Showbiz people briefs

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Marshall Allman is joining the cast of HBO's "True Blood" as a regular for the upcoming third season.

On Alan Ball's vampire drama, Allman will play Tommy Mickens, Sam Merlotte's (Sam Trammell) long-lost younger brother who works at a Tire Depot in Arkansas.

Allman, who was a series regular on Fox's "Prison Break" playing LJ Burrows, recently guest-starred on AMC's "Mad Men" and FX's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."

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LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Ryan Devlin ("Veronica Mars") is joining the cast of ABC's freshman comedy "Cougar Town" as a recurring character.

He'll play Smith, a love interest for Laurie (Busy Phillipps), the ditsy assistant and close friend of Jules (Courteney Cox). Devlin recently starred in the feature "Weather Girl."

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LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Garrett Dillahunt has landed a co-starring role on Greg Garcia's comedy pilot for Fox, "Keep Hope Alive."

The show centers on Jimmy (Lucas Neff), a 25-year-old man raising an infant with the help of his quirky family after the mother of the baby, with whom he had a one-night stand, ends up on death row.

Dillahunt will play Jimmy's dysfunctional father and boss, who is not thrilled to find himself a grandfather and worries that the baby might carry her mom's homicidal gene.

"Hope" marks Dillahunt's return to Fox, where he co-starred on the drama series "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles." He also co-starred on the big screen in "No Country for Old Men."