Actors union boss cast in Eastwood's FBI movie

LOS ANGELES  – Screen Actors Guild president Ken Howard has booked a role in Clint Eastwood's FBI movie "J. Edgar," and will also appear in two episodes of NBC's "30 Rock."

"J. Edgar" stars Leonardo DiCaprio as FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, the man who built the organization into a force to be reckoned with while at the same time using his power against those he considered his enemies.

Howard will play U.S. Attorney General Harlan F. Stone, who was responsible for Hoover's hiring as the head of the Justice Department's Bureau of Investigation in 1924. The bureau was renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935.

The movie is due to start shooting February. "Milk" Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black wrote the script.

Howard's role in "30 Rock" is being kept under wraps. He was elected to the unpaid SAG presidency in September 2009, just after winning an Emmy for his role as Phelan Beale in HBO's "Grey Gardens." He recently guest starred in the premiere episode of USA Network's "Fairly Legal."