We finally have some new Paget news – isn’t it awesome?

When Benjamin Bratt returns to Modern Family later this season as Manny’s biological father, he won’t be alone.

Ex-Criminal Minds leading lady Paget Brewster has been cast as Javier’s new girlfriend, TVLine has learned exclusively.

Brewster’s character, Trish, possesses upper class sophistication and book smarts. (Cue the fireworks with Javier’s ex, Gloria in 3, 2, 1…)

This is Brewster’s second major TV stint since wrapping her six-year Criminal Minds run last year; in September, she guest-starred on Law & Order: SVU as the head of the District Attorney’s Office’s Public Integrity Unit.

I cannot wait!

I have added the promotional stills from Paget’s guest appearance on Law and Order: SVU to the gallery – the episode looks amazing. I can’t wait to see it!

Law & Order: SVU > Season 14 > Promotional Stills > Lost Reputation

…And Paget appears in it!

Paget Brewster says she was so star-struck when she first guested on NBC’s Law & Order: SVU five years ago “that I don’t know that I did such a good job. So I’m really glad they asked me to come back!”

She debuts in the September 26 season premiere as Paula Foster, a D.A. brought in to investigate Captain Cragen (Dann Florek) for the murder of a hooker found dead in his bed. “The detectives in the precinct all hate Foster because [she's prosecuting Cragen] and tells the team not to work on the case” because they’re potential

Paget Brewster wants her fans to know that she did not know that her Law & Order: SVU gig would play opposite her former show Criminal Minds.

The actress tells TV Guide Magazine that she feels terrible that her first post Minds role will air the same time as her old show, on Sept. 26. “I was so crazy flattered when they offered me this part,” the actress says, “and I didn’t find out until after I took the role that the special two episode premiere of SVU [airing from 9/8c to 11/10c] was going to bump against Criminal Minds, which it never does!”

She “felt so bad,” Brewster reports, that she called her old Minds boss, Erica Messer, and told her, “You have to believe that I didn’t do this on purpose. I’m afraid it makes me look vengeful, which is terrible.” According to Brewster, Messer told her that it was “a brilliant counter programming move by SVU and she’d do the same.”

The actress wants to keep a good relationship with her old show, which she first left in 2010 after her role was cut back. A year later, after her character Emily Prentiss was supposedly killed off, she was brought back to fulfill her contract for one more season. “I didn’t really want to leave the first time; I loved it there and I still hang out with everybody,” Brewster admits. “But last year I decided that I wanted to challenge myself and doing these episodes of Law & Order: SVU has proven me right. At one point Erica and Joe Mantegna asked if I would come back and guest star and I said, ‘I love you guys. If you ever need me or want me, I would love to guest star.’ But then Erica recently said that a lot of people would have to sign off for me to come back, so maybe CBS is mad that I left.”

On SVU Brewster plays a D.A. named Paula Foster, who has installed a new interim captain (Steven Harris, played by Adam Baldwin) in the sex crimes unit and, even worse, she will be prosecuting the unit’s beloved Captain Cragen (Dann Florek) for the murder of an escort found dead in his bed. “I’m despised by the detectives,” she says with a laugh, adding “I’ve been able to work with everybody, but especially with Mariska Hargitay!”

Brewster will be praying to the Nielsen gods on Sept. 26. “I’m so torn because I’m such a fan of both shows,” she says. “I just hope both shows get great ratings!”

As you may know, Paget is in New York filming Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and I know that a lot of us cannot wait for the episode to air. Until then, I have managed to get hold of some photos from Paget shooting in New York.

Television > Law And Order: SVU > Season Fourteen > Behind The Scenes

Paget Brewster’s break from TV won’t be a long one. The actress, who departed the role of Emily Prentiss after 125 episodes on Criminal Minds, will appear in the season premiere of Law & Order: SVU.

Set for Wednesday, Sept. 26, the two-hour opener for the NBC series’ 14th run features Brewster playing the head of the Public Integrity Unit at the District Attorney’s office. She’ll be tasked with handling the case against Captain Cragen (Dann Florek), under suspicion of murder after waking up beside a dead women in the recent finale.

Previous SVU guests Laura Benanti, Pippa Black, Peter Jacobson, Ron Rifkin, Brooke Smith and Dean Winters will also appear in the premiere.

STORY: NBC Renews ‘Law & Order: SVU,’ Orders Dick Wolf’s ‘Chicago Fire’ to Series

Brewster, who started her career with a memorable arc on Friends, has also appeared in Two and a Half Men, Andy Richter Controls the Universe and Showtime’s Huff. She originally exited Criminal Minds in 2011, alongside co-star A.J. Cook, but returned for one last season when it was revealed her character faked her death.

She’s repped by UTA and The Burstein Company, and Joel McKuin is her attorney.