Matt Nable and Zoe Ventoura star in Nine drama series Hyde And Seek. Picture: Jon Love/Nine

But in his latest starring role — in Nine’s new crime drama, Hyde And Seek — the happily married father of three laughed off any suggestion he’d been warned off one of his leading ladies by her musclebound husband.

You see the last time his co-star Deborra-lee Furness was seen in a major TV series, she fell madly in love with the hot young actor playing opposite — Hugh Jackman.

Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness hooked up on the set of Correlli.Source:News Corp Australia

Furness is yet to join the MatchBox Pictures’ production, which began filming two weeks ago, instead celebrating 20 years of marriage to Jackman this month with a romantic beach holiday in St Barts.

But Jackman can rest easy, says Nable, who is revelling in his own family time back in Sydney for the series.

Fresh from a key role in the ABC’s adaptation of award-winning book Barracuda, in Melbourne, Nable began the year away from home in Los Angeles; appearing in Legends Of Tomorrow, a cameo by his Arrow character, Ra’s al Ghul.

“To me, this is a wonderful opportunity to be working at home. I’m pinching myself,” Nable told TV Insider.

Reunited with his Bikie Wars director Peter Andrikis, Nable, who will play detective Gary Hyde who is investigating the death of a police mate, said: “it is nice working again with people you trust, who just enjoy what they do.”

“I haven’t met Deb, but I’m really looking forward to working with her.

“There are some remarkably strong women in this series,” he said, including Mandy McElhinney and Zoe Ventoura.

Jessica Marais (Lily), Rob Collins (Jack), Hayley Magnus (Simone) and Ian Meadows (Pete Barnett) star in the upcoming Ten drama The Wrong Girl. Picture: Channel 10Source:Channel 10

Marais draws right cast for Ten’s Wrong Girl

TEN’S hotly-anticipated drama The Wrong Girl certainly has the right cast — with big TV names including The Doctor Blake Mysteries’ Craig McLachlan, The Gap Year’s Hamish Blake, Bed Of Roses favourite Kerry Armstrong and former Neighbours pin-up Madeleine West to appear opposite star Jessica Marais when filming begins in Melbourne later this month.

Based on the best-selling book of the same name by Zoe Foster Blake, the series follows Marais as Lily, the producer of a cooking segment on a morning TV show, who finds herself torn between two men.

Those two men will be played by The Moodys Ian Meadows and Rob Collins, already drawing international acclaim for his breakthrough role in ABC’s indigenous sci-fi thriller, Cleverman.

Meadows plays Lily’s best friend Pete, with whom she had an ill-advised one-night stand, while Collins plays Jack, a charismatic TV chef who also happens to be dating Lily’s flatmate Simone (to be played by TV newcomer, Hayley Magnus).

Marais told national TV editor Tiffany Dunk: “given the talent involved on both sides of the camera we’re going to create something incredibly special that I truly hope audiences embrace”.

Magnus, who appeared in the local box office smash, The Dressmaker, is thrilled to get her chance opposite Marais in “what will no doubt be a terrific show,” she said “You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll cringe”.

Janine Allis (second left), Steve Baxter (left) and the rest of the Shark Tank cast. Picture: Channel 10Source:Supplied

Sharks circle cash record in tank

BOOST Juice millionaire Janine Allis has poured a record amount of her own cash into Ten’s new season of Shark Tank.

Along with new ‘shark’, Pet Barn boss Dr Glen Richards, the pair are set to plunge a whopping $4 million on fledgling businesses this series (returning 8.30pm, Sunday, May 8).

The panel of five tycoons, tempted to invest in start-up ideas and services, sink a total of $7.425m into 35 businesses — with the biggest single investment topping $750,000 (and the lowest, an offer of five cases of beer).

Allis confessed she clashed with her co-stars, especially Steve Baxter this season, but added it was all in the heat of the hunt.

“The more friendly you become with someone, the more honest you can be. We really don’t mind hurting each other’s feelings. I think you’ll find there’s a lot more interaction between us and not always nice,” she laughed.

Host Sarah Harris, who was heavily pregnant when the series was prerecorded “spent half the time on her bottom with her feet up,” Allis revealed. “She did a great job, but she was ready to pop”.

A secret no more

IN an accidental footnote to Nine’s disastrous 60 Minutes kidnap saga, media academic Professor Peter Manning this week outed himself as a “secret” TV Week Logies judge.

Speaking to ABC702 about the alleged ethical breaches made by Channel 9’s crew, still detained in a Beirut prison, the former Channel 7 current affairs news boss, now University of Technology adjunct professor in journalism, let slip about his previously hush-hush role as a judge for the industry gongs.

“I am a judge of the TV Week Logies, you know, so I have no problem with commercial current affairs programs,” he told radio listeners, “but this (child abduction story) stepped well over the ethical lines of journalism. It steps over legal lines. It steps over the courts.”

His admission also appears to step over the confidentiality code surrounding the Logies’ peer-voted categories, for which 60 Minutes is nominated three times this year, including best news panel or current affairs show, and for Tara Brown’s story Catching A Monster and Liz Hayes’ The Siege Survivors.

Donna Hay: Basics To Brilliance premieres on Foxtel's LifeStyle FOOD. Picture: Foxtel.Source:Supplied

ONE TO WATCH

Donna Hat to dish on the basics

AUSTRALIA’S domestic goddess Donna Hay is to dish up more with her new series Basics To Brilliance (to premiere 8.30pm, Tuesday, May 24 on Foxtel’s LifeStyle FOOD), giving fans a rare glimpse inside her real life. Expect cameos from her two sons Angus and Tom, plus a sneaky peek of her paddleboarding. We’ll all need to join her after the first episode: mastering pork belly, three ways.

Chef Dan Hong hosts a new VOD series, #Shelfie for ABC's iView. Picture: Essential MediaSource:Supplied

TV GOSSIP

Check Chef Dan Hong’s shelf-life

THE snoop in me loves the idea of #Shelfie, a quirky new iView series (from this Thursday), hosted by Sydney chef Dan Hong, who will take audiences inside the contents of a stranger’s fridge, then cook with it. Giving new meaning to social feed, fans are encouraged to post pics of their own fridge to Twitter, Insta or Facebook; then within days, Hong could be on your doorstep whipping up recipes with your stuff.

It’s the end of the line for Downton Abbey’s Lady Edith, Countess Cora and Lady Mary.Source:Supplied

DON’T MISS

Downton Abbey’s end is nigh

JULIAN Fellowes, Downton Abbey’s posh creator, might think it fit and proper to leave the party “while people are sorry to see you go” but TV Insider will still heave a sigh when we say a final goodbye on Seven tomorrow night (9pm). The marvellously mannered series, wrapping after six seasons, was a sweeping saga of the haves-and-have-nots, which found the good and bad in both. And oh the millinery and Dame Maggie Smith, how we’ll miss you.