Jet landing

Robin Givens joins CW’s ‘Batwoman’

Jet landing: Actress and model Robin Givens skyrocketed to fame in the 1980s when she played wealthy whiz kid Darlene in the ABC sitcom “Head of the Class.” Modern-day audiences probably know her best as Josie’s mom and town mayor Sierra McCoy on CW’s “Riverdale,” but this fall Givens will be appearing on another CW series: “Batwoman.”

Givens is set to join the cast as a series regular in Season 3. She’ll play the role of Jada Jet, a powerful CEO for Jet Industries.

Per CW, “Jada isn’t bossy: she’s the boss. Passionate and hardworking, a woman who has worked her way through life’s ups and downs to climb her way to the top — all while being extremely protective over her impetuous son. A woman with a deep past that forced her to give up her first-born child, Jada is a woman with a good heart, but will do whatever it takes to protect her family.”

Off-screen, Givens still fields the occasional question about her tumultuous marriage to boxer Mike Tyson, especially ahead of a new limited series starring Jamie Foxx (“Ray,” 2004) as the former heavyweight champion.

On-screen, the actress has appeared in more than 100 film and TV projects — she even added “director” to her resume with “Ann Rule’s A Murder to Remember” (2020) and “Favorite Son” (2021). Givens is also reprising her breakthrough role in HBO Max’s planned reboot of “Head of the Class,” but expect Darlene to be more of a recurring character — her on-screen son, Terrell, will be played by “Diary of a Future President” actor Brandon Severs.

As for “Batwoman,” a lot of changes were introduced in the Season 2 finale. The mantle of Batwoman was formally passed on to Javicia Leslie’s character, Ryan Wilder, after Kate Kane (played by Ruby Rose in Season 1 and Wallis Day in Season 2) left to find her missing cousin, Bruce Wayne, a.k.a. Batman.

And given the departure of actor Dougray Scott, who played Kate’s father, there aren’t a whole lot of Kanes left in Gotham — just Kate’s sister (and Arkham Asylum resident) Alice, played by Rachel Skarsten (“The Vow,” 2012), and stepsister Mary, played by Nicole Kang (“Swallow,” 2019).

‘I LoveThis ForYou':

Some fun news for comedy fans: a new Showtime series from “Saturday Night Live” alums Vanessa Bayer and Jeremy Beiler is not only moving forward, it’s been handed a full series order.

“I Love This for You” was picked up to pilot a while back, and it is said to be inspired by Bayer’s experience of overcoming childhood leukemia.

Bayer will star as Joanna Gold, who dreams of becoming a home shopping channel host and of being known as anything other than “that cancer girl.” Striking out on her own, Joanna finds romance and even forms a friendship with her idol, Jackie, played by fellow “SNL” legend Molly Shannon. It all plays out against the backdrop of a highly competitive workplace run by an unstable billionaire.

Cybill Shepherd (“Moonlighting”) was originally supposed to play the role of the network boss, but while announcing the series pickup, Showtime also disclosed that the actress has exited the series. Despite this early departure, the billionaire role is still key to the story and it will be recast.

The rest of the cast seems to have remained unchanged, with Paul James (“Soundtrack”) starring as down-to-earth stage manager Jordan, Ayden Mayeri (“Veep”) as chipper host Beth Ann, Matt Rogers (“Haute Dog”) as the CEO’s righthand man and Punam Patel (“Special”) as offbeat backstage producer Tami.

“I’m so thrilled to be making this show with Showtime and that all of my hours of home shopping as a kid are finally paying off!” Bayer said in an official statement. “It’s been an absolute dream, and my co-creator, Jeremy Beiler, and I are so grateful to the entire creative team we feel so lucky to work with.”

Musical TV: Could we soon see Jennifer Lopez (“Enough,” 2002) in a TV adaptation of a Broadway musical? Signs point to yes.

Through her production company, the actress, singer and producer recently teamed up with Skydance Media to develop original content based on Concord’s catalogue of Broadway shows and musicals ranging from “A Chorus Line” to “Hair.” That catalogue also includes the works of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and Rodgers and Hammerstein, among many others, and even songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton,” though Disney owns the film and TV rights to that one.

Here’s the really interesting part: under the terms of that deal, Lopez has the option to star in at least one of the TV or film adaptations, so there is a chance we could see Lopez performing an Andrew Lloyd Webber classic.

This isn’t the first time Lopez has expressed interest in musicals: she was previously tapped to star in NBC’s live version of “Bye Bye Birdie” back in 2017, but the network didn’t move forward with that production.

Still, Lopez’s love for the genre is strong, as she explained in an official statement on behalf of her Nuyorican Productions company: “Musicals were a part of the tapestry of my childhood. We’re so excited to begin our association with Skydance and Concord in reinterpreting some of the most classic musicals and bringing them to life in new ways for a new generation.”