Piper Perabo joins the CIA in USA's "Covert Affairs"

Since winning our lesbian hearts over in films like Imagine Me and You (and possibly farther back, if you loved the dramatics of Lost and Delirious or the bar dancing in Coyote Ugly), Piper Perabo hasn't always made the best career choices.

There was that awful waste of a great cast, Because I Said So, where she starred as one of Diane Keaton's daughters, alongside Mandy Moore and Lauren Graham. (Yes, it still sucked.)

Then there was Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Enough said.

But now I'm feeling as if Piper is back on the right track, as The Hollywood Reporter writes that she's been cast as the lead in the new show Covert Affairs. She'll play Annie Walker, as an ass-kicking CIA trainee who speaks six languages and "excels at any endeavor she undertakes." Yes, that sounds like a great role her.

The show will be a pilot for the USA Network, which has recently spawned hits like Burn Notice. And since that show has made some OK choices — like casting Sharon Gless and wanting to bring on Tyne Daly — I'd like to give the creators the benefit of the doubt that Piper will be a strong character, physically and emotionally.

The part that worries me, however, is this:

Walker joins the CIA while still reeling over a mysterious ex-boyfriend who appears to be of particular interest to her new bosses. She vows never to let herself be hurt again, but that proves to be a tall order.

Ex-boyfriend? Reeling? Vows? Ugh. Why can't she just join the CIA because it was her dream when she was a little girl, and all other girls wanted were weddings and ponies? That, apparently, is a tall order!

At any rate, I'm interested in hearing Piper take on five new languages. It's amazing she had time to memorize all of those kinds of things while her head was still wrapped up in her ex-boyfriend.