Desperate Housewives

Hello, again! As promised, I’m back to give you a little recap of James Denton and Marcia Cross being interviewed on a couple of talk shows.

First up was James Denton. He appeared last night on Last Call with Carson Daly. Carson introduced him by saying he stars on Desperate Housewives and, in the process, is keeping the show from reaching dangerously high levels of estrogen. Ok, kinda lame, but it still got a laugh out of me. Surprisingly, Housewives wasn’t the first thing they talked about. They started off the conversation by talking about James’ band called “Band from TV”. It features Bachelor Bob Guiney, Bonnie Somerville, Hugh Laurie and Greg Grunberg and others. James said that Teri Hatcher recently joined the band as well. He credits her as the reason that the band was featured on the recent Idol Gives Back special and that Band from TV actually helps raise money for a variety of charities. A new DVD they are releasing through the website will also contribute to these causes He also talked about how they convinced him to sing a couple of songs himself, even though he usually plays guitar. According to James, he made a point of choosing songs he can mostly talk through. He added that, while the band doesn’t sound selfish, it really is because “we get to pretend we’re rock stars.” I thought that was really cool. They don’t seem to take it too seriously. Carson actually played a clip of Bonnie and Hugh singing “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”. It didn’t sound half bad. Check out a picture of him performing with the band:

That wasn’t all they talked about, though. James also told a funny story about going to the Golden Globes one year. Apparently, a guy cornered him at the event, calling him “Lost”. Someone else with him said they don’t think it’s him, but a picture was taken of James anyway. Just in case he was actually Matthew Fox of the series Lost. They closed off the interview by playing a clip from this weekend’s Desperate Housewives and talking about Out and About with Allergies. It’s a free Zagat guide for people who have allergies that tells about the best places to go when you have them. It also tells people how to control allergies and things they should ask their doctor about. James is supporting it because he suffers from allergies himself. The free guide is available here. Now, we move on to Marcia…

She appeared on ABC’s The View this morning. She even came onto the set pretending to read Barbara Walters’ new biography. This interview seemed a bit shorter to me, and the ladies almost seemed to talk over her in some parts. They started the interview off by talking about Marcia’s twin girls and showing a picture of them. I really liked her for this because she admitted it was hard to get pregnant at her age and said she wanted to make people aware that it really isn’t that easy. She says she even turned down magazine covers because she didn’t want to be out there promoting a misconception about fertility. On a slightly less serious note, she talks about suffering “mom guilt” when she can’t be with them and feeling like a true success now that she not only has the career, but a family as well.

Whoopie then asked her about the period between Melrose Place and Housewives. Marcia says it was a time when she was trying to figure herself out. She wasn’t getting roles that really interested her and wasn’t quite fulfilled personally, so she decided to take time out to get her psychology degree.

One of the cuter moments came when she was asked how she plays the uptight Bree, since she’s nothing like her in real life. Marcia responds that she has no idea how she manages it, it’s just some magic that happens when she gets those clothes on. She said she even starts straightening crooked pictures on the set and stuff like that. Now, that, I want to see!

To close things off, they talk about Marcia’s support of the skin cancer takes friends project and how important it is to protect your skin from the sun. She said her husband only started listening to her when he needed to get something frozen off his face during a doctor’s visit. She also talked about the misconceptions that darker skinned people don’t get the disease. The project has a website where people can sign themselves and a friend up for a free screening.

Well, that’s all for now. Look for another recap next week when Teri Hatcher also appears on The View. I’ll see y’all again on Monday with a recap of the latest episode. Have a great weekend!

We know him as Gaby’s shifty political husband Victor Lang.  On AMC, viewers know him as Roger Sterling, ad exec boss on “Mad Men”.  What it comes down to is that John Slattery is a very busy man these days!  Yahoo News Canada recently ran a story on him and his “double duty” that you might want to check out if you think Victor Lang is more hot and bothered than mean and dirty.

Me? I think the guy plays creepy REAL well.  I see him on “Desperate Housewives” and my skin starts to crawl.  Even before he started doing all the shady stuff.  But now that Gaby and Carlos are having an affair (does that sound strange to anyone else?), I can only imagine what will happen when Victor inevitably finds out.  Yikes!

But, as we all probably figured, Victor Lang won’t be on Wisteria Lane for the long haul.  His is a temporary role and he freely admits that “Desperate Housewives” will continue on with great popularity long after he’s left the show.  In the meantime, let’s enjoy what is in the cards for the new Mrs. Lang and her ex-husband.  How far will Victor go to gain the Latino vote in his run for governor?

Don’t forget, “Desperate Housewives” premieres on Sunday at 9pm.  Don’t miss it!

Did you know that Teri Hatcher is in a movie?  She is, and it’s releasing this Friday.  It’s called “Resurrecting the Champ” and is about a reporter finding a former boxing champ and wanting to write a story about him.  There’s a great interview with her over on The Chicago Sun-Times website where she discusses both the movie and the show that has re-catapulted her to fame: “Desperate Housewives”.  “The funny and great thing is the success from the show gives you opportunities in features that you might not have had before,” she told the interviewer over the phone.  Unfortunately, she hasn’t had much time for movies since the shooting schedule for the show is so busy.  But she’s very excited to spread her acting wings and try out some new roles over the coming years.  I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of Teri Hatcher!

Never fear, “Desperate Housewives” fans, he won’t be leaving Hollywood just yet.  But once his stint is up on the hit ABC show, James Denton plans to leave Hollywood behind and ease back into a life of anonymity once more.  There’s a great interview posted over on Australia’s Herald Sun website with the 45 year old actor where he talks at great length about Hollywood, the glamorous life and his plans for the future.  Those plans, apparently, don’t include hanging around film premieres and the Starbucks set.  Denton would like to move to Montana and become a teacher.

“I have a place in Montana up in the mountains and that’s where we really want to raise the kids. So if I can get two or three more years out of Housewives, they’ll never see me again.”

So there you have it.  Better get your fill of James Denton while you can.  Sounds as if he doesn’t plan on sticking around any longer than he has to!  Go read the rest of the interview, it’s pretty interesting.

Did you know Felicity Huffman was on “Regis and Kelly” yesterday? She was promoting her new movie, “Georgia Rule” which comes out this Friday. In it, she co-stars with Jane Fonda and Lindsay Lohan. But she didn’t just talk about the new movie, she also spoke quite a bit about “Desperate Housewives” and Lynette’s whole “affair” with the the Chef Dude. In fact, that was probably what they talked about the most. That and Eva Longoria’s wedding and bridal shower, that is. Felicity looked stunning, as usual, and got in some good jibes at Regis while she was at it, which is always a crowd pleaser. Give it a look-see, you’ll see what I mean.

Joe Keenan is a new writer this season for “Desperate Housewives.” You may have heard of him before, he wrote for a lot of successful half-hour comedies such as “Frasier” before joining the ABC powerhouse comedy. And while a full hour comedy/drama is a bit different from a half-hour sitcom, Keenan found it wasn’t very hard to adapt.

“I was interested in trying the show’s mix of satire and creepiness,” he said. This year he has focused on writing for Bree and Orson, and wrote the supermarket hostage episode “Bang” earlier in the season. “Having concentrated purely on comedy, it was nice to write an episode so dark like ‘Bang’. You don’t get to kill people in multi-camera comedy. It’s great to explore other kinds of scenes that you’ve never written before.”

I think we’ve certainly seen the difference he’s brought to the show this year as “Desperate Housewives” has seen a wonderful resurgence after a lack-luster second season. Let’s hope he stays with the show and keeps bringing us the good episodes. Bree and Orson have been a lot of fun to watch this season, and now we know who to thank for that!

Desperate Housewives, Joe Keenan

I still haven’t been able to find a good clip of Felicity’s Oprah appearance, but I did find a good one from the interview she did on Jimmy Kimmel Live last week. She went on to discuss her new “Practical Guide” book, of course. Highlights included the debating of whether or not riding a motorcycle was sexy (she: yes. he: I’ll die.) and Jimmy’s mispronouncing of the word “menstruate”. I was hopelessly distracted by Felicity’s plunging neckline on her leopard print dress. Her chest looked unfortunately skeletal and I kept wanting to go cover her up. But it’s a cute interview and I suggest you give it a watch. Including today there are 4 days until the next new “Desperate Housewives” episode. Woot!

“Desperate Housewives” producer and show creator Marc Cherry recently sat down and did an interview with Scott Pierce of The Deseret News and I have all the juicy bits here to share with you! They talked a lot about Cherry possibly stepping back from the show to work on other projects. Good news for us, he has no plans to do anything of the sort! Cherry stepped back last year during the ill-famed season 2 and the show definitely suffered as a result. Since that debacle, he has no intention of stepping aside again. Which isn’t to say that he’ll work on the show forever, either. “I want it to run seven years. And the moment seven years is past, I will personally take down the sets,” said Cherry. That sounds to me to be definite word that “Desperate Housewives” will run seven seasons and seven seasons only. Cherry also doesn’t plan to launch right into another mega-hit after the show’s run either. “I’m only going to have one major hit. I’m only going to catch lightning in a bottle once. I wish I had the energy to develop and write at the same time, but I don’t.” His focused attentions have really paid off, since season 3 is already much, much better than season 2.

Marcia Cross’ status on the show was also discussed. Obviously, the sudden bed-rest was a bit of an issue to work around but work around they did. In the meantime, not only will James Denton be getting extra screen-time in Marcia’s absence, but so will Nicollette Sheridan. Plans are to expand her role of Edie Britt and even explore her relationship with her son, a story that was merely hinted at in the show’s pilot episode.

More than anything, Cherry sounds very humble about the show’s (and as a consequence, his) success. “I’m really proud of this season. I’m hoping next season’s even better. There’s a couple things I haven’t accomplished yet that I think we can really do. I think we can even dig deeper, so I still have goals ahead. But basically, it’s just kind of, have a humble attitude towards the success. Once you start to believe that you deserve it, I think then you’re really screwed.”

Desperate Housewives, Marc Cherry, Marcia Cross, Nicollette Sheridan, James Denton

Our favorite voice-over Housewife has a new interview with TV Guide magazine. In the interview she talks about a new role she has on ABC’s new sitcom “Help Me Help You” with Ted Danson (playing his new love interest!). They also talked at great length about “Desperate Housewives”, including joking around about Mary Alice’s voice-overs and her love of using trite proverbs to illustrate a point and how she must have been killed of because she was so much taller than the other ‘wives. She was even asked for the story behind how she got the voice-over job in the first place, since that wasn’t the original plan. Brenda also said that while she would love to be able to show up for work in her pajamas (since she doesn’t need to be on camera for her “scenes”), the closest she’s come is sweats after a yoga class. But she is chummy with other ‘wives, often going out to dinner together. We also got to hear about a movie she will be appearing in, called A Plumm Summer with Hugh Jackman and Henry Winkler. Sounds good to me! Head over and read the interview for yourself for all the juicy details!