Calista Flockhart Ready For TV Return

PASADENA, Calif. (July 23, 2006) –Calista Flockhart says it’s time to get back to work.

The former “Ally McBeal” star, who has spent the last five years at home with boyfriend Harrison Ford and her 5-year-old adopted son, returns to TV this fall as a right-wing radio host turned pundit in the new drama “Brothers & Sisters.” The show, which co-stars Sally Field and Rachel Griffiths, debuts Sept. 24 on ABC.

“I really want to go back to work. It just seemed like the perfect time and the perfect project,” Flockhart told the Television Critics Association’s summer meeting this week.

She said she was especially happy to find a show with an ensemble cast of top actors.

“I wasn’t going to be responsible for carrying the show and I would have a better schedule,” she said.

Field also has kept a lower profile in recent years.

“It’s a very interesting time in television,” she said. “Television obviously is having to compete with a lot of other things and it’s having to change and grow and try new things.”

Griffiths has taken time off for motherhood.

“I was thinking of not doing television for a while for many reasons, mainly the kind of schedule and being away from my homeland,” the Australian actress said. “Calista was a big draw for me. She’s an icon. I watched that show (`Ally McBeal’) and it carried me through my lonely 20s, and so it just felt right.”