After a little digging, Gothamist found this photograph of Dennis Farina as Detective Joe Fontana in the upcoming season of Law & Order. Farina's bio is already up on NBC's L&O site, and it seems that Detective Fontana will be "hard-nosed" to Jesse L. Martin's "passionate and compulsive" Detective Ed Green. Farina/Fontana looks more put together than Jerry Orbach's lovable Detective Lennie Briscroe, but it does look like he wears his pants as high. We're hearing that this season will have some big things in store for Law & Order, since producer Dick Wolf is gearing up for battle with CSI: NY in the Wednesday at 10PM time slot. What's interesting is that neither Wolf nor CSI producer Anthony Zuiker or CBS chief Les Moonves will say their show will definitively beat the other, but they are crowing a bit about their various strengths. Of course, Gothamist is partial to Law & Order because it's shot on our streets.
Gothamist on: news of Farina's casting: Jerry Orbach's last episode and filming his last scenes; debate over the best L&O cast and a visit to the L&O set. And based on this NBC photograph, Gothamist surmises that the episoide may be Abu-Gharib related; also, between Martin and Farina is Robert John Burke, the wonderful Hal Hartley regular.
