Author: Seth Abramovitch

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Russell Tovey is joining the cast of Looking, HBO’s upcoming half-hour dramedy about the lives of a group of gay men living in San Francisco, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Tovey, best known as werewolf George Sands on the hit BBC supernatural drama Being Human — which later inspired a U.S. version on Syfy — has been booked to play the recurring role of Kevin, an accomplished video game wunderkind who has achieved financial and critical success at a young age. Kevin, who is gay, works closely with Patrick, the show’s lead, played by Jonathan Groff. 

The deal marks the first major U.S. role for 31-year-old Tovey, who is openly gay. The British actor has previously said that he veers away from playing gay roles, telling the Independent, “Every character I play is straight, which is unique, my agent says, because it’s not really been done before that someone who is completely out is able to play straight roles. So for me to play gay it has to be something special, because it might actually be more of a risk. So I’m waiting for that role — I want it to be something that moves things forward.”

The series, created by Michael Lannan, centers on three friends, played by Groff, Frankie J. Alvarez and Murray Bartlett, as they hunt for love and good times, with all manner of modern conveniences at their disposal to do so. Also in the cast is Scott Bakula, who plays Lynn, a wealthy and popular figure in the San Francisco gay community.

The pilot episode, penned by co-executive producer Lannan, was directed by Weekend’s Andrew Haigh, who serves as executive producer along with Sarah Condon. The eight-episode series is set to begin shooting on location in San Francisco in the coming weeks.

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It could have been a scene plucked directly out of an episode of HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, but this time, it was all too real. Curb star Jeff Garlin is now being sued by the woman whose car he allegedly vandalized in a dispute over a parking spot, leading to his arrest last Saturday and a night spent in jail. (The L.A. city attorney has since dropped the charges.)

Read the complaint.

New allegations about the incident have emerged in the civil lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. According to the complaint, the plaintiff — described as a “small woman, 5′ 2″ in height” — was in her car with a friend in the parking lot of a Studio City CVS pharmacy. Gridlock ensued, and the woman allegedly “made a face” at Garlin after he refused to move his car so she could park.

Once she did find a spot, the complaint states, Garlin “got out of his car, followed her from behind and slammed his fist against the driver’s side window so hard that it broke the glass.” Garlin then allegedly approached the windshield and “stuck his face in front of her in a threatening way, gave her the ‘finger’ and screamed crazily at her.” He then “began yelling to her friend to call the police.”

STORY: ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’s’ Jeff Garlin Arrested 

At that point, the plaintiff, who says she did not recognize the comedian, allegedly drove away from the scene, but her companion got out, returned to Garlin’s car and took a photo of his license plate. The companion called the police, who arrived at the scene and arrested Garlin. 

The woman is seeking unspecified damages “in an amount subject to proof at trial.” The causes of action are assault, intentional destruction of personal property and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

“I can tell you that it’s just so not sexy,” Garlin recently told The New York Times of the incident. “And not what was portrayed. It was horrible being in jail, although I’m gonna have a great routine about it. But the greatest stress, for my family and myself, was that what was being written and talked about truly wasn’t true.”

A representative for Garlin had no comment on the lawsuit.

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Dan Harmon is fully aware that he has a big mouth.

The Community showrunner — back at the cult NBC sitcom after being benched for one season for his difficult behavior — is now apologizing for his indelicate assessment of season 4, which was overseen by Moses Port and David Guarascio.

“Writers fighting other writers is the f—ing American dream in the eyes of Sony,” he said of the show’s studio on Monday’s Harmontown podcast. “That is what they want. They want creative people rewriting each other. They want creative people replacing each other. They want us interchangeable.”

Harmon dismissively said of Port and Guarascio’s efforts that they “tried their best,” but that the season was ultimately “like an impression. An unflattering one.” He also likened watching plot developments unfold on his baby to “being held down and watching your family get raped on a beach.

Realizing he had once again put a Niketown inventory’s worth of shoes in his mouth, Harmon backtracks on a blog post titled, “It Won’t Happen Again Again.”

“I went to bed feeling great,” Harmon writes of the podcast venting session, “woke up and started work on season five of Community with our exciting season five staff. I took them to lunch, checked my tweets, discovered my name in several headlines next to several bad words, and, as usual, it was then that I started to consider how my words might affect other people if viewed as headlines.”

Harmon then apologizes to his fans (who “got paid nothing to stick by Community and get us to a fifth season only to hear the incoming showrunner say some stuff that felt very un-Community“), the cast and crew (“I wasn’t thinking about your contribution or describing it. I was just indulging my petty feelings about being left out”) and, finally, the show’s writing staff (“I’m sorry I pooped on your work”).

Harmon also addresses the hot-button topic of rape humor, saying he is “sorry to anyone I hurt by conjuring the concept of rape in a metaphor about my stupid hurt feelings.”