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Next week, Hugh Laurie starts work on House's two-hour season premiere. But before he clocks in, he and the rest of the show’s cast and creators gathered June 17 at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills to take part in a panel discussion titled “The Creative Process: Inside House.” Here's what they told TV Guide Magazine.

Executive producer David Shore said the Sept. 21 premiere episode will take place entirely within the mental institution where Dr. House landed at the end of last season. "It's more of a movie," says Shore. "We've got Andre Braugher playing the head doctor (Dr. Nolan) in the ward that House winds up in. House is his challenge."

Laurie says he's excited to work with Braugher. "I have admired him as one of the greatest actors there is," says Laurie. The premiere will be directed by executive producer Katie Jacobs, who will shoot exterior footage at the same institution in New Jersey that was seen in last season’s closing moments. "Over the summer, we built on our stages the institution's interior," says Jacobs. "There is a day room where nurses can keep an eye on their patients."

Jacobs previously worked with Braugher on the show Gideon's Crossing. "He played Dr. Gideon, so in thinking about who was going to diagnose the greatest diagnostician there is, I thought who would be better than someone with the authority, gravitas and great
skill that Andre Braugher possesses?"

Meanwhile, Lisa Edelstein (Cuddy) says fans have been "confused" about the fantasy sex scene she and Laurie shared at the end of last season. "Some people are disappointed and some people didn't understand it," says the actress. "Everything was real, except he obviously didn't detox and I didn't spend the night with him. When he announced in the hospital that we’d had sex, she thought he was talking about the time we had sex many years before."

But Edelstein says just because the characters didn’t hook up again for real, "it still can happen. We saw what House wishes he could have. He wishes he were off drugs and that he could have an intimate relationship with her. And I think she wants that too. I love that." Adds Shore: "We can't turn back from that. It's fairly clear what his subconscious wants."

Admitting that he neglected Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) and Chase (Jesse Spencer) over the past two seasons, Shore adds, "We actually have some very cool stuff coming up for them—not right out of the gate, but pretty early on." There may however be a bit less of Olivia Wilde (Thirteen), what with the actress also shooting Disney's Tron remake.

Thirteen’s on-screen pal Omar Epps (Foreman), meanwhile, says he just recently exchanged emails with former castmate Kal Penn, whose character, Kutner, committed suicide near the end of last season. "Kal's been working for the government behind the scenes," said Epps. "He's going to focus on kids and the arts on an international scale."

Source: TV Guide Magazine