LOS ANGELES — NBC officially announced Wednesday that
James Spader is the man who will fill void of the “world’s best boss”
on “The Office.”
Spader (“Boston Legal,” “The Practice”) joins the
cast of the NBC comedy, reprising his role as new CEO Robert California
of Sabre, the parent company of Dunder Mifflin.
“James will reprise his role as Robert California,
this uber-salesman that has a power to convince and manipulate, like a
high-class weirdo Jedi warrior,” Paul Lieberstein, one of the series’
executive producers and a series regular, said in a statement. “He’ll
have been hired over the summer as the new manager, but within hours,
got himself promoted. Within days, he took over the company. James has
an energy that is completely his own, and ‘The Office’ has no tools for
dealing with this guy. We’re thrilled he’s joining our cast.”
Spader’s Robert California, self-assured and sexually
charged, made a brief appearance in the series’ May finale. Kathy Bates
played the company’s CEO last season and had a small presence on the
show, but Spader’s character will have a more full-time role.
The hire adds a new face to the mix following the
departure of Steve Carell, who played everyone’s favorite boob of a boss
Michael Scott for seven seasons.
The eighth season of the comedy premieres this fall.
———
(c) 2011, Los Angeles Times.
Visit the Los Angeles Times on the Internet at http://www.latimes.com/.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
