Guest spot will be her first TV work since 'Dawson's Creek'

Katie Holmes will sing and dance her way back into primetime when she guest stars on "Eli Stone" this fall.

The former "Dawson's Creek" star and current wife of Tom Cruise will appear in the ABC show's second episode of the season, which is scheduled for Oct. 21. She'll be playing an attorney who comes into contact with Eli (Jonny Lee Miller), and executive producer Greg Berlanti says she'll also be part of a song-and-dance number when Eli has one of his visions.

"It's not a one- or two-scene thing," Berlanti says of her appearance. "She's in a significant portion of the episode."

Holmes' guest appearance will be her first TV work since "Dawson's Creek." Berlanti is a former exec producer of that show, and he says that relationship helped in securing her services for the episode.

"As we were talking about the beginning of the season ... we really wanted to bring eyeballs to the show," Berlanti says of conversations he had with ABC and fellow executive producer Marc Guggenheim. "Marc and I were talking and he said, Could you go and ask Katie if she's interested? So I went and begged her, and she said yes."

"Eli Stone" begins its second season on ABC on Tuesday, Oct. 14.