‘White Collar’ season 5 spoilers: Matt Bomer’s Neal has a new love interest…

For those of you rooting for a Neal / Sara comeback on “White Collar” season 5, we have some potentially bad news coming your way. As for everyone else, this may be a cause for excitement.

As first reported by Deadline, “Beauty and the Beast” actress Bridget Regan, who has become a pretty hot commodity in the audition circuit these days, has scored a major arc this season on “White Collar” playing the part of Rebecca Lowe, a book scholar who is eventually going to become a love interest for Matt Bomer’s character. As you recall, it looked as though the door was shut for Neal and Sara for the time being at the end of last season, and Hilarie Burton has been doing work on some other series as of late.

As we mentioned before, Regan is very in-demand right now, and thanks to her booking this role, she will no longer be appearing in a smaller character arc on FX’s “Sons of Anarchy.” This sort of thing sometimes happens when you have an actor auditioning for multiple parts around the same time, and somehow is lucky enough to score both. (As soon as we know the replacement for”Sons of Anarchy”, we’ll let you know.)

While the good news is that “White Collar” is really getting the ball rolling on a new season, the bad news is that we’re going to be waiting a while to see the fruits of the show’s labor. USA does not have a premiere date slated until fall.

What’s your take on this casting, and are you glad to see Neal end up with someone new? If you want to also check out who will be playing Neal’s partner on “White Collar” moving forward into the fall, be sure to check out the link here.

Photo: USA