Pilots: Jordana Spiro 'Bites' NBC offer, Shane West in 'Nikita'

"My Boys" star Jordana Spiro is stepping up to the network plate, joining Becki Newton in NBC's pilot "Love Bites."

Her casting lead the latest round of news that also includes three "ER" alumni landing separate projects, including Shane West in The CW's "Nikita," and Dennis Farina in the David Milch-Michael Mann HBO project "Luck."

"Love Bites" is a romantic anthology that will focus on two characters, Spiro's Frannie and Newton's Annie. Frannie, according to The Hollywood Reporter, is a "career bridesmaid" who's tired of being single, while her friend Annie is an optimist who's saving herself for marriage.

The pilot is in the No. 2 spot for Spiro behind "My Boys," which airs its fourth season on TBS in the summer. Cindy Chupack ("Sex and the City") created the show.

- West will star opposite Maggie Q in "Nikita," The CW's update of "La Femme Nikita." He'll play a government agent in charge of tracking down the original Nikita, who's gone AWOL, with the help of her replacement (Maggie Q), the HR says.

The other "ER" veterans with new projects are Laura Innes, who has joined NBC's conspiracy thriller "The Event," and David Lyons, who will star in "The Cape," about a disgraced cop who takes on a masked-hero alter ego to clear his name. Lyons also starred in NBC's "Day One" this season, which as of now will only air as a two-hour movie.

- At HBO, Farina ("Law & Order," "Get Shorty") and John Ortiz will star in "Luck," about an ex-con who hatches a plan to take down a racetrack. Farina will play the lead character's right-hand man and Ortiz a horse trainer. Both have worked with director Mann in the past -- Farina starred in Mann's 1980s series "Crime Story," and Ortiz has appeared in "Public Enemies" and "Miami Vice."

- Elsewhere, Ravi Patel ("Past Life") will star with Rachael Leigh Cook in FOX's comedy "Nirvana"; "Better Off Ted's" Malcolm Barrett has joined another FOX comedy, "Most Likely to Succeed"; Tommy Dewey ("Roommates") and Suzy Nakamura ("10 Things I Hate About You") have signed on to ABC's "Freshmen"; and Patti LuPone ("Life Goes On," "Oz") will star with Laura Benanti in the CBS comedy "Open Books."

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Related:

'Ugly Betty's' Becki Newton 'Bites'
'Nikita' casts Maggie Q
Zap2it's pilot season coverage

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