LOS ANGELES — Actress Lisa Edelstein will not be appearing in FOX’s medical drama “House” when it returns for its eighth, and possibly final season, The Hollywood Reporter said Tuesday.
Edelstein’s contract expired after the show’s seventh season, as did the contracts of cast members Omar Epps and Robert Sean Leonard. Epps and Leonard agreed to take pay cuts when negotiating new contracts with the show’s producers, but Edelstein reportedly did not and instead chose to leave the show.
Edelstein’s character, Dr. Lisa Cuddy, recently began a romantic relationship with the show’s leading character, narcissistic medical whiz Dr. Gregory House, played by English actor Hugh Laurie.
Laurie said the show’s eighth season could be its last as his contract is set to expire in a year.
“The end of that season, right now looks like the end of the show. Well, that’s as far as they’ve got me for,” Laurie, 51, told the Radio Times magazine in a May interview.
The finale of the seventh season of “House” is scheduled to air May 23.
FOX Broadcasting is owned by News Corp., the parent company of NewsCore.