Wakefield Jumps the Pond as Legally Mad's New Muse

The every-actresses' dream has happened.  And her name is Charity Wakefield.

David E. Kelley, star-maker of Calista Flockhart and creator of countless courtroom-drama shows (and potentially also separated-at-birth twin of Aerosmith) has named his lead for the new NBC show, Legally Mad. 

She's British, she's brunette, and she's virtually unknown.  The only thing manic/curious YouTubing Americans can really find her in are clips of the BBC Jane Austen-based drama Sense and Sensibility.  And a bootlegged copy of Burlesque Fairytales, if you really do your research. 

Wakefield will play Mad's bemused Brady Hamm, a brilliant young lawyer who turns down various prestigious clerkships right out of law school, opting to work for her father's highly eccentric firm instead.  She joins Jon Seda, who plays perpetually disgruntled Joe Matty, and previously cast Kristin Chenoweth. 

Kelley is bringing the 27-year-old Oxford School of Drama grad across the pond to begin shooting the pilot in February 2009.  The show will be filmed in Los Angeles.

-- Ashley Avis