David Boreanaz

Breaking Bones Scoop! I’m hopping on a plane to Los Angeles in just a few hours - my first Press Tour Diary will appear right here Saturday night! - but before I do, I wanted to post this scooptastic interview I just conducted with Bones executive producer Hart Hanson. There are loads of juicy nuggets about the new season, including new details about Booth and Brennan’s new boss, Dr. Camille Saroyan (played by Tamara Taylor), and major news about which Practice star is coming on to play the mother of Booth’s child. (Hint: it’s not Camryn Manheim!)

Ausiello: Explain why you’re bringing in a new boss for Booth and Brennan.

Hart Hanson: A couple of reasons. The first one is to increase ways to bring stories into the lab. She’s a coroner/pathologist. Very often we have to see DNA results come from somewhere else or hear about results from someone’s decomposed liver or something. This way, we can actually be there for it. On the character side, she’s Brennan’s superior, and has a completely different approach to how forensics are done. She has an agenda - in a good way. She’s been a coroner in New York City and knows how to form a case against someone - something that Brennan never thinks about. She just wants to find the truth. Cam knows how to put together a case, so she tends to make assumptions about the direction the investigation should go in, and that gives us some nice tension on the procedural side. Also, Cam has a past with Booth that will unfold over time, and that gives us another type of triangle. She provides a number of triangles for us to increase conflict in the show.

Ausiello: Isn’t Tamara also on the CBS mid-season drama 3 lbs? Will you share her?

Hanson: That’s a great question. My understanding is [that her 3 lbs role is] not a huge part that necessarily carries on. We have her for the first six episodes, and then we’ll see where we are. We’ll come to a gentleman’s agreement somewhere, depending on who needs her more and who wants her. [Whispers] I’m sure it’ll be us.

Ausiello: Will Cam and Brennan come to blows at some point?

Hanson: Not literally, I don’t think. But yes, there’s good conflict between them.

Ausiello: Will Brennan be jealous?

Hanson: If she is, it’s subconscious. We don’t play towards sexual tension between Booth and Brennan because we don’t have to; it’s just there. We try not to put it on the surface. But it’d be insane not to say it’s there. The audience will perceive it even if Brennan doesn’t.

Ausiello: When will you start to play toward their sexual tension?

Hanson: We decided to put off going there as long as we can before the audience is shrieking at us in horror. You just want to use up all the fuel that is there before switching to the next thing.

Ausiello: What does this mean for Jonathan Adams? Is he gone for good?

Hanson: He’s not gone for good, [but] he’s not a series regular. We hope to have him back. We loved Jonathan and his performance; we just couldn’t use him as a series regular. We were prying him into stories. When I started the series, I thought it would be more lab-centric and that her boss, as an administrator, would have a larger role to play. And it just didn’t work that way. David and Emily took off and we were underutilizing this wonderful actor. We really want to have him back.

Ausiello: How will his absence be explained?

Hanson: He’s just busy running the Jeffersonian Institute. He’s up the food chain further than a guy who would be hanging around the lab, which is something we knew right from the beginning. It’s like having the president hanging around the Capitol or something.

Ausiello: Any other interesting casting coming up?

Hanson: We are meeting the mother of Booth’s child. They never married, and we’re exploring that story. I think I wrote in one of [last season’s] scripts that the mother of his child just refused to marry him, and it was hilarious on the message boards. People wrote, "Why would someone refuse to marry David/Booth!" And we thought, "Ah, that’s a good story." So, Jessica Capshaw is coming in to play that part for a few episodes. We’re pursuing another arc about what really happened to Brennan’s parents, and we hope to have Loren Dean back as her brother. He was very good in our season-ender.

Ausiello: When does the Capshaw arc kick in?

Hanson: Episode 2.

Ausiello: And she’ll be around for what - three, four episodes?

Hanson: I think so, yeah. It may be more, even. We have her on a guest-star basis. We haven’t signed her to the series. She’s busy and we were lucky to get her. David talked to her. They know each other; they’re friends.

OK, folks, I’m going home to pack for my big L.A. trip now. Come back here beginning Saturday night for the first of my Press Tour Diaries. And remember - it’s not too late to send me a Snapple care package or two!