Eva Longoria Tops Maxim's 'Hot 100' List

Eva Longoria tops Maxim's seventh annual "Hot 100" list of the most successful women in film, TV, music, sports and fashion for the second year in a row.

The "Desperate Housewives" actress told The Associated Press that her repeat selection for the No. 1 spot was a shock.

"I was actually really shocked last year when I made the list," said the 31-year-old Longoria, who ranked No. 91 on the 2004 roster.

"So 91 to No. 1 was a big jump, and then to get it a second time in a row — I just couldn't believe it," she said Friday. "I was like, `Surely there are more beautiful women in the world.' I can name 10."

Maxim said it is the first time the magazine has bestowed the No. 1 honor back-to-back. Editors made the selections for the issue, which will be on newsstands Thursday.

The magazine said all of the women on the list have several things in common, including "a tremendous amount of buzz surrounding them, undeniable beauty and a promise of greater things to come."

Jessica Alba is No. 2, followed by
Lindsay Lohan,
Angelina Jolie, Stacy Keibler ("Dancing With the Stars"),
Scarlett Johansson,
Cameron Diaz,
Kate Bosworth,
Keira Knightley and singer-actress
Christina Milian.

The list also includes "Desperate Housewives" stars
Nicollette Sheridan (No. 48) and
Teri Hatcher (No. 73).

"I would have voted all of our `Housewives' on the list," Longoria told the AP in a phone interview.

"The Maxim Hot 100 continues to get hotter, and it is all because of girls like Eva Longoria, who always looks sensational and continues to reach new heights in her career," Rob Gregory, the magazine's publisher, said in a statement Monday.

What does boyfriend/San Antonio Spurs star Tony Parker make of all this?

"Oh, he's very proud," Longoria told the AP. "He thinks he's with a beautiful girl every day, so for him, it's, you know, someone else solidifying what he already thinks."

ABC apologizes for sexy MNF segment

ABC has apologized for its intro to Monday Night Football, which featured a locker room encounter between actress Nicolette Sheridan and Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens--just moments before the game against the Dallas Cowboys. Wrapped in a towel but showing less skin than a Cowboys cheerleader, Sheridan asks Owen to miss the game for her--then drops the towel and jumps into his arms when he wavers. With Sheridan's back visible, Owens smiles and says, "Aw, hell. Team's gonna' have to win this one without me." The shot then cuts to actresses Teri Hatcher and Felicity Huffman, who are watching the scene unfold on TV from the living room sofa. The spot was meant to be a spoof of ABC's hit show Desperate Housewife, which stars Sheridan, Hatcher and Huffman, but the NFL and its growingly conservative fan base apparently didn't get the joke. "While ABC may have gained attention for one of its other shows, the NFL and its fans lost," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said in a statement, calling the intro "inappropriate and unsuitable for our "Monday Night Football audience." The Eagles jumped on the apology bandwagon, adding: "It is normal for teams to cooperate with ABC in the development of an opening for its broadcast. After seeing the final piece, we wish it hadn't aired." ABC eventually succumbed to the pressure and apologized for the segment. "We have heard from many of our viewers about last night's MNF opening segment and we agree that the placement was inappropriate," the network said. "We apologize."

Transamerica again...

Felicity Huffman wasn't supposed to win the Emmy over her more glamorous and talked-about "Desperate Housewives" co-stars. But she did. Now, she's an Academy Award favorite for her performance in "Transamerica" -- in which she plays a man prepping for sex-change surgery.

Not bad for an actress who was thinking a few years ago that maybe she wasn't supposed to have a Hollywood career, after all.

Through the few ups and many downs in her career, Huffman often thought about quitting, pulling into her driveway and crying with her head on the steering wheel after bad days and failed auditions.

She managed to fleetingly catch the eye of audiences with bit parts in "The Spanish Prisoner" and "Magnolia," and she endeared herself to a cult of fans who caught her as the slightly flighty producer on the acclaimed but short-lived TV series "Sports Night."

To those who wondered why Huffman did not steadily rise to bigger and better parts, the answer is easy.

"No one offered them to me," Huffman, 43, told The Associated Press over a salad at a cafe near the home she and her husband, actor William H. Macy, share with their two daughters in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley.

"I'd get three lines here, four days in a movie there. When you'd drive on to the set, you don't know where you're going, there's no chair for you. They're going, 'Who are you again?' This was the first time that I'd been considered for a major part, much less a lead."

Huffman's two breakthroughs came almost simultaneously. After reluctantly meeting with ABC about yet another TV project she figured would go nowhere, she was cast as the overwhelmed homemaker Lynette in "Desperate Housewives."

As she was doing an early cast reading of the show's pilot script, Huffman got a call from her agent that she had gotten the part of Bree in "Transamerica," playing a transsexual whose final surgery to become a woman hits a snag after she learns of a teenage son, a cynical street hustler (Kevin Zegers), she never knew she fathered. The film is scheduled to open in Seattle on Jan. 20.

The character, who began life as a male named Stanley, is a definite "she" to Huffman, though Bree still has the manly plumbing.

"It's an interesting question, where does gender start?" Huffman mused. "Always before, we've gone, 'If you have a penis, you're a man. If you have a vagina, you're a woman.' It's what they tell you in nursery school and kindergarten. Now there's a whole other level brought into it."

"Transamerica" writer-director Duncan Tucker had first seen Huffman on stage in David Mamet's off-Broadway production "Cryptogram." Later catching Huffman in bit movie roles or guest spots on "Frasier," Tucker found himself wondering: "Why is this woman not a star, like Frances McDormand, or the girl-next-door Meryl Streep?

"She reminds me of actresses like Rosalind Russell or Carole Lombard, those kind of good sports you could imagine hanging out with and having a beer. Really smart and fast-talking. I just had this gut instinct that she was the kind of transformative actress who would totally disappear inside the skin of somebody created from scratch. She wouldn't become Felicity Huffman playing Felicity Huffman as a transsexual but a completely new human being."

Huffman came up with Bree's look and deportment mostly on her own -- hair and makeup stiffly applied by a hand not yet skilled in such feminine trappings, body language ungainly as she grows accustomed to changes in her body.

The actress worked with a vocal coach to develop Bree's deep, throaty voice, which took Huffman an hour to slip into each morning and which she maintained throughout the day, finding that she would lose the thread if she slipped into her own voice between takes.

Bree's voice so unnerved Macy, who stayed at home with their children, that he finally told her only to call before work in the morning or after shooting at night, when she was back in her own persona.

The youngest of eight children, with six sisters and one brother, Huffman settled on acting by age 10, after her mother sent her off to a summer theater camp. After initial stage success in New York, Huffman got by in such movies as "Hackers" and the odd TV role until "Desperate Housewives" made her a star.

Though critics say "Desperate Housewives" is in a sophomore slump, Huffman and co-stars Teri Hatcher, Marcia Cross and Eva Longoria grabbed four of the five Golden Globe nominations for best actress in a TV comedy or musical, and the show was nominated for best series. (Huffman also earned a Globe nomination for best actress in a dramatic film for "Transamerica.")

Huffman diplomatically defends the show against accusations of a creative funk.

"We were riding so high that there's no place else to go but sort of down for a while, and God willing, up again. And I'd say everyone's entitled, of course, to their opinion," Huffman said. "My experience has been the scripts have been great. I think it's been a wonderful year."

The year could get even better if "Transamerica" brings Huffman an Oscar to go with her Emmy. The film is one of the first acquisitions for the Weinstein Co., the new outfit of Miramax Films co-founders Harvey and Bob Weinstein, who are among the savviest of Hollywood's awards campaigners.

Teri Hatcher Gets Played by Ryan Seacrest

He set her up.

Teri is as baffled as everyone else by the three-week tabloid magazine cover "affair" in which nothing happened. She told Oprah that a friend had been trying to set her up with Ryan for months, so she finally relented.

She went out with him on two group dates, and for their third date, Ryan called her suddenly and asked her to meet him at a little shack of a seafood restaurant way far away from Los Angeles.

She went, they sat on the beach, and he leaned over and kissed her. She says she didn't know it at the moment, but paparazzi happened to be there too...

Teri said that she and Ryan were both aware that their picture had been taken and then an hour after the date, he called her and said, "I don't think I can do this with you."

And the D-wife hasn't heard from him or seen him since. Talk about being used!

Nicolette Sheridan in The Cleaner (2007)

In next year we will see Nicolette Sheridan in The Cleaner, Les Mayfield's new film:

An amnesiac janitor, who is duped into thinking he is an undercover agent, is subconsciously carrying a secret that can link the FBI with an arms scandal.

Genres:	Action/Adventure, Comedy and Drama
Release Date:	April 13th, 2007 (wide)
MPAA Rating:	PG-13 for sexual content, crude humor and some violence.
Distributors:	New Line Cinema

Starring: Cedric The Entertainer, Elizabeth Hurley, Lucy Liu, Nicollette Sheridan, Callum Keith Rennie

Directed by: Les Mayfield

Produced by: Lucy Liu, A.J. Dix, Anthony Rhulen

Toasting Teri Hatcher’s Burnt Toast

Clinking glasses and sipping Moet & Chandon with Teri Hatcher …Not a bad way to celebrate the coming of a brand-new Hollywood party season. It was a toast to Burnt Toast.

Just days before wrapping her second season of production on the mega-hit Desperate Housewives, Teri gathered her closest friends and co-stars in Beverly Hills’ lush nightclub Aqua for a chic book launch party in honor of the actress-turned-author’s literary effort Burnt Toast and Other Philosophies of Life. “I want a free book and a signed book,” Felicity Huffman mock-demanded as she arrived.

“I think that she expects me to buy one,” said James Denton with a grin. “I got to read just a couple of pages of it, and it's really sharp. I think that’s obvious—it's already sold about three hundred thousand copies.”

Nicolette Sheridan and her beau Michael Bolton had just air-kissed Teri goodbye, and the star’s pixie-ish nine-year-old daughter Emerson Rose twirled on the dance floor to hits that were big a good ten years before she was born, when Teri and I finally had a chance to talk about her tome, which had already gotten a thumbs-up from no less the Oprah herself.

I asked Teri, clad in an exquisite sage green silk crinkle cocktail dress from Escada, if she ever imagined adding “author” to her list of credits. “You know what, it wasn't a plan. It just happened,” she admitted, having only penned one other professional effort. “I wrote an episode of Lois & Clark that we made. I guess that I'm the kind of person that, if I take something on, I take it on with a strong work ethic. I worked really hard on it, but it wasn't like a goal or a plan.”

Her book feels so intimate, honest and unvarnished—sometimes at the expense of her own vanity--that I wondered if she ever found herself writing something forthcoming and then immediately wanting to hit the delete button. “No,” she laughed. “I started to write with a really non-editing kind of voice. I just write and then I go back and look at it. I wasn't really afraid. I didn't have fear in my mind when I wrote this.”

The book, along with her recent revelations to Vanity Fair regarding the sexual molestation she experienced as a young girl, seems to demonstrate that the actress has made peace with much of her personal demons and set down a lot of emotional baggage, finding a new comfort zone in her life.

“I think so, and I think that happens in your forties,” she agreed. “I think that's an appropriate age to feel like you want to find some comfort in yourself and I think that's what the book is about. It's sort of expressing in one way a woman coming to self-acceptance and not completely, not that I've accomplished every situation, but more of a work in progress.”

Co-star Huffman was proud of Teri’s personal progress. “She seems like she's at a great place in her life, and that she's at peace,” said Felicity, who said that at work Teri never seemed troubled by her past. “I think that's more of a personal journey. She has always seemed to be hitting her stride to me. She's always seemed really even-keeled and well-balanced, and so I think that's more of a personal thing.”

“She has been through a lot, and she is a really great mom and a really nice person,” agreed Teri's Housewives hunk Denton. “So I am really happy for her, and she can certainly write her own ticket now.”

The actor was hard pressed to come up with a tidbit about Teri that most people don’t already know. “That's tough, because her life is so public now, and people know most everything about her,” he said. “Certainly watching her sit with Emerson in her chair on the set and watching her color with her crayons and draw pictures of princesses and horses and stuff like that—As a dad I have a soft spot for that anyway, but watching her with Emerson is far and away the most endearing thing about her.”

“I keep telling her that she looks sooo good right now,” said Teri’s TV daughter Andrea Bowen. “I mean, she is a beautiful lady and she will always look beautiful. But just recently I've noticed everything about her is just kind of glowing. She's happy and fulfilled. She looks great, and I definitely sense that. She seems very happy and together, and I'm so happy for her because her life is so amazingly hard and she is the queen of multi-tasking.”

Andrea was a little miffed at her on-camera mom, however, for denying her a sneak peek at the book in the writing stages. “I'm like, ‘Come on! Don't I get anything for being related?’”

As other celebs, including Brenda Strong, Shawn Pyfrom and Jim Belushi mixed and mingled at the party, I couldn’t resist asking Felicity if she at all missed the near-constant party circuit she experienced during her recent Academy Awards experience. “There was the calm after the Oscars and it was nice,” she admitting, noting that she didn’t miss the whirlwind schedule. “I thought that I would, but it was one of those fantastic once-in-a-lifetime dreams, and it was okay when I was done. I was ready to go back to my husband and my children.”

Meanwhile, as Emerson Rose continued to twirl with anyone who could keep up with her, Teri was taken aback by a super-arrival: it’s a bird…it’s a plane…it’s Dean Cain, her old co-star from Lois & Clark! “It's the first time that I've seen him in years, so that was really lovely,” she smiled. “I was really touched by how many people from my past, from the show, just from the business, and of course my personal friends came.”

Andrea Bowen as Julie Mayer

Andrea Bowen began her life as a professional performer on Broadway in New York at the age of six, playing Young Cosette in Les Mis�rables, the youngest Cosette in the show's 16-year run. She went on to originate the role of Marta Von Trapp in the Original Cast of the Broadway revival of The Sound of Music with Richard Chamberlain, and the role of Adele in the Broadway musical production of Jane Eyre. While performing on Broadway, she also began to guest star on such New York-based TV shows as Law & Order and Third Watch, and in the films New York Crossing and Highball. Now living in Los Angeles, Andrea just started the second season of the ABC hit series Desperate Housewives, in which she plays Julie Mayer, daughter of Susan Mayer, played by Teri Hatcher. This spring Bowen won a SAG Actor Award for "Best Ensemble in a Comedy Series." Prior to being cast in Desperate Housewives, Andrea played the role of Zooey Glass in the ABC primetime series, That Was Then. She also played 12-year-old genius Riley Ellis in a recurring role on Fox's Boston Public, and has had numerous guest star appearances on other shows in a wide variety of roles, ranging from an altruistic, cystic fibrosis patient on Strong Medicine to an ill-tempered and foul mouthed foster child on One Tree Hill, from the bratty child of a sports star on Arli$$ to a shy, suicidal teenager on Nip/Tuck. Andrea has also found success as a voiceover artist, lending her vocal talents to many projects, including the film The Ice Age and two recently completed animated pilots for the Cartoon Network, Party Wagon and Ben-10. As a recording artist, she can be heard on the original-cast albums of "Jane Eyre, the Musical" and "The Sound of Music," "'98 Broadway Revival," as well as "Night of the Hunter," "Z, the Masked Musical," "Broadway Kids Sing America" and the Sugar Beats discs "Car Tunes" and "Christmas Album." Andrea is the youngest of six siblings, all of whom have found considerable success as performers on Broadway and in film and television. She currently lives with her mom and dad in the Los Angeles area. In addition to acting, she is an accomplished singer and dancer who also enjoys swimming and horseback riding.

Alfre Woodard as Betty Appelwhite

Alfre Woodard has starred in Beauty Shop, opposite Queen Latifah, The Forgotten with Julianne Moore, Radio with Cuba Gooding Jr., Ed Harris and Deborah Winger, The Core, The Singing Detective with Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr., Showtime's Holiday Heart (for which she was nominated for a 2000 Best Actress Golden Globe Award), Universal's K-PAX, opposite Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges, and in New Line Cinema's Love 'N Basketball. Other credits include the Wesley Snipes production of Down in the Delta, directed by Dr. Maya Angelou, Gurinder Chadha's What's Cooking and Lawrence Kasdan's Mumford. Always the versatile performer, Woodard has lent her voice to animation too, portraying the cheetah mother in Paramount/Nickelodeon's feature, The Wild Thornberrys Movie, and providing the voice of a lemur named "Plio" in the summer blockbuster, Dinosaur. A four-time Emmy Award winner, Woodard was first honored in 1984 for her performance as the grieving mother of a child killed by a police officer on the acclaimed NBC series Hill Street Blues. She won her second Emmy for her portrayal of a rape victim on the pilot of L.A. Law, and that same year was also nominated for her role in the John Sayles telefilm, Unnatural Causes. Her third Emmy was for her role in HBO's Miss Evers' Boys (for which she also received a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a CableACE Award). More recently Woodard received a 2003 Emmy Award for her guest-starring role in The Practice. Previous nominations include two in consecutive years for the PBS production Words by Heart and for her continuing role on the popular series "St. Elsewhere." She was nominated again in 1988 for St. Elsewhere and in 1990 for the Disney Channel telefilm, A Mother's Courage: The Mary Thomas Story. In addition she was honored with a CableACE Award for her portrayal of Winnie Mandela in the HBO presentation, Mandela, starring Danny Glover. Woodard also starred in the ensemble film How to Make an American Quilt and in Spike Lee's family drama, Crooklyn. She starred in the USA Cable telefilm The Member of the Wedding, which aired in January 1997, in Star Trek: First Contact and in the thriller Primal Fear, opposite Richard Gere. She co-starred in the NBC-TV adaptation of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Her performance in the Hallmark Hall of Fame production of August Wilson's play, The Piano Lesson, earned her a Best Actress Award from the Screen Actors Guild and an Emmy nomination. In 1984 she received an Academy Award nomination for her performance in Martin Ritt's Cross Creek. Other starring film projects include John Sayles' Passion Fish, Morgan Freeman's South African drama, Bopha!, also starring Danny Glover, Bruce Beresford's Rich in Love, William Friedkin's Blue Chips, Ron Underwood's comedy, Heart and Souls, director Lawrence Kasdan's Grand Canyon, the comedy Scrooged, Miss Firecracker, opposite Tim Robbins and Holly Hunter, and Robert Altman's Health. She made her motion picture debut in Alan Rudolph's Remember My Name. Always drawn to the theater, Woodard counts among her stage credits Broadway's Drowning Crow, the New York Shakespeare Festival production of David Hare's Map of the World in 1985, and the 1989 production of A Winter's Tale. She starred in A Christmas Carol and Leander Stillwell at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, Horatio and Edward Bond's Saved at the Arena Stage in Washington DC, Me and Bessie on Broadway and at San Francisco's Act, and Split Second at the Mayfair Music Hall. She also appeared in the long-running Los Angeles production of Love Letters, and executive-produced East Texas Hot Links at the Met Theatre. Woodard has recently wrapped NBC's upcoming one-hour drama, Inconceivable, New Line's Take the Lead, with Antonio Banderas, and Focus Features' Something New. She currently resides in Santa Monica with her husband and two children.

Brenda Strong as Mary Alice Young

Brenda Strong can be seen -- but mostly heard -- as Mary Alice Young, the recently departed narrator of Desperate Housewives. A native of Portland, OR, she left home to attend Arizona State University, where she earned a bachelors degree in Musical Theater. After graduation she moved to Los Angeles, where she soon began appearing in television and films. A familiar face on television, Strong has guest starred on C.S.I. and had recurring roles on the popular series Nip/Tuck, Everwood and the critically-acclaimed Sports Night. She is also recognizable to Seinfeld fans as "Sue Ellen Mishkie," better known as "The Braless Wonder." Strong stars in the features The Kid and I, opposite Tom Arnold, and in The Work and the Glory. Previous feature film credits include Starship Troopers and the recently-released Starship Troopers 2, The Deep End of the Ocean, opposite Michelle Pfeiffer and Treat Williams, The Craft and the Mel Brooks comedy Spaceballs. Strong is a certified yoga instructor with her own studio in Los Angeles and a line of videos designed to help infertile couples through yoga therapy. She has also taught at UCLA's Mind-Body Institute. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son.

Nicollette Sheridan as Edie Britt

Nicollette Sheridan, born in England and raised in London and Los Angeles, is perhaps best known to TV audiences for portraying the beautiful, powerful and manipulative Paige Matheson in the long-running drama series, Knots Landing. She returns to series television as Edie Britt, the serial divorcee whose romantic conquests keep the neighborhood buzzing on Desperate Housewives. One of Sheridan's first feature film appearances was in the hit Rob Reiner-directed comedy, The Sure Thing. In the film, Sheridan was the object of John Cusack's cross-country quest to find "the sure thing." In addition to Knots Landing, her TV credits include TV miniseries and movies such as Lucky/Chances, Indictment: The McMartin Trial, The People Next Door, The Spiral Staircase and Dead Husbands. She has also starred in the feature film comedies Noises Off, opposite Michael Caine and Carol Burnett, Spy Hard, as Agent 3.14 and opposite Leslie Neilsen, and Beverly Hills Ninja, with Chris Farley and Chris Rock.

Eva Longoria as Gabrielle Solis

Recently named one of People's "50 Most Beautiful" and the "#1 Hottest Woman in the World" on Maxim's 2005 annual "Hot 100" list, Eva Longoria was also voted by Variety as one of the "Ten New Faces to Watch," Rolling Stone's "People of the Year," USA Today's "TV's Hot 11" and TV Guide's "New Faces of Fall." In addition, she just signed an exclusive worldwide contract as the newest face of L'Oreal. Longoria wrapped the indie film Harsh Times, starring Christian Bale, which was recently accepted into the Toronto Film Festival. She just finished Furthur Films' The Sentinel, starring Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland and Kim Basinger, where she plays a Secret Service agent. She also co-starred in the CBS movie-of-the-week, The Dead Will Tell, opposite Anne Heche, Jonathan LaPaglia and Kathleen Quinlan. Longoria's previous television credits include the Dick Wolf series, L.A. Dragnet. Flexing her comedic muscles, Longoria stars in and co-produced Hot Tamales Live, a critically acclaimed comedy/variety show. Hot Tamales Live performs regularly at The Comedy Store and consistently sells out its performances whenever they perform across the country. She made her theatre debut in the popular comedy farce, What the Rabbi Saw. Acknowledging her "comedic flair," Back Stage West proclaimed "Eva Longoria is sensational." The youngest of four sisters who grew up on a ranch in Corpus Christi, Texas, Longoria attended Texas A&M-Kingsville, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology. After graduating from college, she entered a talent contest that brought her to Los Angeles, where she was spotted and subsequently signed by a theatrical agent. After landing roles on The Bold and the Beautiful, General Hospital and co-starring on Beverly Hills, 90210, she auditioned for and won the role of Isabella on the popular series, The Young and the Restless. Longoria currently lives in Los Angeles. She is actively involved as the national spokesperson for Padres Contra El Cancer, helping Latinos with cancer. She also works with the Special Olympics and worked with the John Kerry-John Edwards campaign, educating Latino voters about the presidential candidate. Pastimes include salsa dancing, cooking and reading Latino literature and history. Desperate Housewives, where she portrays Latin sexpot Gabrielle Solis. Just voted by Variety as one of the "Ten New Faces to Watch" this Fall, as well as one of USA Today's "Fall TV's Hot 11" and TV Guide's "New Faces of Fall," Longoria also co-stars in the recent CBS movie-of-the-week The Dead Will Tell. Last season she starred on L.A. Dragnet, Emmy Award-winning producer Dick Wolf's modern-day take on the classic police drama. Voted one of Maxim Magazine's "Hot 100" for 2004 (and part of Maxim's 2005 calendar), one of People en Espanol's "25 Most Beautiful People," and winner of an ALMA Award for Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama, this Young and the Restless alum proves that talent and versatility pave the way to success.
On Desperate Housewives, Longoria plays a glamorous, former runway model married to the handsome, sexy Carlos. In this dark comedy that looks at the sexy, insidious and incredibly secretive lives of the inhabitants of a neighborhood cul-de-sac, Gabrielle is "desperate" because all of her teenage dreams did come true and yet she still hates her life. She has learned too late that what she wanted and what she got are not the ingredients to happiness, and she deals with her husband's cold disapproval by having a fling with their 17-year old gardener.
In The Dead Will Tell, which aired in October, Longoria played a quirky psychic named Jenny, whose mental abilities play an intricate part in resolving a long overdue, unsolved murder. On the critically acclaimed L.A. Dragnet, she played Detective Gloria Duran, a keen observer, well trained in psychology. "I was so excited to work opposite veteran actor Ed O'Neill and to have the opportunity to portray a detective who not only exhibits a tough exterior, but shows her sexy, feminine strength at the same time," Longoria acknowledges.
Longoria also flexes her comedic muscles in Hot Tamales Live, a critically lauded comedy/variety show in which she both stars and co-produces. Hot Tamales Live performs regularly at The Comedy Store and consistently sells out its performances whenever they perform across the country. Hot Tamales Live is available on DVD/videocassette and pay-per-view. Previously she celebrated her theatre debut in the popular comedy farce, What the Rabbi Saw. Acknowledging her "comedic flair," Back Stage West proclaimed "Eva Longoria is sensational."
The youngest of four sisters who grew up on a ranch in Corpus Christi, Texas, Longoria attended Texas A&M-Kingsville, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology. After graduating from college, she entered a talent contest that brought her to Los Angeles, where she was spotted and subsequently signed by a theatrical agent. Her timing couldn't have been better, and she was determined to see where her acting dreams would take her.
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Felicity Huffman as Lynette Scavo

Felicity Huffman has proven herself an exceptional actress in both dramatic and comedic roles. Her role as Lynette has earned her, along with the rest of her cast, the 2005 SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series and a 2005 Emmy Award nomination as Best Actress in a Comedy Series. She recently completed production on the independent film Transamerica, which screened at the Berlin Film Festival and at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2005; Huffman won the award for Best Film Actress at Tribeca for her great performance. The film will be released by The Weinstein Company on December 2. In 2004 Huffman appeared in the feature film Christmas with the Cranks, which starred Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis, and also in Raising Helen, with Kate Hudson and John Corbett. On the small screen in 2004 she was seen in the television movie Reversible Errors, with William H. Macy, Tom Selleck and Monica Potter. Among her television movie credits are Out of Order, the critically acclaimed Door to Door, starring William H. Macy, Path to War, starring Alec Baldwin and Donald Sutherland, The Heart Department, Harrison, Cry of the City, Quicksand, Heart of Justice, The Water Engine and Underworld. Other television credits include Chicago Hope, X-Files, Law & Order and Bedtime Stories,"with series regular roles on The Human Factor, the ABC series Sports Night, Thunder Alley, Early Edition, Jules and The Golden Years. Huffman is a founding member of the Atlantic Theater Company, an off-Broadway theater company where she has performed in a number of plays, including Dangerous Corner, Shaker Heights and The Joy of Definitely Going Somewhere. Among her other stage credits are Oh Hell, directed by Greg Mosher at the Lincoln Center Theatre, Boy's Life, directed by William H. Macy, The Loop and Grotesque Love Songs. She also appeared in David Mamet's Speed the Plow and received an OBIE Award for her portrayal of Donnie in Mamet's Cryptogram. Huffman resides in Los Angeles with her husband, actor/director William H. Macy, and their two daughters.

Teri Hatcher as Susan Mayer

Teri Hatcher is widely considered one of Hollywood's hottest actresses. In the past year she has appeared on the covers of countless magazines - among them In Style, Time, Vanity Fair, Newsweek Entertainment Weekly, FHM, Good Housekeeping and Harper's Bazaar, along with TV Guide and People - and has appeared on such talk shows as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Late Show with David Letterman, Live with Regis and Kelly, The View and The Barbara Walters Special.

Hatcher is renowned for her classic beauty and deliciously deadpan delivery, which America tunes in to see every Sunday night on Desperate Housewives. She plays Susan Mayer in the critically acclaimed comedic drama, which premiered in October of 2004 to stellar ratings. A bona fide pop-culture phenomenon, it has quickened pulses nationwide to generate the highest ratings for a network (ABC) in a decade. An Us Weekly reviewer wrote: "'Housewives' whips up a tasty dish of relatable characters (especially Hatcher's scrappy sad sack)."

The much-talked-about role - for which Hatcher earned a 2005 Golden Globe Award (Best Actress in a Leading Role, Musical or Comedy, Television), as well as a 2005 Screen Actors Guild Award (Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series), a 2005 Television Critics Award and a 2005 Emmy Award Nomination - finds her playing a single mom searching for love amid the sometimes sordid, always intriguing goings-on of her suburban neighborhood. The part comes naturally to the actress, who is a single mother to her seven-year-old daughter, Emerson Rose.

Having achieved household-name status in the U.S., Hatcher is becoming an important international star, as "Housewives" proves itself a ratings blockbuster overseas in such major territories as Europe and Australia. The U.K. edition of Glamour magazine honored Hatcher as one of its 2005 Women of the Year this past May. The award was presented to her by Sir Elton John in June.

Her present visibility on television - Hatcher first made a splash on TV as Lois Lane in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman - and in the media follows years of success in feature films, including Spy Kids (directed by Robert Rodriguez), Tomorrow Never Dies (opposite Pierce Brosnan as Bond girl Paris Carver), Soapdish (with Kevin Kline), The Big Picture (her first movie; the Christopher Guest-directed picture remains her favorite) and 2 Days in the Valley (with Charlize Theron and James Spader).

Among the many highlights of Hatcher's career was a turn hosting Saturday Night Live that inspired a USA Today scribe to comment, "She gives one of the best and most energetic performances by a good-sport host in a long time." What's more, the sketches she did with SNL cast members Molly Shannon, David Spade and Chris Kattan have become part of the show's "Best Of" series. Other standout performances include her portrayal of Sally Bowles in the national tour of the Tony Award-winning musical Cabaret, and her turn in Eve Ensler's wildly popular The Vagina Monologues.

Hatcher is also well known for her involvement in worthy causes, including the Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance and The Starlight Starbright Foundation. She was honored in 1996 with the Aviva Center's Spirit of Compassion Award. She is a generous, longtime supporter of the organization, which provides services to adolescent victims of abuse. She has likewise been a strong advocate of both AIDS Walk Los Angeles and AIDS Walk New York, and an active participant in the battle against breast cancer. Moreover, the gown Hatcher wore to this year's Golden Globes was sold at auction to benefit Clothes off our Backs (the frock had earned Hatcher numerous "best-dressed" accolades here and abroad; E! Entertainment Television has named her the network's Best Dressed Woman), and she recently collaborated with In Style Magazine to donate the Versace couture dress from her Magazine cover feature to the charity.

Hatcher was singled out in late 2004 as "this year's Big New Comedy Talent" (Salt Lake City's Desert Morning News). Since then she has proceeded to win hearts and minds the world over. Hollywood observers believe she will continue to demonstrate her range, on screens both big and small, for many years to come. The Big Picture, directed by Christopher Guest -- to be her favorite. Other movies that followed were Soapdish, with Kevin Kline, Two Days in the Valley, Spy Kids, directed by Roberto Rodriguez, and a turn as a "Bond" girl in Tomorrow Never Dies, opposite Pierce Brosnan. Nor will anyone ever forget the line she made famous in Seinfeld, which was, of course, "They're real -- and they're spectacular."

Hatcher was honored with the 1996 "Spirit of Compassion Award" for her generous support of the Aviva Center, which provides services to sexually and physically abused adolescents. She has been a strong supporter of AIDS Walk Los Angeles and New York, and very active in the battle against breast cancer.

Among her pop culture honors, Hatcher has topped Best Dressed lists around the world and was voted E! Entertainment Television's "Best Dressed Woman of 1996." She's been recognized as one of the sexiest women on television, and had the distinction of being the most downloaded image on the internet the year she posed wrapped in Superman's cape -- and nothing else! She has also been honored by the Hollywood Women's Press Club as "Discovery of the Year," but this year she looks forward to being re-discovered in the role of Susan Mayer. It's a role that's taken her years to be ready for, and one that will offer viewers a surprising and new turn from this well known and talented actress.

Marcia Cross as Bree Van De Kamp

Marcia Cross is currently in production on the second season of smash hit Desperate Housewives. In 2005 she was nominated for both a Golden Globe Award in the Best Actress category and an Emmy Award in the Best Actress in a Comedy Series category. Prior to her role on Desperate Housewives, Cross starred as Dr. Linda Abbott on The WB's critically-acclaimed series, Everwood. She is also well known for her role as Dr. Kimberly Shaw on the hit drama Melrose Place. Born and raised in Marlborough, Massachusetts, Cross was determined to become an actress from the moment she performed in her first school play, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, in the sixth grade. At the age of 18 she was accepted at the Juilliard School as a Drama major. On stage Cross performed in La Ronde at the Williamstown Theater Festival, in Twelfth Night at the Hartford Stage Company, and in Two Gentlemen of Verona at the Old Globe in San Diego. Her first television job was on the daytime drama The Edge of Night. Leaving New York to try her luck in Los Angeles, Cross was soon landing roles in television movies such as The Last Days of Frank and Jessie James, co-starring with Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson. Her memorable role on Melrose Place began when she was hired for one episode. The producers were so impressed, they kept asking her back for additional appearances, eventually bringing her character back from the dead to continue on the hit show. Cross also guest-starred on such series as Seinfeld, where she played Jerry's dermatologist girlfriend, and Cheers, where she portrayed the younger sister to Kirstie Alley's character. She has also appeared on the comedies Ally McBeal, Spin City, The Garry Shandling Show and King of Queens. Her dramatic roles include appearances on CSI, Profiler and Touched by an Angel, and her film credits include Living in Fear, Always Say Good-bye, Dancing in September and Bad Influence. Aside from her successful career as an actress, Cross has also made time to continue her education. She recently completed her clinical training to earn a Masters Degree in Psychology. Cross makes her home in Los Angeles.

Teri before and after

I found this picture somewhere... In my opinion Teri has ever been
a very beautifull woman!

About Nicolette Sheridan

• Celebrated her 42nd birthday in style, by treating herself to a $100,000 diamond ring from Hollywood jeweler Neil Lane. (November 26, 2005)
• Split from her fiance, Swedish actor Niklas Soderblom. (October 27, 2005)
• Is teaching her Teri Hatcher how to ride a horse. (October 3, 2005)
• Sheridan and fiance Niklas Soderblom are so happy together they are considering starting a family. (September 19, 2005)
• Is reportedly eager to share details of her romance with fiance Niklas Soderblom in a new reality TV show after watching Britney Spears and husband Kevin Federline's critically-panned show Britney + Kevin: Chaotic. (July 26, 2005)
• According to US awards buff Tom O'Neil, Sheridan and Eva Longoria were snubbed by Emmy Awards judges because they play loose women on Desperate Housewives. (July 21, 2005)
• Impressed fiance Niklas Soderblom during their first meeting, by saving him from a great white shark which was edging towards him. (July 6, 2005)
• Narrowly escaped serious burn injuries after her hair caught fire in a candle shop in California. (June 13, 2005)
• Wants to follow in Renee Zellweger's footsteps when she marries her beau Niklas Soderblom, by exchanging vows on a tropical beach. (May 24, 2005)
• Credits Desperate Housewives with rescuing her ailing career because she could only win parts playing stroke victims beforehand. (May 9, 2005)
• Vehemently denies reports of tension between Desperate Housewives’ female leading ladies. (May 6, 2005)
• Declared she and Teri Hatcher are the top team in hit TV series Desperate Housewives. (April 21, 2005)
• The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has ruled that the ABC Monday Night Football lead-in that showed Sheridan dropping her towel in front of Philadelphia Eagles star Terrell Owens did not violate federal indecency laws. (March 15, 2005)
• Used to have to hide her British accent when she moved to America as a child because she used to get teased by her natural accent in her American school.
• An ex-pal Sheridan is offering the actress' raunchy photographs to the highest bidder without her permission. (January 26, 2005)

"Desperate Housewives" - Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy
63rd Annual Golden Globe Awards - Press Room
Beverly Hills, CA - 1/16/06

Felicity Huffman in Transamerica

Bree is a highly educated, conservative transsexual woman who passes as a G.G., living in a poor section of Los Angeles and working two jobs to save money for her final sexual reassignment surgery. Her life takes an unexpected journey when she learns that when she was a he, she fathered a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York. When she receives a phone call from Toby, who's looking for his father, she realizes she must confront her past. She flies to New York to bail Toby out of jail and offers him a ride cross-country, secretly plotting to abandon him with the stepfather he ran away from.

	Production Status:	In Production/Awaiting Release
	Genres:	Comedy and Drama
	Running Time:	1 hr. 43 min.
	Release Date:	December 23rd, 2005 (limited)
	MPAA Rating:	R for sexual content, nudity, language and drug use.
	Distributors:	The Weinstein Company , IFC Films
	Production Co.:	Belladonna Productions
	Filming Locations:	Los Angeles, California, USA New York, New York, USA Southwest United States
	Produced in:	United States

Eva in Shape

"I want to be healthy and fit to feel good, not to conform to some Hoolywood ideal"- Eva said for Shape

Eva And Tony, Together Forever!

Eva Longoria is a relationship kind of woman – and says she expects to stay with her beau, San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker "forever."
"I'd much rather be in a relationship," the Desperate Housewives star tells PEOPLE. "There's no way in the world I would rather be single. Tony is too. I've said the only reason Tony and I are going to stay together forever is because we're too lazy to look for someone else."
Longoria, who appears in the upcoming film The Sentinel, also sets the record straight on a recent interview with Allure in which she said of her relationship with Parker, "I'm the teacher, especially about love."

"In the article, I explain it very clearly," she tells PEOPLE. "How I'm the experienced one because I've been married, divorced, I've been in several long-term relationships. Tony's been in one long-term relationship and he's 23. I'm 31. I don't know where they got 'teacher of sex.' " (Longoria was married to actor Tyler Christopher from 2002 to 2004.)

Longoria says she's learned to ignore rumors that she's dating other men, such as pal Jamie Foxx and her Sentinel costar Kiefer Sutherland. "I don't really pay attention to it," she says. "Tony and I are really secure. Plus, Tony doesn't have a jealous bone in his body. Kiefer is friends with Tony and me. Jamie is friends with Tony and me. Anybody who's in my life is a friend of mine is also a friend of Tony's."

Of having her love life scrutinized, she tells PEOPLE, "It's a shame because you can't be private about your life and you can't be public. If people say, 'How are you and Tony?' and I say, 'I don't want to talk about my personal life,' they're like 'Trouble in paradise: Eva doesn't speak about it.' Then you talk about it, and they're like: 'Trouble in paradise: Eva speaks out.' You can't win."