True Blood’s Joe Manganiello on White Collar

Smell that? That’s the sweet smell of TV cross-pollination. Currently known for his role as the werewolf Alcide on HBO’s True Blood, Joe Manganiello has been gifted with a guest-starring role on USA’s White Collar. The news comes from Entertainment Weekly, who also says that Manganiello won’t be showing up on the show until winter 2012. White Collar has its midseason finale August 9 (guest starring Beau Bridges), with the second half of the season not starting up again until January. His character will be of the villainous sort, specifically an ex convict who moves across the street from Peter and Elizabeth. I’m not entirely sure what his villainy will entail, since moving into a house isn’t all that evil. It would be mildly annoying for an ex con to be in my neighborhood, but I’d get over it. He must cause some kind of trouble.

Joe Manganiello is very versatile, being able to play both serious and comedic parts. I remember seeing him in his first role as Flash Thompson in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man. That was nine years ago, and since then he’s been on several shows like How I Met Your Mother, One Tree Hill, Scrubs, and CSI. Even though he’s got a regular role on True Blood and making a good name for himself, it’s nice to see him still doing guest spots on shows. I hope that he never becomes too big to do those small roles, and make no mistake he’s a rising star. He was asked to screen test for Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel. Watch out for this guy.