The Deal Report: August 4, 2006

TELEVISION
+ Cocktails, evasive execs, and all the Diet Coke you can drink: The Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena, Calif., wrapped July 27. Your highlights….

Haylie Duff returns to The CW’s miraculously resurrected 7th Heaven playing a seminary student…. Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry — totally in charge this season! — says: ”The women are going to be involved in the mystery right from the start.” Praise the Lord — or at least Marcia Cross…. Sally Field is now mom to Calista Flockhart on ABC’s Brothers & Sisters, replacing Betty Buckley…. Rescue Me‘s Milena Govich will play Law & Order‘s first female detective…. NBC picked up a sitcom pilot called Nobody’s Watching (from the makers of Scrubs and Family Guy) off YouTube…. And Fox says The Simpsons will pretty much run forever, this season with voice help from Natalie Portman and Betty White.