When the nominees for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series-Drama were read out at the Golden Globes last month, for a few seconds I actually thought I was watching the Oscars. The camera panned around to show Geena Davis, Glenn Close, Kyra Sedgwick, Patricia Arquette and the mandatory nominee you've never seen before in your life - in this instance, Polly Walker.

Since when is Glenn (Fatal Attraction/Dangerous Liaisons/Paradise Road) Close a regular in a TV series? Since last year, apparently, when she took over from Benito Martinez to play the new tough-talking Captain Monica Rawling on the TV series The Shield. As for Davis, you'd have to have been living under a rock to not know the Academy Award-winning actress is the much-feted star of the hit series Commander in Chief. Sedgwick, best-known for movies such as Phenomenon, Singles and Heart and Soul, is now a detective in The Closer and Arquette makes small talk with the dead on Medium.

And they're just the tip of the iceberg. In the past few years Whoopi Goldberg starred in her own sticom titled Whoopi, Alicia Silverstone and Ryan O'Neal teamed up for Miss Match, Keifer Sutherland took the lead role of Jack Bauer on 24, James Caan headed the cast of Vegas, Martin Sheen became President Bartlett on The West Wing and his son Charlie joined Spin City and then Two and a Half Men. This year viewers can expect to see Benjamin Bratt in E-Ring (a series set in the Pentagon), Mary-Louise Parker in Weeds (a show about a desperate housewife who starts dealing dope) and Jason Lee in My Name is Earl (a guy wins the lottery and tries to get his life on track).

Even Australia's own stars Anthony LaPaglia (Lantana), Claudia Karvan (Paperback Hero) and Rachel Griffith (Muriel's Wedding) are now better known to audiences for their roles in Without a Trace, Love My Way and Six Feet Under.

So what's next? Cate Blanchett turns up as the new poker-playing neighbour on Desperate Housewives? Brad Pitt stars in CSI: Angola? Don't laugh. Last May I joked that Harold Bishop would become a serial killer on Neighbours and, hey presto, Ramsey Street has turned into Wolf Creek.

In an interview with CNN.com, Variety Magazine's Michael Scheider indicated we wouldn't be seeing the likes of Blanchett, Pitt, Tom Cruise or Nicole Kidman on the small screen in a hurry. "Despite the loads of money that can be made in TV, it's still seen somewhat as a step down for mega movie stars - which is why you won't see J-Lo or Tom Cruise doing a TV series any time soon," said Scheider. "But it's a great way to re-expose yourself if your film career has hit a slump."

And let's face it; it has been a long time between hits for Davis. And Arquette. And Sedgwick and Close.

Putting aside our suspicions that TV is where unwanted movie stars go to die, there's the PR spin put out by agents that it's "all about the script". Which is the line taken by Close for why she decided to join a TV series. "Nobody has ever approached me about a series," she said last year about joining The Shield. "But I've always had a huge respect for television. I think as an actor, I go where great writing is, and I think that should be the bottom line."

Maybe. Or maybe it's about the better money, the job security and not having to travel the world to film locations - a major plus for actors wanting to stay close to their families.