As promised, Ryan Murphy revealed at a PaleyFest panel the other first-season American Horror Story cast members who will be glimpsed in the background of season two while Jessica Lange and Zachary Quinto have “withering stare” contests, and we were right about at least one of them. Sarah Paulson will indeed return, moving on from playing Lange’s psychic friend into an as-yet-unspecified role, while Lily Rabe will also transition from playing miserable, baby-obsessed ghost Nora to, as Murphy promised, “the opposite of what they played before.” So, Paulson will be someone who can’t read even the simplest social cues, we guess, while Rabe will be a happy-go-lucky lady who loves the single life and maybe has an intact skull—and fellow returning cast member Evan Peters will go from being the brooding Tate to being some other brooding guy that women of all ages will fawn over, because Murphy isn’t stupid.
Anyway, Murphy still declined to elaborate on the rumors that the second season will have an “East Coast institutional” setting, saying only that it would definitely not be another ghost story, and that the only rule the anthology series has going forward is “no werewolves and no vampires.” And although this change means parting ways with Dylan McDermott’s naked ass, the PaleyFest panel offered it one last chance to shine as McDermott fondly recalled his “tear-jerking” scene (“It’s usually what I do at home anyway”) and added, “I just felt like it was necessary to see my ass.” And with that, Dylan McDermott’s naked ass took a dignified bow and exited stage left with a new sense of optimism, clutching a copy of Variety and humming a jaunty rendition of “Hooray For Hollywood.”