In producing a new TV series, sometimes things go wrong. With “Love Bites,” the NBC comedy that ends its run Thursday, just about everything did. And Becki Newton, the Guilford actress who starred in the comedy, first unveiled as the lynchpin to last year’s fall season on NBC – only to be delayed until after the end of the TV season in the doldrums of summer – emerged intact.Though it all seems now very long ago.

“We filmed the pilot a year and a half ago, and went through as series of setbacks and delays,” Newton, 33, says over the phone from Atlanta, where her husband Chris Diamantopoulos is playing Moe in the Farrelly Brothers new “Three Stooges” movie.

One of the stars, Jordana Spiro, had to go back to her old series, “My Boys.” The show runner, Cindy Chupack, quit for personal reasons. Once unveiled as the lynchpin to NBC’s fall season last year, it was bumped to midseason when Newton also became pregnant with her first child.

“These kinds of delays happen to a show. There’s not a show where these kinds of things don’t happen, when a show doesn’t go through a lot of changes,” Newton says. “But not often does it all happen to one show.”

Newton’s condition meant her character had to be entirely rewritten.

“Originally my character was going to be a virgin,” Newton says. “When I became pregnant, they wrote in that I was a surrogate mother for my sister. But I have to say when we got our heads together, it made the character so much more interesting,” she adds. “If the show had more time to explore the characters, how she related with her sister after the birth would have been the kind of relationship I don’t think has been on TV before.”

On her old show, Ugly Betty, Becki Newton was the pretty one. On her new show, the long-delayed Love Bites, she’s the pregnant one. The NBC series is an anthology rom-com in the vein of He’s Just Not That Into You or Valentine’s Day — a procession of loosely connected stories, anchored by a few core characters — that was supposed to be NBC’s big new show of last year. But it got delayed, management changed, Newton shot a pilot for CBS that didn’t get picked up, and now Bites has been burned off over the summer. We spoke with Newton, who is in Atlanta, hanging out on the slapstick set of a new Farrelly brothers movie, about how her real-life pregnancy impacted Love Bites, cheating on NBC with CBS, and where Michelle Trachtenberg goes wrong in tonight’s episode.

Annie was supposed to be a virgin. How was that going to play out, originally, before your pregnancy changed the course?
I don’t think that could have played out for long. There’s not a lot of room. It would have become all about who she’s going to lose her virginity to, and then when that happens, it would be over. We used some of that idea for Cassie [played by Krysten Ritter], who pretends she’s a virgin. But happily, my pregnancy opened up the character of Annie. And I was ginormous shooting that pilot, because we had to redo it. I was eight-and-a-half months pregnant; I was about to pop! And yet, Annie doesn’t think of herself as pregnant. “I’m not really a future mom. I can still date!” This of course gets her into these awkward, horrible situations. She’s the total opposite of what you think a pregnant woman is.

How will the show change once Annie gives birth?
You will see Annie have that baby — well, you won’t see it, but you will see the storyline conclude. And if there’s a second season, you’ll get to see how that changes Annie’s life. She thought it wasn’t a big deal to be her sister’s surrogate, but it gave her a purpose. And although she didn’t think she would, she now loves this baby. But this isn’t treated like a cliffhanger. That’s what’s unique about this series: The arcs are short enough and the scenes are long enough that nothing is ever left unresolved.

Seemingly forever-shelved (and waylaid by backstage drama) for more than 12 months, NBC’s Love Bites – a rom-com anthology series starring Ugly Betty‘s beloved Becki Newton, Heroes‘ charmer Greg Grunberg, and Entourage femme Constance Zimmer — is finally making its debut, this Thursday at 10/9c. After such a lengthy delay, there has to be something wrong with Bites, right? Actually, not really. In fact, I’m pretty smitten with this bit of summer fare — and I’m not alone. Newton is thrilled that the show is finally seeing the light of day, and believes “anything can happen” when it comes to the longevity of this Love.

TVLINE | Given that Love Bites was shelved for so long, was there ever a time that you were worried the show may never make it to air?
You know, I’ve learned through experience that you can’t ever predict what’s going to happen with any show. When I signed on to Ugly Betty, I just prayed that I wouldn’t get fired after the pilot, and four years later, I was still doing it. So, I’m really learning that you can just do your best work, and where the show goes from there is beyond your control.

TVLINE | What were your thoughts on all of the behind-the-scenes drama we kept hearing about? [TNT compelled My Boys star Jordana Spiro to vacate a lead role, original showrunner Cindy Chupack stepped down, the episode order got slashed....]
That’s what was so incredible about this experience — all of these things were going on, but it was actually the most well-run and organized show that I’ve ever worked on. It was really this incredibly pleasant experience. All of [Love Bites'] setbacks tend to happen individually on every show, but we just had a bunch of things happen around the same time. The impression of what was going on made it sound much more chaotic than it actually was. Every step along the way, people just went with the flow.

Becki will guest appearance on Live With Regis & Kelly on January 20, 2010, so stay tuned for that! Be sure it will be an awesome interview! Hopefully we’ll get screencaps and video from this appearance!

by Digital Spy

Becki Newton has said that she enjoyed working with Lindsay Lohan and Victoria Beckham when they appeared on Ugly Betty.

The actress told DS that reports attacking Lohan’s work ethic were not worthy of comment.

Newton said: “Lindsay Lohan was sweet and she was great. She was such a professional because she’s being doing this for so long.

“People mistook developments that were happening in the scenes with her character as real life. When you watch the show, all of the stories will make perfect sense!”

Regarding Beckham, she added: “It’s amazing when Victoria Beckham shows up and says she loves the show! It’s very surreal. I was impressed with how polite and gracious she was.

“She wrote little thank you notes to every single cast member and I still have the note she left me! She was actually very willing to make fun of herself, which I really appreciated.”

Click here for full interview with Becki Newton

The show’s ‘terrible twosome’ took a break from their duties at MODE Magazine to chat with Terra TV. Michael, a Texas native, even revealed how he learned to talk ‘un poquito de español’! Becki didn’t stay behind either; see what she had to say in the Romance language!

Itching to find out more? Then check out our exclusive interview with them here

Source: Terra

Note: Becki speaking Spanish!