Lorraine Bracco - Westbury native who you know (and love) as Doc Melfi - will star in a Lifetime drama pilot entitled "Long Island Confidential" that may make the network's June 2008 lineup.
Now, before you get TOO excited, let's throw a wet blanket or two on this. First, "LIC" will be filmed in Toronto (production starts next week), and the last time I checked, Toronto doesn't look exactly like any part of LI that I'm familiar with, plus it's much colder. Second, this is a pilot order, which means it could get picked up, but it could just as easily NOT get picked up. Such is life in the TV trenches.
But we all know that's not gonna happen: This is Melfi's first outing since "The Sopranos" wrap and until the movie comes along - which it will, because Tony is not officially dead - then she needs something else to do. This should suffice.
What else can I tell you? Well, let's let Variety do the hard work, because it broke the story yesterday:
Bracco "will play Nora, the mom of series lead, Alison Elliott [most recently in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"] Elliott plays a female detective juggling family and career."
Neil Schubert, Lifetime's chief of publicity, told me a little while ago that the network's development team is "really, really high on the pilot" and that Nora's family is hugely unconventional. No details on what part of L.I. this is supposed to be set in, but as soon as we get 'em, you'll will be the first to hear.