{alltv} Belushi lawyers up in 'Defenders'

No matter where you live, you've seen late-night TV ads for lawyers like this.

You know, those slimy guys who either can be angels or ambulance-chasers, depending upon the precariousness of your personal predicament.

"I love that line in our show: 'If it happened in Vegas, call 1-800 ... ' " said Jim Belushi, who partners with Jerry O'Connell to portray a team of Las Vegas defence attorneys in the new series The Defenders. "Isn't that a great line?

"One of the episodes is going to be us trying to film one of those commercials."

The Defenders, which debuts Wednesday, Sept. 22 on CBS and CTV, based its lead characters on a couple of real-life Las Vegas defence lawyers named Michael Cristalli and Marc Saggese who were featured in a documentary.

The doc was pitched by its creators -- Harry and Joe Gantz -- as a would-be reality series. But ultimately CBS decided a dramatization was the way to go.

Enter Belushi and O'Connell.

Leading the law firm of Morelli & Kaczmarek are Nick Morelli (Belushi), an earnest and driven attorney, and Pete Kaczmarek (O'Connell), whose passion for his job is matched only by his love of the high life.

"I watched (the documentary) a lot," Belushi said. "These guys are characters. They are so bright. They have great strategies in the courtroom. But in the rest of their lives, they're kind of not so good. They're not so good with women.

"There's a great comic element when one of them (in the doc) is talking to a stripper. It was a terrible exchange, but it intrigued me that these guys are so brilliant on the floor and, like our characters, we're morons with women."

After Belushi's previous series According to Jim was cancelled following an eight-season run, he was chilling out and playing the odd Blues Brothers live show with Dan Aykroyd.

"I was enjoying that year and a half off," Belushi admitted. "But you know, first of all, I'm an actor and I love to work. I've been making films, been on stage, since 1980. So I've done all of this before, dramas, comedy.

"I guess because of According to Jim, people think that's the persona I am. But I have played characters like this before in movies with Oliver Stone and Michael Mann."

As Belushi pointed out, as legendary as Las Vegas is as the epicentre of misbehaviour, the notion of frontier justice is not entirely dead.

"The interesting thing about the documentary is, do you remember (the feature film) Casino when they fired the guy?" Belushi recalled. "And the guy in the cowboy hat comes in and goes, 'Well, you don't know ... are you sure you don't want to rehire him?' The city itself is run kind of old school.

"It was a cow town. So they allow all this stuff to happen, but their rules and their laws are very strict.

"If you get caught up into that, you are in trouble. And you need a lawyer."

Well, if it happened in Vegas, we know who to call.