'Scandal' Ups Bellamy Young to Series Regular for Season 2

ABC

"Scandal's" Tony Goldwyn and Bellamy Young

Scandal's first lady isn't going anywhere.

The ABC drama has promoted Bellamy Young to series regular for Season 2, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

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Young portrays President Fitzgerald Grant's (Tony Goldwyn) scheming wife Mellie, who in the season finale of the Shonda Rhimes D.C.-set political fixer drama took a bullet for her man and covered for Olivia (Kerry Washington) and confessed to being heard on the sex tape that threatened to topple his political career. The move, Rhimes told THR, signaled who was really pulling the president's strings.

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"She's in control of that relationship," Rhimes said. "It's the most damning moment for him. … He goes along with it because Mellie and Olivia are deciding what happens. Mellie and Olivia are the ones in charge."

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Young's promotion comes mere days after the series parted ways with former Lost star Henry Ian Cusick and promoted Joshua Malina, who plays U.S. Attorney David Rosen, to series regular.

"Olivia and David have amazing chemistry, and I love watching them together," Rhimes told THR last month. "That's going to be something that's very enduring."

Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit