By JENNIFER K. BAUER jkbauer@inland360.com
In his latest foray on national TV, Lewiston’s Billy Jeffrey is set to appear in an episode of “Blue Bloods” scheduled to air Friday, April 24 on CBS.
Jeffrey was invited to be an extra on the show by actor Donnie Wahlberg, who plays Detective Danny Reagan in the drama. Jeffrey filmed the episode in March. He portrays a New York City police officer and does not have any speaking lines.
“It’s kind of going to be a where’s Billy in the episode,” said Jeffrey, 38. “I imagine most people will watch it and not see me.”
Although brief, it will be Jeffrey’s first fictional TV appearance. In 2010 he appeared in the reality TV show “Dating in the Dark,” about three men and three women introduced in a pitch black room while the audience watched through night vision. In 2009 he came in third on ABC’s “True Beauty,” a competition to be named one of America’s most beautiful people. Jeffrey is a Chippendale’s dancer and owns GNC in the Lewiston Center Mall.
A fan of the band New Kids on the Block, Jeffrey met founding member Wahlberg at a 2008 meet-and-greet with the group in Seattle. He became friends with the group and now provides its members with vitamins and supplements during their annual tour. Wahlberg had mentioned getting him on “Blue Bloods” but Jeffrey was surprised when it happened.
“I was thinking I would just be checking it out. I didn’t think I would be in it, really. Then the casting director came up and asked, ‘You ready to be a cop today?’ ” Jeffrey said.
In the episode, Jeffrey is a policeman in street clothes milling around the precinct behind Wahlberg. He was given a NYPD badge to wear around his neck and learned that many of the officers in the background of the show are actually real policemen in their uniforms.
