Interesting NYP article, Stuart - thanks so much for calling our attention to it.
As for Frid, it's no surprise whatsoever that he declined an appearance. Anyone who payed attention to almost anything he said during various 1990 interviews that were done when the '91 series was in production knows that he feels VERY strongly that he's past contributing anything more to DS. (His exact wording in one such interview was: "No, I have no interest in being part of it again. No, no, no. In that sense I've done what I could do for Dark Shadows. I have no interest in returning to it at all." ) And while I'm sure that many fans are extremely disappointed that Frid won't make an appearance - I, however, am not one of them. As I said in my response to vw, I don't think any former DS actors should appear on a WB DS' first season because I feel that the show should create its own identity before "paying tribute," if you will, to any previous version.