‘White Collar’ season 5 spoilers: Matt Bomer on new love interest; Hilarie Burton’s status

Before we do anything else, let’s get the sad news out of the way for those of you big-time fans of Hilarie Burton. Despite how much she may be loved by the fan base, we are not going to be seeing her on “White Collar” season 5 in any capacity. This was after she had a number of great appearances on season 4, and while it is definitely sad news it does not necessarily rule out for a return for her in the future. (Heck, we’d be stunned if Burton never returns to the show.)

This news was first confirmed by TVLine, and it marks yet another reminder that no show is immune to change, even very awesome ones like this. So who is going to be in Neal Caffrey’s life instead of Sara this year? Matt Bomer was kind enough to explain to the website in the oh-so classy way that you would expect:

“There is a really incredible girl who comes into Neal’s life, played by the gorgeous and talented Bridget Regan. She is sort of atypical in terms of what Neal finds attractive in a woman — with the exception of the fact that she’s a redhead. She’s like an onion, and in every episode more peels off and Neal becomes more attracted to her.”

Even though we get the Sara support base and want to see her again at some point as well, mixing it up on a show can always be fun. Plus, we’re getting more and more of a feeling like season 5 could be one of the best yet. The evidence? Think along the lines of the fact that there are 13 episodes (tighter storytelling), you have the return of Mark Sheppard as the Dutchman, and that Peter and Neal are in an extremely different position now than they were at the start of the series. Neal is now suddenly the man on the outside, as scary of a thought as that may be.

In case you haven’t seen a promo recently for Thursday’s premiere, you can do so here. Of course, we will also have some more scoop as soon as it becomes available.

Photo: USA