The beautiful Dana Delany was among the many ABC stars who came out to showcase their new fall TV shows at the ABC 2010 Red Carpet Premiere Event held at Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

On her new show, Body of Proof, scheduled to premier March 29, 2011, Delany is set to play a testy medical examiner who used to be a neurosurgeon until an accident left her unable to operate. Delany says the role hearkens back to her days on China Beach, “one of my all time favorite series.”

“This character [on Body of Proof] feels very close to me,” Delany says. “You all know how I like to play complicated characters. There’s a whole range of things to be played there. … She’s complicated, smart, definitely complex.”


When asked about the role she just left on Desperate Houswives, Delany says: “I had a ball on Desperate Housewives. I had a great three years. When ABC came to me with this opportunity, “it was an offer I couldn’t refuse. Marc Cherry [creator of Desperate Housewives] was great. He said he didn’t want to get in the way of me having my own show and that I’m always welcome back on Desperate Housewives. So I feel very blessed.”

Here is where things got crazy for Delany recently. Just as it happens to her character on the pilot episode of Body of Proof, and right before she was due to start filming that episode, Delany’s car was hit by a bus. She broke two fingers and her car was totaled. “I was in Santa Monica, 8:30 in the morning, and my car was totaled, and I’m lucky to be alive…As I was turning, they hit my passengers side.”

To add insult to injury: “The irony is, when I got out of the car the driver said, ‘I know who you are! Can I have your autograph?'” Delany did not say whether the bus driver ended up with the autograph or not.

How did Delany get her role on the new ABC series?  She says she owes her new job to Mr. Castle!  “I blame it all on Nathan Fillion. He’s the one who asked me to go on Castle as a favor because we’re old friends. And [recently ousted ABC president] Steve McPherson saw me and thought, ‘She’d be good on this pilot.’

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