Casting News -- Weekend Catch-Up Edition

Ryan Reynolds has officially landed the coveted lead role in Green Lantern, a big-budget action film based on the DC Comics superhero. Reynolds beat out Bradley Cooper, Jared Leto, and Justin Timberlake on Friday as Warner Bros.' favorite for the role of Hal Jordan, an Air Force pilot who is chosen by a dying alien to be his successor in an intergalactic police force known as the Green Lanterns. (Reynolds will be the first actor to portray characters for both DC and Marvel, after previously starring as Marvel comics character Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, as well as a vampire hunter in Marvel's Blade:Trinity.)

Sam Waterston will star in the world premiere of the new Athol Fugard play Have You Seen Us? as a South African professor now living in Southern CA, who must come to grips with his personal demons when an Eastern European Jewish couple sit down to dine. No other casting has been announced. Performances run Nov. 24 through Dec. 20 at the Long Wharf Theatre in CT.

Eric McCormack has been cast in a recurring role in the sitcom The New Adventures of Old Christine. The Emmy winner will play a therapist and potential love interest for series star Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Katherine McGrath has replaced Tony winner Marian Seldes in the Williamstown Theatre Festival's upcoming production of The Torch-Bearers. Seldes has withdrawn from the production for personal reasons. Performances run July 29 through Aug. 9.

American Idol finalists Anthony Fedorov and Diana DeGarmo will star in the Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma's upcoming production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Fedorov will star in the title role, with DeGarmo as the Narrator. The musical runs July 21-25 at the Civic Center Music Hall.

Sebastian Arcelus will return to the cast of Jersey Boys July 14. Arcelus will again play the role of Bob Gaudio. Jersey Boys is currently running on Broadway at the August Wilson Theatre.

Jeffrey Nordling and Beau Mirchoff have joined the cast of Desperate Housewives as series regulars. Nordling will play a New York landscape designer who moves to Wisteria Lane with his wife (Drea DeMatteo) and their tightly wound, sexy and intense son (Mirchoff).

-- Daniel Lehman