EXCLUSIVE 10:40 AM: A 20-year successful partnership between a top TV producer and a major studio may end up in court. This morning, JAG and NCIS creator Don Bellisario is filing a breach-of-contract lawsuit against the series’ producer CBS TV Studios over offshoot NCIS: Los Angeles. The complaint, which you can read here, is being filed at Los Angeles Superior Court by Bird, Marella, Boxer, Wolpert, Nessim, Drooks & Lincenberg.

Bellisario, who was let go from NCIS in 2007 after star Mark Harmon threatened to quit the show, has not been involved in the successful spinoff series which was developed the following year and launched in fall 2009 and has not received a penny from it. The filing aims to rectify that, claiming that under Bellisario’s contracts with CBS TV Studios and its predecessors, Bellisario had a right of “first opportunity” “to participate creatively in economically in the development” of any “new spinoffs, sequels or remakes” of any series he had created for the studio as long as he worked on the original series for the first 2 seasons. The suit claims that CBS denied Bellisario that right as he was never offered to create or be part of NCIS: LA, which was written by Shane Brennan, former No.2 to Bellisario on NCIS who took over the hit series after Bellisario’s ouster at the end of Season 4. “Pursuant to the first opportunity provisions of Plaintiffs’ contracts with CBS, CBS is contractually obligated to compensate Bellisario for NCIS:LA, including a percentage of its profits as well as a certain fixed compensation,” the suit says. (Continue to read…)

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Claire Forlani has just been cast in CBS’ NCIS: Los Angeles in a recurring role this season, and the big news is her character description: Forlani plays Lauren Hunter, the NCIS: LA team’s new Operations Manager.

Which raises a crucial question: What does this mean for Hetty?

Hunter is described as attractive, authoritative, cool and calculating: “She rarely lets her guard down, but when she does she reveals a dangerous quality that suggests she is much more than your run-of-the mill operations manager.”

Forlani’s storyline begins on the NCIS: LA episode airing May 10. Sources say the new operations manager and Linda Hunt’s character are very much part of this season’s cliffhanger and that a big question for fans will be whether Hunt will continue on the show — as the operations manager, or doing something else — next season.

Forlani is currently playing Queen Igraine in Starz’ Camelot and had a recurring role for several seasons on CSI: NY. What do you think, should CBS keep Hetty around?

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Tuesday’s NCIS: Los Angeles may prove once and for all just how much agents Kensi Blye and Marty Deeks really care about each other.

When a secure facility housing sensitive materials on a Marine base is compromised, Kensi (Daniela Ruah) must go undercover to get close to Stanley King (guest star Victor Webster), a world-class thief suspected of several high-end heists. Kensi has to gain King’s trust by any means necessary, which isn’t good news for Kensi’s partner Deeks (Eric Christian Olsen).

NCIS: Los Angeles exclusive: Will Victor Webster come between Kensi and Deeks?

“Kensi and [Stanley] definitely get along,” Ruah says with a sly laugh. Now whether that’s for her to get closer or because she thinks he’s cool, the audience will have to figure out. But there’s definitely a little flirtation going on, and I think Deeks gets a little jealous.”

But Ruah also says it’s a safety issue. “This big-time robber seems to eliminate every partner he’s ever worked with, so she’s under some kind of risk,” Ruah says. “Deeks is feeling really protective. It’s not just the fact that they might like each other. It’s also the fact that, above all, they’re also partners and their job revolves around protecting each other. He has my back, I have his and that’s what we do. It’s a great bonding episode for Kensi and Deeks.”

Ruah says the fact that Kensi has allowed Deeks to get as close as he already has is telling. As a teenager, she lost her father. Last season, her former partner Dom (Adam Jamal Craig) was kidnapped and eventually killed, and earlier this year it was revealed that her former fiancé suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and disappeared.

Check out photos of the NCIS: Los Angeles cast

“Kensi has a background of having lost every man in her life. She has this huge fear of losing someone else,” Ruah says. “She has these walls up and I think very slowly she’s letting them go down with Deeks. If something were to happen to him, it would be completely devastating.”

So can those Keeks (or Densi, depending on who you ask) ‘shippers look forward to something more between the characters?

“I think Kensi tries to fight against it as much as possible, but there’s definitely something there that’s going to be developed,” Ruah says. “You want to surprise the people who watch the show. I think we have to be careful with going too far too soon; it doesn’t leave a lot of places to go.”

NCIS: Los Angeles airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on CBS.

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Thank you for showing NCIS: LA some love last week!! Any more scoop for Deeks and Kensi fans? — Maria
May 3. I think you’re going to enjoy that episode.

I have so many NCIS questions I don’t even know where to begin. So I’ll take anything, Sandra. Anything. Puh-leaaaseee. — Jamie
You already know that the finale will revolve around the port-to-port killer, buuuut I’m hearing the episode also might feature a few familiar faces. Which, naturally, leads me to ask: In a perfect world, who from the past would you all like to see again? Also, if you haven’t read Mandi Bierly’s piece of scoop on Ziva’s new boyfriend, Ray, click on over.

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What’s coming up on NCIS: Los Angeles? — Jill
ADAM: Look for the team to work a protection detail — only they’ll be trying to keep the bad guy safe. The show is looking for an actor to play a lifelong criminal who is as charming as he is talented at building high-end custom guns. He also happens to be the government’s key witness in an arms trafficking case — which is precisely why someone wants him dead.

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It’s ice-cream-sundae Thursday on the set of NCIS: Los Angeles, and almost everyone is indulging between takes. Even LL Cool J, who moonlights as a fitness guru. “Hey, you’ve earned it,” a crew member tells the überbuff rapper/action hero, as if he needs anyone’s consent for a sugar rush. The collegial atmosphere continues as Chris O’Donnell passes Daniela Ruah and Eric Christian Olsen, who wrapped their roles a half hour ago yet have stuck around to yak over their Ben & Jerry’s. “Don’t you two have homes?” O’Donnell demands to know, breezing on by before Ruah has a chance to kickbox his behind.

Apparently the lone holdout, O’Donnell hasn’t taken any Cherry Garcia to his trailer. But once inside, he nods toward one thing he has allowed himself to indulge in on the Paramount lot: a sense of home. “I finally got some pictures of the kids up,” he says, quietly chuckling at his reluctance to accessorize the space. “For Season 1, I was like, I’m not putting anything in my trailer. But now, I thought, I’ll put some family pictures up. That’s a Season 2 thing.”

It’s no wonder O’Donnell feels like he might be holding onto that trailer for a while: His show is firmly established as the second most popular scripted series on TV, trailing only NCIS itself, which precedes the spin-off by an hour on CBS. Like the mothership, the newer show has been enjoying a ratings uptick midway through the season. One February episode brought in more than 18 million viewers, the show’s biggest tally since the premiere in 2009. It’s clear that NCIS: Los Angeles and its audience are into a budding buddy relationship.

The surge is happening at a time when this ostensible ensemble series has cemented the fact that it’s really about pairings. There has always been the show’s A team, of course, with LL Cool J and O’Donnell as Sam and Callen, classic brothers-in-arms — and tight T-shirts. But thanks to some second-season cast changes, pretty much everyone else except mother hen Hetty (Linda Hunt) has been partnered up, too. Out in the investigative field, Ruah’s Kensi and Olsen’s Deeks are the B couple — although they earn an A for sexual chemistry. Back at the ranch, the C pair is Barrett Foa and newcomer Renée Felice Smith as cute surveillance geeks Eric and Nell.

As on the original NCIS, maybe only about 10 percent of any episode is given over to pure, plot-free characterization, mostly in the opening and closing bullpen scenes. But it’s that 10 percent that hooks the audience just as much as the stunts and explosions and gunplay and saving-the-world stuff. “Chris and I try to understand each other’s worlds, and the difference is part of the fun,” says LL Cool J. “A kid from Queens and a kid from the north side of Chicago are probably not gonna meet, unless it’s on Facebook or something. Those roads just don’t cross. But this shows you how cultures can merge and how people can meet and connect.”

There is a certain comfort-food aspect to seeing these very different characters get along so well. And while the spin-off is very much NCIS: Casual Dress, that informality plays against the fact that these agents rarely stoop to investigating mere dead sailors. They’re much more likely to be saving the world, or at least Malibu, from terrorists. In the March 22 episode, Callen and Sam go undercover to prevent the assassination of a Venezuelan politician. As O’Donnell puts it, “In any real agent’s career, what we do each week would be a highlight-of-their-career type thing. But hey, it’s TV.”

“Chris has that absolutely right,” says exec producer Shane Brennan. “To spin off such a successful and much-loved show, it became apparent that it had to be familiar but different, so I decided to make NCIS: Los Angeles a show with a much stronger narrative drive. Stories move more quickly, and there’s often a ticking clock, so by the time you hit that fourth act, there’s a real imperative to stop something or save someone.”

For more with the cast of NCIS: Los Angeles, pick up this week’s issue of TV Guide Magazine, on newsstands Thursday, March 17!

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