ABC is enlisting the help of a Holmes-grown talent.
Following in the stunt-casting footsteps of Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Victoria Beckham, Katie Holmes is going back to where it all began—the small screen—guest-starring in an episode of the ABC drama Eli Stone set to air this fall, the network confirms to E! News.
Holmes will play a singing and dancing non-profit attorney and will appear in the second episode of the season.
The casting announcement had been expected since photos surfaced last night of Holmes, Tom Cruise and Suri walking around the set at Los Angeles' Union Station.
Though past big-name guest stars like George Michael have appeared as themselves on the fantasy-drama hybrid series, which stars Angelina Jolie ex Jonny Lee Miller, Holmes will instead be flexing her thespian muscles.
"We met her on Monday, and she's working today," Stone costar Julie Gonzalo tells E! News. "She's playing a lawyer."
"She just appeared in the seat (at the table read)," adds show regular Loretta Devine. "She's very quiet. Then Tom Cruise came with the baby and we left. We missed the whole thing."
The guest-starring gig will also bring Holmes back to her roots in more ways than one, as it will reunite the erstwhile Joey Potter with her Dawson's Creek executive producer Greg Berlanti, who currently works on Eli Stone.
"As we were talking about the beginning of the season, we really wanted to bring eyeballs to the show and do anything we could to get people talking about the show," Berlanti said.
"I said I can go ask Katie and see if she's interested and I went and I begged her and she said, 'I'd love to.' She's an attorney, not practicing law in the episode. She is in a significant portion of the scenes. She is singing and dancing, but we do want to keep some of it a secret."
Holmes is next expected to head to New York later this month in advance of her Broadway debut in Arthur Miller's All My Sons this fall.
(Originally published July 16, 2008 at 8:30 a.m. PT.)