Connick, Bacon to Join 'Will & Grace'

By Stephen M. Silverman

08/01/2002 at 12:30 PM EDT

Will Grace Adler find true love at last -- with Harry Connick Jr.? Will Kevin Bacon ever find out he is being stalked by Jack McFarland? These are the questions that may be answered when NBC's hit sitcom "Will & Grace" starts its new season Sept. 26. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Connick, 34, will play the new love in Grace's life -- Grace being Debra Messing, of course. When last we left Grace, she'd been knocked over by a horse in Central Park. Now, guess who was riding that horse? "When we were looking to cast someone to play a handsome Jewish doctor who can ride a horse and looks like Harry Connick, he was the third person we called," the show's co-creator and executive producer, Max Mutchnick, told the Reporter. Meanwhile, Bacon, 44, who already has been stalked by Jack (Sean Hayes) on the series, will play himself, hiring Jack as his personal assistant. Jack's first assignment: Find the guy who's stalking his employer.