Fall TV Blog

An Emmy winner for her role as Adriana, the put-upon — and put-down — girlfriend of Christopher (Michael Imperoli) on The Sopranos, and sister Gina on the short-lived Joey (with Matt LeBlanc), Drea de Matteo proves once again she’s one of the hardest working actresses on TV. Her next stop: Wisteria Lane.

EW.com reports that de Matteo, 37, will join the cast of Desperate Housewives as the head of a new Italian family that moves on to the block. Also inhabiting her house: a landscape architect husband and a neurotic son. (Their casting is still to come.)

Last season, the show, which premiered in October 2004, lost series regular Nicollette Sheridan, who played the bombshell Edie. – Stephen M. Silverman

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The Housewives each had to deal with their own unwelcome surprise on Sunday’s season finale. But the biggest turn of events came for Mike, Katherine, Susan and Dave, whose destinies were changed by one fateful fishing trip. But let’s begin with Lynette… (more…)

Some masks are worn once a year on Halloween. There are ones people wear to hide their insecurities. Then there are others used to veil hidden agendas. Well, the masks came off Sunday on Wisteria Lane.

Bree
Karl arrived at Bree’s house just after sundown to discuss how she was going to hide her assets from Orson. He suggested a secret bank account and a second set of books. She agreed to everything… until he suggested robbing her own house. She didn’t want some thug to stage a break-in, but once he painted a picture of Orson with half of her assets that sealed the deal. During Susan’s engagement party, Bree and Karl staged the robbery. While Bree was neatly tipping items over, Karl told her she had to make it look believable as he knocked things to the floor. “You want to be a Neanderthal, fine! I prefer to act with class and dignity,” she said, “Now, can we please finish robbing my home?” When Orson and Bree got home from the party later that night to see the house had been “robbed,” Orson volunteered, “It wasn’t me. I swear.” Thinking maybe this was karma for all of the things he had stolen from other people, Orson told Bree how much she meant to him. Bree got cold feet about divorcing Orson and went to talk to Karl, who reassured her she was doing the right thing. But Bree hadn’t planned on one little snag: Orson answered a phone call from a storage facility, the one housing all of Bree’s “missing items.”
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On Wisteria Lane, bargaining begins at sunrise, and everyone in the neighborhood gets into the act — even the youngest of residents.

Bree
Bree met with a divorce lawyer who told her that Orson will get half of everything she’s worth. She decided she needed a different lawyer, one who could help her protect her assets. While the Housewives were playing cards, Susan reminded Bree that Karl is a divorce lawyer and a shark. So Bree went to see Karl about her divorce, but he wanted something from her first — a favor. MJ was having a sleepover party, and he wanted Bree to get his son Evan an invite. Bree buttered up MJ with homemade macaroons, and asked him to invite Evan to the party. “He’s a bully,” he replied. “He hit me with a dead squirrel!” MJ finally relented after Bree told him that she has someone who hits her with a dead squirrel every day. Since Bree held up her end of the bargain, Karl agreed to help her. He told her she’d need to be manipulative and scheming. She replied that she would do whatever needs to be done. And that’s how the perfect lawyer-client relationship began.
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Could Eva Longoria Parker’s hunky gardener Jesse Metcalfe be the mystery character returning for this season’s finale of Desperate Housewives?

“I love Jesse, I love Jesse,” Longoria Parker, 34, told PEOPLE at Friday’s Rally for Kids with Cancer Scavenger Cup “qualifiers” party in Hollywood. “That would be a fun thing.” Metcalfe had played Longoria Parker’s then-teenage paramour John Rowland.

Housewives costar Brenda Strong, who also attended Friday’s fund-raiser, added with a smile, “It’s always nice to see Jesse, particularly when it comes to Eva’s storyline, to throw a little tension in there. I’m as excited as anybody else to find out who it is.” (more…)

Once again, everyone on Wisteria Lane had something to hide — everyone but Susan that is. Trying to be empathetic, she told Dave that she was the one driving in the fatal accident she had with Mike years ago. While Carlos and Lynette had an awkward encounter, Gaby meddled in Lynette and Tom’s marriage, while Bree thought it may be time to end hers and Andrew was there to help.

Bree
After Orson gets whacked on the head trying to steal Rose’s knickknacks, the doctor told Bree that she could take her husband home from the hospital. “Really, that soon?” she asked, suspicious that he might be lying again. Bree decided she’d give Orson one last chance, but Andrew started researching divorce lawyers. At home, Orson’s head still hurt and he still didn’t tell Bree the truth about his injury. Bree told Andrew that Orson was lying and that she thought she wanted a divorce.

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Desperate Housewives said goodbye to resident bombshell Edie Britt, a character from the past is returning.

“A major character from the first two seasons will be featured in the last five minutes of the season finale,” series creator Marc Cherry hinted during a panel discussion Saturday at the Paley Center for Media’s Annual William S. Paley Television Festival. “The cast doesn’t even know who.” Could it be Gaby’s boy-toy gardener, played by Jesse Metcalfe? Cherry’s sly smile revealed little, but the crowd cheered at the possibility.

Other Housewives dish revealed by Cherry and the cast: (more…)

Edie became the narrator on last night’s Desperate Housewives as the entire neighborhood reacted to her sudden death. Soon everyone was gathered around Edie. Susan was first on the scene, bending down and whispering, “Don’t worry, you are going to be fine.” Well, actually she wasn’t, but she did go out in true Edie fashion — as the center of attention. Two days after her death, Susan, Lynette, Gaby, Bree, and Mrs. McClusky piled into Susan’s car with coffee, baked goods and an urn with Edie in it to deliver her to her son. It gave the Housewives the pretense of spending hours together and reminiscing about the Edie viewers never got to see.

Susan
Susan remembered the first day she met Edie in the neighborhood. She was taking out the trash when Edie jogged by and saw her eating a donut out of a trash can. In the next week, they became instant friends, sharing gossip and jogs around the neighborhood…until Susan found out Edie was sleeping with a neighbor’s husband. Edie then told Susan that Karl was cheating on her with his secretary. That didn’t exactly thaw the friendship, but it sure did give DH fans insight into why Susan and Edie’s relationship was always so prickly.
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While Desperate Housewives fans may be sad to see Edie Britt go, Nicollette Sheridan, who has played the role for five seasons, didn’t shed too many tears.

Upon hearing of Edie’s untimely demise, “I said, ‘OK, sayonara. It’s been a great ride. Thank you,’” Sheridan tells the new issue of TV Guide magazine. Still, she adds, “[Killing off Edie] was a risky decision that could have devastating ramifications.”

But regardless of the fallout on Wisteria Lane, Sheridan is ready to move on.

“When the show started it was such a different beast. It was exciting and dangerous and funny and edgy and bizarre,” says Sheridan. “It started feeling a little complacent, and that was very frustrating.”

Another thorn in her side? Creator Marc Cherry, whom Sheridan believes largely ignored her. She bemoans, “When you have a jewel, why not polish it and put it out there for all to see?”

Cherry, however, says Edie (and Sheridan’s) time was up on the show.
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Fans of Desperate Housewives aren’t the only ones who are going to miss Nicollette Sheridan’s Edie Britt, who last we saw got the shock of her life after she narrowly escaped the clutches of her crazy husband Dave.

“She will be missed,” Sheridan’s costar Teri Hatcher told PEOPLE at the Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance’s 8th Annual Comedy for a Cure Sunday in Hollywood. “I feel really grateful to have had the opportunity to work with her.”

According to Hatcher, Sheridan’s unexpected departure from the hit series was simply about moving on: “My understanding is that she is excited about the new adventures upcoming in her life. I feel that she deserves all the honor and respect in the world.”

Though she bids farewell, Hatcher promises Sheridan’s final stroll down Wisteria Lane, airing April 19 (when the show returns from hiatus), is full of emotional raw acting as the women look back on Edie’s life. “It was a fabulously written episode,” says Hatcher. “She should get nominated for an Emmy.”

Meanwhile, fellow Housewife Dana Delany hints that her character Katherine Mayfair could have a complicated love triangle coming up. “Katherine and Mike have big news,” Delany told PEOPLE at the Comedy for a Cure event. Asked if Hatcher’s character Susan will be involved, the actress said, “Yeah, because Susan and Mike are so close, it’s like I’m always going to be a thorn in that relationship.” –Paul Chi, with reporting by Nicholas White

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