- Green is slated to play a love interest for Marcia Cross, a young blue-collar guy who helps the oh-so-proper Bree explore a different side of herself. Cross all but oohed and ahhed at the prospect. Cherry remembers introducing Green and his character at the first table read of the season. “I turned and said ‘You’re welcome, Marcia,’ and Marcia blushed.” Cross, for her part, claims she “doesn’t have to act” in her scenes with him in order to show some chemistry. Not sure if Megan Fox would want to hear that…

- As most people know, Vanessa Williams has been added to the cast, a suggestion that came from (now former) ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson. Cherry was skeptical because she was just coming off of ‘Ugly Betty,’ but he “fell in love with her” as soon as he met her, with the deal being finalized in a matter of days.

- Williams plays a Lynette’s best “frenemy” from college. She’s the wife of a professional athlete, an idea she pitched, and she sheds light on the choice Lynette made in her life. The first episode had “the best bitchy dialogue we’ve ever done on the show,” says Cherry.

- Even though Williams has experience being the wife of a pro basketball player — she was married to the former Laker Rick Fox — Cherry encouraged her to change things up a bit because “we already had the wife of a basketball player” in Longoria Parker. So Williams’ character will be the wife of a player for the Yankees.

- Longoria chimed in that “Marc takes a lot of stuff from my real life.” Which prompted Cherry to shoot her a glance when he mentioned that Williams’ character had marital problems. No cattiness there, huh?

- Lanie Kazan will be coming aboard to do a few episodes. Shocked that she’s never been there before.

- Cherry said that in the season opener, Gabby finds out that Andrew, Bree’s son, has run over her mother in law, which affects their friendship in a major way. In the second episode, two families are in conflict over another hit and run. “What I learned on ‘The Golden Girls’ is that you want your ensemble of ladies to be very close and very friendly, but it’s even funnier when they’re in conflict.”

TV Squad

BURBANK, Calif. - Fall has come early to Wisteria Lane on the Universal stage set where Desperate Housewives is filmed, but Eva Longoria Parker is looking resplendent as always, dressed to the nines, even if her boss, creator, executive producer and showrunner Marc Cherry, is dressed like a slob. Desperate Housewives has just broken ground on its seventh season - Cherry says to expect more paternity surprises, more maternity suits and recurring guest turns by Vanessa Williams and Lainie Kazan when Desperate Housewives returns in September - but no one, it seems, has caught the seven-year itch just yet.

Parker, flanked by her boss and a relaxed, demure Marcia Cross - as serene and removed from her character Bree as Desperate Housewives is from reality - shepherds a small group of visitors around the house that Felicity Huffman’s character Lynette calls home. In actuality, the house is one of several on a wide, tree-lined boulevard, formerly known as Leave It To Beaver Lane, or Beaver Lane, nestled just beneath the top of a hill on a remote corner of the sprawling Universal lot, far from the tourist trams.

Parker, who plays flighty Gabrielle Solis, isn’t quite sure what she can divulge about the new season: Cherry has warned her, and the others, that loose lips sink payslips.

“I love Gaby’s evolution as a character,” Parker said, with appropriate deference and diplomacy to the Boss. “I love that Gaby was so much fun, but I can’t imagine being that person for seven seasons. I liked that she did go from being this selfish, single model to a bad wife to funky to having kids. This year, what Marc’s making me do - God! You told me what I could say,” Parker said, turning to Cherry. “And I forgot it.”

“And here’s where I jump in,” Cherry continued, in a sing-song lilt. “This is what I’m making her do. The very first scene, and what we start to deal with in the very first episode, is the ramifications of her friendship with Bree, because she finds out something that we’ve been holding back for six seasons: She finally finds out that Andrew, Bree’s son, has run over her mother-in-law.”

Oh, dear.
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here always seems to be available real estate on Wisteria Lane for new neighbors moving in from other TV neighborhoods: Beverly Hills, 90210’s Brian Austin Green will join the Desperate Housewives cast as a working class contractor who catches the eye of both Bree (Marcia Cross) and another newbie, Ugly Betty’s Vanessa Williams. And series creator Marc Cherry also hopes to save some property for his longtime friend Betty White.

“Marcia will have a new love interest in the form of Brian Austin Green,” Cherry said at a Television Critics Association panel on Tuesday. “We wanted Bree to be involved with a hunky blue collar contractor and take her out of her refined and educated world — someone who’s a bit younger and someone who would be challenging to Bree. We read the first script of the season and I introduced Brian as Marcia’s new love interest and then I said, ‘You’re welcome, Marcia!’ and Marcia blushed.”

“I’m still blushing — I’m not really acting yet,” admitted Cross. “Just yesterday in the scene he grabbed my hand to pull me somewhere and as Bree — just coming into my physical space sets her atwitter. I was atwitter, too. Don’t tell him I said that!”

Green, like his new bride Megan Fox, sports his share of tattoos, which will be on display when he doffs his shirt in the second episode of season 7. “The agent asked us if we wanted to cover them up and we said, ‘No, let’s leave them,’” said Cherry. “I based the character of Bree on my mother, and my mother is appalled by tattoos. I love the idea of Bree being attracted to someone who has body art.’”

Bree’s not the only one with her eyes on Green’s character. “I hear there might be some competition between Bree and Renee going after him,” reveals Williams, who’s playing new arrival Renee Perry, the former college roommate of Lynette (Felicity Huffman).

“It’s her past frienemy in college,” says Williams, whose character is seeking solace during a rough patch in her marriage to a New York Yankee. “They were very competitive. She’s coming into Lynette’s life because she’s having issues in her marriage and that’s how she ends up on Wisteria Lane. She’s looking to start a new phase of her life. She has a lot of money and she has a lot of privileges.”

“She moves in and starts shining a spotlight on the choices that Lynette has made in her life,” adds Cherry. “Some of the best bitchy dialogue that we’ve ever done on this show is in the first episode.”

Cherry said the idea of playing a professional athlete’s wife came from Williams, who was previously married to NBA star Rick Fox. “Vanessa herself pitched the idea of maybe being the wife of a professional basketball player. I said, ‘Actually, I have a woman on the show who has that,’ ” noting that costar Eva Longoria Parker is wed to San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker. “She went, ‘Oh, yeah, yeah. We’ll change the sport.’”

Cherry — a former writer on The Golden Girls — revealed that he hopes to have his friend Betty White drop by sooner rather than later. “I adore Betty,” says Cherry. “Betty got me a seat at Saturday Night Live, so I was there when she hosted. She’s so astounding. I would love to have her do the show. She works harder than any of us. She is constantly employed. I’m trying to just see if I can get her for dinner. It’s so hard to book her!”

Cherry recalled a reunion with White, Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan at a Golden Girls DVD party a few years ago. “They all gave me a big hug. We hadn’t seen each other in about a decade and they were so happy for my success and they were just so lovely,” he told the crowd on Tuesday. “I remember thinking, ‘I have to get them on the show.’ Of course, time does what it does and now only Betty is left. If there’s any way to do it, I would love to have Betty on the show. She’s a saucy, sexy gal and she’s a blast. It’s something that would make my heart very happy.”

Source

To kick off its seventh season, ABC’s Desperate Housewives are strapping on their chaps for a sexy Old West themed photo and video campaign shooting this weekend. “Yippee Ki-Yay,” new housewife Vanessa Williams hollered to me on the Housewives set. “It’s the Good, the Bad and the Desperate — or something like that. When I heard we were wearing Western wear, I was like, ‘What!?’ It’s their seventh year, so I guess they’re thinking, ‘What’s left we haven’t shot?’”

The concept, to be shot by famed shutterbug Matthew Rolston, is actually taken from the old Gary Cooper western, High Noon, with Vanessa’s Rene Perry as the new sheriff in town — complete with guns and cowboy hats. Watch out, ladies! I hear there’s reason to fear Rene, as she’ll be taking up residence in the home vacated by deceased troublemaker Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan).

No word yet on whether Vanessa, Teri Hatcher, Eva Longoria, Marcia Cross and Felicity Huffman will be required to hop on horses, although Vanessa is certainly game. “I love horses and am an avid rider,” says the star.

Well, this certainly beats the Housewives Laundromat campaign from a few years back. Don’t it, pilgrim?

Source: TVGuide

“Desperate Housewives” doesn’t have a firm end date yet. It could in the relatively near future, though.

Creator Marc Cherry says that he can see the series lasting a couple more seasons, “but I don’t want to try and match ‘Gunsmoke’s’ record.”

“It’s in negotiation — that’s all I can tell you,” Cherry says of an end date for “Housewives.” “ABC is talking to people. … There are meetings going on with agents and stuff, but we’re just kind of here doing our work.”

Cherry has talked in the past about wanting to end the show after seven seasons; he later struck a deal to stay with the show through a ninth year, when his current deal with ABC Studios expires. (There have also been rumblings that the show might end after next season.)

He also says he hopes to keep the show’s principal cast of Marcia Cross, Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman and Eva Longoria Parker together until the end.

“That to me is absolutely the optimum,” Cherry says. “I’m aware that it’s very tricky to take beloved cast members [out of a show] when the premise of the show is it’s an ensemble. … So while I’m mindful that my gals have other careers going on, and they’re starting families and doing stuff like that — that they might have other interests that might take them away — my goal, and I’m going to work really hard, is to try to keep the core group together to the bitter end. I think that would be a lovely way to end the show.”

Season 7 of “Desperate Housewives” is set to premiere on Sunday, Sept. 26.

Source: Zap2It

The producers of “Desperate Housewives” aren’t giving up whose baby was switched or why exactly Paul Young is returning to Wisteria Lane, but they did share a good amount about what we’ll see in the first part of Season 7 during a set visit Tuesday (July 27).

Read on for details about Vanessa Williams’ and Brian Austin Green’s characters, Teri Hatcher’s “shady” new boss and more.

Lynette’s friend

Williams plays Renee Perry, Lynette’s (Felicity Huffman) former college roommate who moves to Wisteria Lane after hitting a rough patch with her husband. “The have sort of a frenemy relationship,” executive producer Bob Daily says. “Renee had gone off to New York and married a very wealthy pro athlete, a baseball player. She’s always been a little more wealthy than Lynette, had more of a jet-set, no-kids kind of lifestyle. … We’ll continue to play that friend/bitter rival relationship with them.”

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