Rebound Romance for ER Hunk

Don't feel too sorry for ER's handsome Dr. Luka Kovac, whose love life went into cardiac arrest last season. He may have gotten dumped by Julianna Margulies's Nurse Hathaway, but his portrayer, Goran Visnjic, reveals that the Croatian doc will rebound rather quickly.

"The writers are getting me a love interest real fast," Visnjic tells TV Guide Online, adding that it may or may not be someone already punching the clock at the hospital. "I said a new love interest, but I didn't say it would be a new cast member.

"A little bit of heaven comes into his life," the actor teases, "but it will be one big roller-coaster ride."

Visnjic, who became an Eastern European sensation after his portrayal of Hamlet, says doesn't mind the weekly angst he faces on ER, which kicks off its seventh season tonight on NBC (10 pm ET/PT). "Give me Hamlet, give me a drama, and I'm fine," he says. "I find those emotional scenes on ER really easy to do. I don't know why I relate to them, because I've never had a dark past or anything. I've always been more frightened of comedy. I have to work harder at because it doesn't come naturally to me.

"When I try to tell a joke to people," he continues, "about 80 percent of the time, after I say the punchline, there is nothing but silence. Finally, somebody will say, 'Is that it?' Then everybody starts laughing because I'm such a bad joke-teller. So at least I get a laugh."