Jason Alexander, Michael Urie and More to Star in Pilot Reading of TV Series HOLLYWOOD AND VINE, 11/13

Broadway veterans will perform in a new pilot reading of HOLLYWOOD AND VINE, a one-hour television series, on Tuesday Nov 13th at AFI. Mark Polish will direct the reading with a cast featuring Jason Alexander, Michael Urie, Jack Noseworthy, Heather Tom, Liz Larsen, David Furr, Nick Blaemire and Anthony Heald. They will be joined by Dan Gauthier and James Frances Gint.

The writers, Zack Bandler and Max Spitulnik, met while starrng in WITH GLEE off-Broadway and Brian Spitulnik is currently in CHICAGO on Broadway. The script is a top-ten Official Finalist of the New York Screenplay Contest for Television Drama Pilot.

It’s March 9th, 1954 on the set of He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, starring the reigning queen of comedy, Babe Mercer and her husband Benny. As show runner of CBS' highest-rated program, Frank Murray is trying to stay ahead of falling ratings by bringing two young new writers onto his small staff at the urging of the head of the studio. However, on the eve of Edward R. Murrow's war with Senator Joseph McCarthy over CBS' See It Now, the network-wide threat of retribution puts everyone on the CBS payroll in the cross hairs of the federal government. With the pressure bearing down from all sides, Frank must not only keep He Loves Me on top of the competition, but also protect his staff from the fallout of America's greatest political inquisition.

The project is being produced and packaged by bi-coastal talent management and entertainment company, Michael Einfeld Entertainment, Christopher Nathaniel and Bad Kids Productions. This is the second collaboration between the production companies, the first being the web series, LAID OFF, which starred Shirley Jones, Marty Ingles, Janet Carroll, Melody Thomas Scott and Anthony Heald.

Jason Alexander - 7 Emmy Award and 4 Golden Globe Nominations for Seinfeld, TV: Curb Your Enthusiasm, New Adventures of Old Christine, Monk, Friends, Film: Pretty Woman, Shallow Hal, Cinderella, Lucky Stiff, North, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tony Award Winner: Jerome Robbins' Broadway

Michael Urie - TV: Partners, Ugly Betty, Broadway: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Off-Bway: Angels in America

Anthony Heald - Film: Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon, X-Men: Last Stand, The Client, Pelican Brief, A Time to Kill, Accepted, TV: Monday Mornings, Boston Public, Boston Legal, The Closer, Numb3rs, NCIS, Tony Award Nominee: Love! Valour! Compassion!, Anything Goes

David Furr - Film: Evening, TV: HBO' s Washingtonienne, AMC's How to Cheat on Your Wife, NCIS, Jersey Shore Gone Wilde, Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park: As You Like It Broadway: The Importance of Being Earnest, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Accent on Youth, The Rivals

James Francis Ginty - Film: Surrogates, K-19: The Widowmaker, Stephen Frears' Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight(HBO), Seattle Rep's Romeo and Juliet

Liz Larsen - Tony Award Nominee: Most Happy Fella, TV: Sopranos, Law and Order, Third Watch, Broadway: Fiddler on the Roof, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Damn Yankees

Heather Tom - 14 Emmy nominations 4 Emmy Awards, The Bold and the Beautiful, The Young and the Restless, One Life to Live, Broadway: Prymate

Dan Gauthier - TV: Hot in Cleveland, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Lost, Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place, Ellen, Tour of Duty, Film: Teen Witch

Jack Noseworthy - Film: Event Horizon, Pretty Ugly People, U-571, Surrogates, The Brady Bunch Movie, Broadway:The Sweet Smell of Success,Jerome Robbin's Broadway, Cats,A Chorus Line

Nick Blaemire - Film: Assassination of a High School President, Gods Behaving Badly, TV: The Big C, Broadway:Godspell, Cry-Baby

Brandi Burkhardt - TV: Hart of Dixie, Passions, Broadway: Tale of Two Cities, Mamma Mia

Reading Directed by Mark Polish - Film: The Astronaut Farmer, Stay Cool, Sundance Film Festival: Twin Falls Idaho, Northfork, The Smell of Success, Jackpot (Winner: Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award and Seattle International Film Festival New American Cinema Award)

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