When Dr. Kelso retired as Chief of Medicine in the seventh season of Scrubs, many longtime viewers wondered who could possibly take the place of the conniving, curmudgeonly coot. Scrubs executive producer Bill Laurence revealed a small clue last May when he told TVGuide.com that he wanted to stunt cast the role for a three-episode arc, but more information was not forthcoming... until now.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello revealed yesterday that Dr. Kelso's replacement will be played by... um... Courteney Cox.

Really? Courteney Cox now counts as stunt casting, apparently, but if you ask us, it seems more like throwing an starving dog a bone. The 44-year-old recently came off the FX drama Dirt, which was cancelled after two seasons due to poor ratings and, we assume, entirely unrealistic storylines involving scores of men lining up to sleep with Bony O'Scurvy.

Ausiello's source confirmed that Cox will appear on three episodes of the wacky sitcom as Sacred Heart Hospital's new Chief of Medicine. Usually, we'd take this opportunity to point out the irony of a person who looks like she hasn't eaten for the better part of a decade being put in charge of the health of an entire hospital, but such a joke would be in bad taste and, frankly, that kind of catty, low-brow humour is beneath us, in case you haven't noticed.

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