Uncle Saul gets boyfriend on “Brothers & Sisters” and he’s played by “7th Heaven” alum Stephen Collins!

Now this just ticks me off!

Thew character of Uncle Saul (Ron Rifkin) gets to be a big closet case for most of his life on Brothers & Sisters and now that he’s come out, he gets a boyfriend played by a man who only happens to be one of my all-time crushes: Stephen Collins!

I chatted with Stephen at the TV Critics Assn. Summer Press Tour recently (he was there promoting the ABC series No Ordinary Family in which he also has a role) and he told me he was looking forward to roles different from the preacher he played for so long on 7th Heaven.

It looks like he has found one on Brothers & Sisters.

E! Online reports that producers of the show are hoping to feature Collins in a multi-episode arc.

In last season’s dramatic car crash finale, not only was Rob Lowe’s character or Sen. Robert McCallister killed, but we learn that Saul is HIV-positive. He had told the family that his test had come back negative but when Kevin and Scotty (Matthew Rhys and Luke Mcfarlane) approach a bloodies Saul at the crash site, he cries at them to not touch him.

The series, starting its fifth season, will apparently jump forward about a year so not only will Kitty (Calista Flockhart) have had time to mourn Robert, apparently Saul will have adjusted to his HIV status and is now dating.

You go Saul!