'Something New' star set to join season four

LOS ANGELES -- Sanaa Lathan is getting ready to carve out a place for herself on FX's operatic drama "Nip/Tuck."

The "Something New" star is in negotiations to be a regular on the show's fourth season, which is scheduled to begin in the fall. She'll play a trophy wife who comes into the lives of Drs. Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and Christian Troy (Julian McMahon), according to The Hollywood Reporter.

With the Carver now plying his trade in Europe, it would seem that business at the McNamara/Troy plastic-surgery practice might return to normal this season -- "normal" being a relative term on a show that's featured an exquisitely crafted male-to-female transgender person, white supremacists and Sean's unusual attachment to a blow-up doll.

Lathan's character will step into that world via her rich older husband, who ends up buying the practice from Sean and Christian.

"Nip/Tuck" will be Lathan's first regular TV work since the comedy "LateLine," which had a brief run on NBC in 1998-99. Her film credits, in addition to "Something New," include "Love & Basketball," "Out of Time," "Blade" and "Alien vs. Predator."