You saw it in this morning's trades: Adam Scott, so poignant and funny on Starz's Party Down as a struggling commercial actor who returns to the depressing milieu of cater-waitering to pay the bills, has joined the cast of NBC's Parks and Recreation. If ever a show didn't need more cast members, Park's bloated ensemble, which also now includes Rob Lowe, would be the one. Scott's loose contract with Starz requires that he only appear on three episodes on Season 3 -- a similar arrangement that led to the show losing Jane Lynch to Fox's smash-hit Glee this season. (Lynch does return for the Party Down season finale -- an episode revolving around her wedding.) When Movieline spoke to Scott in December, he seemed to be down with Down, calling it "my favorite job, I just love it," and telling us "he could keep doing it forever." So what happened? Probably a mixture of money and visibility -- though it would be presumptuous to assume Scott, who has a producer credit on the series, is gone for good.
Meanwhile, his costar Ken Marino, who plays the dimwitted cater supervisor Ron Donald, was forthright when we asked him yesterday how he felt about losing Lynch to a network series:
"I hated it," Marino said. "I still can't find it in me to watch the show. I still watch a little bit just to watch Jane but I can't...I hated it. But when you trade out Jane Lynch to Megan Mullally, you aren't missing a step. You're doing a lateral move from one awesome comedienne to another awesome, amazing comedienne. But it sickened me."
"I had the pleasure though of directing the season finale of the second season [of Party Down]," Marino went on. "It was Jane's character's wedding. So I got to act, and direct Jane and Megan in scenes where they were going head to head. That was awesome, and I didn't even have to do anything except get them in the same frame together and let them do their thing. I think the world of Jane as a person, and am in awe of her as a comedian, and same with Megan. I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to work with them. But I don't like Glee. I don't like what they took from me."
"It seems like it's a very popular show," Marino said, referring to the high school-set musical series. "And a very good show. But you know -- I'm just very upset with them. I don't know why they did that to me. I'm hope we get to do more, but what a blessing to have gotten to do 20 of those. I love every one of those guys, and I get to play a really stupid character."
With a big dick!
"With a big-ass dick," he replied, smiling. "Well -- with a big interesting dick, according to the episode."