MANDY PATINKIN - IT'S OFFICIAL: PATINKIN RETURNING FOR SINGLE CRIMINAL MINDS EPISODE

IT'S OFFICIAL: PATINKIN RETURNING FOR SINGLE CRIMINAL MINDS EPISODE

Mandy Patinkin will return for a single episode of CBS's Criminal Minds "to wrap up his story," TV Guide Online reported Sunday. It provided no details. Earlier, Ed Bernero, the show's executive producer, refuted rumors that producers had refused to grant Patinkin a raise after the show became a hit. "This is not about money," Bernero said on a fansite for the show. "This is not about something Mr. Patinkin asked for that wasn't provided." In fact, Bernero claimed, Patinkin gave no hint that he was leaving the show until he failed to show up for work on the day before the first episode was scheduled to be shot. "He also has not contacted anyone within the show (producers, cast, crew) to explain why he isn't returning. Even to this moment, we have no word from him," said Bernero. "He gave us no advance notice that anything was wrong, no opportunity to find a way to make the loss of this character work, no indication that we should be looking for someone else, no warning that we might have to rewrite the first seven scripts (which is how far ahead we try to work) without the central character in them. None. Zero."

16/07/2007