Oscar Nominee Diahann Carroll Joins Grey's Anatomy

[R!ck]

http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur27960.cfm

The cast of “Grey’s Anatomy” will have an additional person-of-color for its 2006/2007 run. Veteran actress Diahann Carroll, who made history in 1968 as the first African American woman to star in a TV series, will join the cast of the popular ABC drama when it kicks off its new season on Thursday, Sept. 21 at 9 p.m.

Each time, I'm surprised to still be asked to appear on a television show," she tells Entertainment Tonight in an exclusive interview. "I feel as though they've counted me out. I might as well sit on the beach. Then the phone rings."

Thirty-eight years after breaking barriers with “Julia,” the 1968 series starring Carroll as a widowed nurse raising her son, the 71-year-old Bronx native received a call from “Grey’s Anatomy” creator Shonda Rhimes about becoming a regular for the new season. "She said the most lovely thing," Diahann recalls. "She said, 'I knew when I was a girl that if I had any success in television or film that I wanted to work with you.' I said, 'When I hear things like that, you make me feel so wonderful that I'll work for nothing.'

Unfortunately, Carroll promised producers that she would not reveal details about her character, nor divulge information about upcoming storylines.

"They explain that you just say nothing, and I think it's a wonderful idea. So I'm on the show, that's as far as we can go," she says.

[Greg]

Luvs it!

How cool is that?

I've thought Diahann Carroll was cool since her !@#$%^&*]y Dynasty days.

I hope she's been cast as Dr. Bailey's mother. I think that would be fun.