Desperate Housewives

A "Desperate Housewives" producer drew gasps from a packed courtroom Thursday when he revealed that a major character dies in an episode airing this weekend. George Perkins, an executive producer, disclosed the plot twist under questioning by a lawyer for actress Nicollette Sheridan, who is suing the show's creator and studio for wrongful termination stemming from the elimination of her character, Edie Britt. Asked if any other character of Edie's prominence had been killed off, Perkins shifted uncomfortably in his seat before answering.

Actor Jesse Metcalfe has sold his house in the Beverly Crest area for $2 million, according to the Multiple Listing Service. The Mediterranean main house and guesthouse have 2,500 square feet of living space, including four bedrooms and 31/2 bathrooms. Built in 1999, the house features stone fireplaces, plank wood floors and wood-beam ceilings. A stone hot tub sits on a hill above the home, which is surrounded by lawn and steppingstone pathways. A starburst pattern adorns the stone driveway.

The TV show "Desperate Housewives" will be shown in China starting Monday in a departure for a country where the government typically keeps racy and politically sensitive material off the air. The show, a wry and steamy saga about four suburban women, will be dubbed into Mandarin and shown as three back-to-back episodes a night on state-run CCTV8, Walt Disney Co.'s international distribution arm said.

Four years after a sweeps week audience watched Edie Britt, the bed-hopping real estate agent in "Desperate Housewives," draw her last breath, a Los Angeles jury said Monday that it could not decide the cause of her death. A judge declared a mistrial in Nicollette Sheridan's wrongful-termination suit after jurors said they were deadlocked as to whether the actress' character was killed off the ABC show in an act of retaliation or for creative reasons. Eight jurors — one short of the nine required for a verdict in civil court — sided with Sheridan, who alleged that she was written off the show because she complained that the program's creator, Marc Cherry, had struck her in the head during a 2008 rehearsal.

With "Desperate Housewives" winding up its lucrative eight-season run on ABC, its creator took a moment last week to distill what he called the show's "original blend" of television genres. "Part comedy, part drama, part mystery," Marc Cherry said. To the audience he addressed, a Los Angeles jury in a lawsuit brought by a former actress on the show, the concept of watching something that was by turns funny, sad and confounding was not a foreign one. The two-week trial set for closing arguments Tuesday often seemed a black comedy about a black comedy.

"Desperate Housewives" creator Marc Cherry testified Wednesday that he killed off Wisteria Lane seductress Edie Britt in the fifth season because there were simply no more male characters for her to bed. "We had played out as many romantic complications with each of the women's husbands" as possible, Cherry told a Los Angeles jury in a wrongful-termination suit brought by Nicollette Sheridan, the actress who played Edie. The character had dalliances with the spouses or former spouses of three of the main housewives — played by Teri Hatcher, Eva Longoria and Marcia Cross — and the husband of the fourth — played by Felicity Huffman — "would never cheat," Cherry said.

Forget "Desperate Housewives." How about "Desperate for Publicity"? In an audacious attempt to get its product placed on ABC's top-rated prime-time soap opera, KB Home sent a letter to the show's executive producer suggesting that the suburb where every housewife has a secret needed a brand name. KB Home added that it was more than happy to offer its own. "Their community deserves an identification and KB Home can deliver it," said Derrick Hall, a spokesman for the Los Angeles-based builder.

"Desperate Housewives," which premieres Sunday on ABC, has been generating buzz for months on the basis of its John Waters-y title alone -- a buzz made louder by the return to series television of Teri Hatcher (of "Lois and Clark," long ago), though some of us are just as excited by the return of Felicity Huffman ("Sports Night"). A black comedy of suburbia, it wants to live somewhere between "American Beauty" and "Blue Velvet."

WHAT began as a guest-starring role as Bree's pharmacist George Williams for three episodes on ABC's top-rated series, "Desperate Housewives," has turned into a regular gig for actor Roger Bart. "All I can say is that I'm still here," muses Bart, who adds new meaning to the word "creepy" as the Cheshire Cat-grinning George, who is so obsessed with Bree (Marcia Cross) that he causes the death of her husband, Rex, by exchanging his heart medicine for something a bit more toxic.

It feels like it's finally Dana Delany's time. The actress had several near brushes with TV superstardom after her Emmy-winning run as Nurse Colleen McMurphy on "China Beach" ended. Mike White, who wrote the hit "School of Rock," cast her as the uptight matriarch on Fox's critically beloved but short-lived dysfunctional family drama "Pasadena," Darren Star originally asked her to star in "Sex and the City" and Marc Cherry first offered her the role of Bree on "Desperate Housewives."

A trial pitting the creator of "Desperate Housewives" against a former leading lady on the ABC soap delivered jurors one final plot twist Tuesday in the form of a possible whistle-blower from within the show's ranks. The last-minute witness, a construction coordinator responsible for building the show's Wisteria Lane sets, took the stand on behalf of actress Nicollette Sheridan and recounted receiving an email on his work computer that he said discussed a plan to wipe hard drives clean of information relevant to her wrongful termination lawsuit.

Was it a conspiracy that went all the way to the top of ABC? Or was it the case of an exaggerating actress out for revenge? Nicollette Sheridan's wrongful-termination suit against the creator of "Desperate Housewives" and a studio wound toward a conclusion Wednesday as jurors heard closing arguments offering vastly different interpretations of the case. As the tall, blond actress and Marc Cherry, the balding, bespectacled writer who invented the world of Wisteria Lane, looked on from opposite sides of the courtroom, their attorneys debated for hours over what led to the 2008 death of Sheridan's character.

The courtroom battle between former "Desperate Housewives" costar Nicollette Sheridan and the show's creator, Marc Cherry, over the circumstances of her character's demise is another reminder that for an actor, the only thing worse than not getting a part on a show is getting killed off a show. "It's a one-way contract, they can drop you at any time," said Steve Schirripa, who spent seven years nervously pawing through the pages of scripts for "The Sopranos" wondering if this was the episode where his character would get whacked.

With "Desperate Housewives" winding up its lucrative eight-season run on ABC, its creator took a moment last week to distill what he called the show's "original blend" of television genres. "Part comedy, part drama, part mystery," Marc Cherry said. To the audience he addressed, a Los Angeles jury in a lawsuit brought by a former actress on the show, the concept of watching something that was by turns funny, sad and confounding was not a foreign one. The two-week trial set for closing arguments Tuesday often seemed a black comedy about a black comedy.

A "Desperate Housewives" producer drew gasps from a packed courtroom Thursday when he revealed that a major character dies in an episode airing this weekend. George Perkins, an executive producer, disclosed the plot twist under questioning by a lawyer for actress Nicollette Sheridan, who is suing the show's creator and studio for wrongful termination stemming from the elimination of her character, Edie Britt. Asked if any other character of Edie's prominence had been killed off, Perkins shifted uncomfortably in his seat before answering.

"Desperate Housewives" creator Marc Cherry testified Wednesday that he killed off Wisteria Lane seductress Edie Britt in the fifth season because there were simply no more male characters for her to bed. "We had played out as many romantic complications with each of the women's husbands" as possible, Cherry told a Los Angeles jury in a wrongful-termination suit brought by Nicollette Sheridan, the actress who played Edie. The character had dalliances with the spouses or former spouses of three of the main housewives — played by Teri Hatcher, Eva Longoria and Marcia Cross — and the husband of the fourth — played by Felicity Huffman — "would never cheat," Cherry said.

For the fashion obsessed, TV just hasn't been the same since Carrie Bradshaw was mugged for her Manolo Blahniks. But that hasn't stopped us from looking for the next "Sex and the City." Channel surfing for trendsetting TV is leading many viewers to ABC's "Desperate Housewives" and Fox's "The O.C.," both evening soap operas about stylish suburban subcultures.

Hollywood has had writer Peter Lefcourt to kick around for four decades now, and it doesn't look like it's letting up any time soon. Highs have included an Emmy for "Cagney & Lacey" and his latest gig as co-executive producer on the current season of "Desperate Housewives." Lows have encompassed a jobless period after having been deemed "difficult," just about the worst label a writer can get. It's no wonder that the author, screenwriter and playwright holds his highest praise for the stage.

The creator of "Desperate Housewives" testified Monday that his decision to kill off the character Edie Britt was made months before the actress who portrayed her accused him of battery. Marc Cherry told jurors in a wrongful-termination suit brought by actress Nicollette Sheridan that he plotted the promiscuous Wisteria Lane real estate agent's demise to "shake things up" creatively on the ABC show and not as retribution. But, in a daylong turn on the witness stand, Cherry acknowledged that eliminating Edie had the added benefit of ridding the show's budget of Sheridan's $4-million salary and him of what he described as a disruptive and unprofessional presence on the set. "It wasn't the primary reason for my decision, but it was something I was aware of," Cherry said under questioning by an attorney for Sheridan.

It started as normal Hollywood friction - an actress who wanted better lines and a writer annoyed by her suggestions. But the squabble on the "Desperate Housewives" set four years ago took an unusually nasty turn that led Thursday to a windowless downtown courtroom. There actress Nicollette Sheridan told a jury that series creator Marc Cherry slapped her on the head during a rehearsal after she repeatedly questioned him about deleting what she considered to be a particularly funny line for her character.