White Collar Crime Going Prime Time

What with white-collar crime being such big news these days, it was only a matter of time: The Hollywood Reporter reports that the USA Network is about to pick up a new series, “White Collar.”

Now that USA’s popular detective series “Monk” is ending, the cable network is looking for a new original series to lead in to crime comedy “Psych.” “White Collar” is described by the network as being “about the unlikely partnership of a con artist and an FBI agent who have been playing cat and mouse for years.”

It sounds to us like a takeoff on “Catch Me If You Can,” the 2002 dramedy based on real-life con man Frank Abagnale, Jr. Though entertaining, the movie wasn’t the most socially relevant story when it came out. But now that everyone’s saturated with Madoff (a topic we’ve studiously avoided, since everyone else is already talking about it), and as it looks like prosecutors are going to be announcing even more con and scam cases in the coming months, the timing certainly seems right now.

The pilot was green-lighted back in October. It stars Matthew Bomer (pictured, left) as the con artist, and Tim DeKay (right) as the FBI agent. Bronwen Hughes (“The Kids in the Hall,” “The L Word,” “Forces of Nature”) directed.