pete Finch) is a specialist in what is referred to as alternative medicine. Attractive and assured, Pete is a "catch" by any standard - in fact, he's already caught Addison's eye, and he, hers.

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TV Guide reports that Private Practice has added a new star in KaDee Strickland (below). She will play the administrator of the Oceanside Wellness Center and will be a series regular. Her character on Private Practice has not yet been named.

This news comes a little more than a week after the Practice producers somewhat controversially replaced Merrin Dungey with Audra McDonald.

Despite giving Private Practice the green light, ABC was clearly not pleased with it entirely and has been fine-tuning the final product it for the fall. Follow this link for a full biography of KaDee Strickland.

Along similar lines, Grey's Anatomy has promoted Chyler Leigh (Meredith's half-sister, Lexie Grey) to a series regular, signing her for at least 13 episodes.

Quite the busy day in the Grey's / Practice universe! Follow this link to learn more about Chyler Leigh over at our sister site.

This weekend's news about the recasting of Merrin Dungey (below, left) in one of the lead roles in Private Practice, raises an interesting question of how producers plan to handle the launch of the series this fall since the pilot was actually part of a two-hour episode of Grey's Anatomy.

It might've made sense, Variety notes, to repeat that episode, or even air a cut down version of it, in the first of Private Practice this fall.

But now that Audra McDonald (pictured, right) is taking over the role of Naomi Bennett, the college pal of Kate Walsh's Addison Montgomery, that is unlikely.

There'll be no re-shooting of anything done this spring, Variety reports.

Private Practice will start with a fresh episode that finds Addison Montgomery in L.A. and into her new life at the Santa Monica wellness center inhabited by her new host of quirky co-workers. Any needed back story can be filled in with dialogue in the opening moments.

So why the Merrin Dungey-Audra McDonald swap?

It has been speculated that the chemistry between Dungey and Kate Walsh was not up to par, but Variety reports that it was also a chemistry matter - between Dungey and Taye Diggs, who plays Naomi's estranged husband Sam.

Some were having trouble buying them as a couple.

Audra McDonald, a four-time Tony winner and a Juilliard-trained singer, is known for exuding a natural strength common to great stage actresses.

But the decision to make the switch couldn't have been easy for Shonda Rhimes, creator-exec producer of Grey's Anatomy and its spinoff.

Merrin Dungey is the sister of Channing Dungey, an ABC Studios executive who oversees Grey's Anatomy for the studio and is close to Rhimes.

Apparently, Addison Montgomery goes through girlfriends as fast as she does boyfriends. When Private Practice debuts this fall, Kate Walsh's character will have a new BFF - Audra McDonald.

TV Guide reports that McDonald, a four-time Tony winner, has been tapped to replace Merrin Dungey in the role of Dr. Naomi Bennett, Dr. Montgomery's old friend from medical school and trusted confidant.

The network's surprise decision was reportedly made for creative reasons.

Earlier this month, there were rumblings that execs had concerns that the Private Practice lineup wasn't perfect, especially as of the actors, who were cast hastily, reportedly didn't "pop" with audiences.

"Grey's Anatomy was cast off whoever seemed to fit the parts best and have good chemistry," says a well-placed source. "The spin-off was cast with actors the network and studio already had under contract."

Nevertheless, there are not expected to be any further cast changes coming before the show goes into production next month.

While we'll miss Merrin Dungey, we have to think creator Shonda Rhimes and ABC made the right call by discharging her. Of all the problems viewers expressed regarding the "enhanced two-hour Grey's" episode that doubled as the Private Practice pilot, a big one was the Dungey-Walsh dynamic.

We're looking forward to the debut of the new series and the role of Audra McDonald, an acclaimed actress and singer, within it.

Dr. Addison Montgomery has said goodbyes at Seattle Grace Hospital.

Kate Walsh, who will star in her own spinoff series, Private Practice, this fall, says her character has no loose ends to tie up with the angst-ridden doctors on Grey's Anatomy.

"I think I'm finished with Grey's," she said during a visit to Canada to promote her new show.

"My work is kind of done there," Walsh added. "I had come to Seattle to save my marriage, that didn't work. There's really nothing left for me there except the job."

The job, of course, isn't enough. After being turned down for the position of hospital chief on the Grey's Anatomy season finale, Addison was told, rather unceremoniously by Richard Webber, that she needed a new life.

Next month, she'll get one, as Walsh officially starts shooting Private Practice, the pilot of which was introduced to viewers during a special two-hour episode of Grey's Antomy earlier this year.

The brainchild of Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes, the show is set at a private medical facility in Los Angeles and co-stars Tim Daly of Wings fame and Amy Brenneman of the longtime drama Judging Amy.

The pilot episode received mixed reviews, and Walsh admits she had a little trepidation about leaving a show as successful as Grey's Anatomy.

Still, she says she loves the character of Addison and is excited to see her evolve. And, like many Grey's Anatomy stars, she has effusive praise for - and complete trust in - Shonda Rhimes.

"She feels passionately about writing for people - men and women - in their 30s and 40s who are, like: 'Now what?' 'What do we do? We're living lives that are unlike our parents in most every way. Or we tried to have the life that our parents had or emulate that, but it didn't quite work out so now what do we do?"'

Kate Walsh, 39, seems to closely identify with those questions.

Although she's drop-dead gorgeous, she's lamented that her romantic life is not where she thought it would be at this stage in her life. But those worries seem to have evaporated of late.

A few weeks ago, when ABC announced it was picking up Private Practice as part of its Wednesday lineup, Walsh had some news of her own: she's engaged to studio executive Alex Young.

That and the spinoff make for a moment the actress is ready to embrace.

"In times of faith in my life, I always thought everything would happen at once, and then of course there are times you're like 'no I'm going to die alone in a box on the street.'"

"I strangely felt very ready for all of this, if that's possible."

Earlier this month, ABC officially added Private Practice, the Grey's Anatomy spin-off starring Kate Walsh, to its fall lineup.

As die-hard fans of Grey's Anatomy, we too will be following Walsh's character, Addison Montgomery, as she travels to California in search of a new life.

The Insider strives to be the ultimate online source for all things Private Practice - quotes, pictures, news and discussion. We hope you'll visit us often as this exciting new series nears its debut.

We welcome you with a picture of the Private Practice cast...

From left to right: Taye Diggs (Sam), Merrin Dungey (Naomi), Tim Daly (Pete), Kate Walsh (Addison), Amy Brenneman (Violet), Paul Adelstein (Cooper) and Chris Lowell (Dell).

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