TVLine Items: Matt Bomer’s Showtime Series, The Staircase Trailer and More

Matt Bomer is bringing a decades-spanning love story to life at Showtime, which has ordered Fellow Travelers, a limited series starring and executive-produced by the White Collar vet.

Based on Thomas Mallon’s novel, the drama is described as “an epic love story and political thriller, chronicling the volatile romance of two very different men who meet in the shadow of McCarthy-era Washington,” per Showtime.

Bomer will play Hawkins Fuller, “who maintains a financially rewarding, behind-the scenes career in politics. Hawkins avoids emotional entanglements — until he meets Tim Laughlin, a young man brimming with idealism and religious faith. They begin a romance just as Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn declare war on ‘subversives and sexual deviants,’ initiating one of the darkest periods in 20th-century American history. Over the course of four decades, Hawk and Tim cross paths through the Vietnam War protests of the 1960s, the drug-fueled disco hedonism of the 1970s and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, while facing obstacles in the world and in themselves.”

Ready for some more recent newsy nuggets? Well…

* The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has promoted Reid Scott, who plays talk show host Gordon Ford, to series regular for the fifth and final season, our sister site Deadline reports.

* The Old Man, starring Jeff Bridges, will premiere Thursday, June 16 at 10/9c on FX with its first two episodes and stream the next day on Hulu.

* God’s Favorite Idiot, a new Netflix series starring and executive-produced by Ben Falcone and Melissa McCarthy, will debut Wednesday, June 15.

* The 2022 MTV Video Music Awards will air live on Sunday, Aug. 28 from New Jersey’s Prudential Center.

* Becoming Elizabeth, a drama about the early years of Queen Elizabeth I (played by Alicia von Rittberg), will premiere Sunday, June 12 at 9 pm on Starz. Watch a trailer:

* HBO Max has released a trailer for The Staircase, a limited series starring Colin Firth and Toni Collette, premiering Thursday, May 5 with its first three episodes:

Which of today’s TVLine Items pique your interest?