As early as now, Showtime has been rallying up the fans of The Tudors by giving them a hint of what’s to come in the show’s third season, which is set to be released next year.  Recently, we reported that Grammy-winning singer Joss Stone landed the role of Henry VII’s fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, who will be appearing in three of the eight episodes of the third season.

More recently, Showtime announced that yet another cast member has been recruited to join the royal deities next year.  Filming for the third season of The Tudors began in June, and the newest recruit is Swedish film actor Max Von Sydow, who will be portraying Cardinal Von Waldburg in a four-episode stint.

In a press release, Showtime stated that Sydow’s character is a “German-born Catholic clergyman who tries to organize the defeat of Henry VIII (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and whose family was killed by Protestant revolutionaries.”

Additionally, he is described as “a fearsome intellectual, he was appointed by the pope to head his first inquisition, which was the crushing of the Reformation.”

In other news, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who plays central character King Henry VIII in The Tudors, recently expressed his own thoughts on the real life royals, Prince William and Prince Harry.  He believes that individuals such as a nation’s leaders must be given more sympathy than theater and musical artists who live the high life.

“I'm always reading about Prince Harry, he's getting drunk, he's kissing girls, he's falling out of nightclubs at five o'clock in the morning,” Meyers told the Celebrity Café.  “He's doing the same thing as every other 22 or 23-year-old out there.  But he can't because he's not a normal human being - he's a demigod because he's a royal.”

Jonathan Rhys Meyers fans can catch him as he returns to Showtime on The Tudors next month along with his new cast mates Max Von Sydow and Joss Stone.  He will also be appearing in two upcoming films due out in 2009, Shelter and Mandrake.


-Valerie Anne del Castillo, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Variety, UPI, Celebrity Cafe
(Photo courtesy of Showtime)