Maria Bello is ready for 'Prime' time

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.

There are few more admired starring TV roles than the one Helen Mirren played for more than a decade on "Prime Suspect." As driven, insecure, tough-minded and -- toward the end -- hopelessly alcoholic Jane Tennison, Mirren could say as much in a glance as in a page of dialogue. Now, it's Maria Bello's turn.

Remakes are tough, but they can work ("The Office"), which sort of makes Bello -- briefly with "ER" before heading to the big screen ("A History of Violence") -- the Steve Carell of the 2011 season.

Onstage Monday at the TV critics' summer press tour here, the diminutive, soft-spoken Pennsylvanian seemed a continent away from the NYPD detective, Jane Timoney, she'll play on the NBC reboot. Timoney is brash, arrogant, loopy, slightly ironic and a sartorial exclamation mark. Unlike Tennison -- partial to muted, earth-toned suits -- Timoney is accessorized with scarves and porkpie hats. She brandishes her .45 as casually as it were a billfold, and sucks on a cigarette as if it were the last butt on Earth.

Like Tennison, she deals with workplace sexism through gritted teeth, preparing a revenge that will (doubtless) be served ice cold. "I'd like to say that I'm not Jane," Bello told critics, as if they needed telling. "We didn't want her to be in a traditional pantsuit and being earnest. There's nothing earnest about the show, and nothing earnest about this character."

Bello said she had seen the original "Prime Suspect" "some years ago," remembering it as "a bit dark." Her version will cast out the shadows, and even bring some humor into the mix.

Asked whether she was worried about comparisons with Tennison, Bello said, almost glumly: "I wished my body looked like Helen Mirren's."

The show launches Thursdays at 10 p.m. on Sept. 22.

NEW MSNBC DEAL FOR MADDOW, NOT SHARPTON No, Al Sharpton is not a regular MSNBC host . . . yet. MSNBC chief Phil Griffin told critics yesterday that "no decision" has been made to hire the activist, as some reports have speculated. But Griffin did announce a new multiyear deal for Rachel Maddow that will carry her past the 2012 election.

MSNBC also announced it is reinstating political analyst Mark Halperin today, a month after he was suspended for an off-color remark about President Barack Obama.