Manheim, Hope, Baker set in "Stone"

By Kimberly Nordyke

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Camryn Manheim, Leslie Hope and Kathy Baker have joined the cast of the CBS TV movie "Jesse Stone: Thin Ice," the fifth installment in the hit franchise starring Tom Selleck as a small-town police chief.

Manheim ("Ghost Whisperer") will play Elizabeth Blue, a woman in search of her child who was stolen from the maternity ward seven years ago. Hope ("24") has been cast as Sidney Greenstreet, an Internal Affairs investigator charged to find out why Jesse was involved in a shootout in Boston when he was off-duty. Baker ("Picket Fences") is reprising her role as Rose Gammon from the most recent installment, "Jesse Stone: Sea Change."

"Thin Ice" begins shooting this month in Nova Scotia. The airdate has yet to be determined.

The franchise has done well for CBS. The first movie averaged 18 million total viewers in 2005, while the next two movies -- "Jesse Stone: Night Passage" and "Jesse Stone: Death in Paradise" -- averaged 14 million and 14.9 million, respectively, in 2006. The most recent installment, "Jesse Stone: Sea Change," averaged 13.4 million in May opposite the finale of ABC's hit series "Dancing With the Stars."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter