Marc Cherry inks big TV deal...

The openly-gay creator of "Desperate Housewives," Marc Cherry, has entered into an eight-figure deal with ABC that extends through 2011. This ensures the continuation of "Housewives" through at least seven seasons (the show is currently in its third year) as the network has also been quietly negotiating deals with key cast members for four more years as well.
"The studio and the network and I all feel it's best for me to stay glued to the set," he told Daily Variety. "I've got my ship and I'm gonna run it...I think that at the end of my deal, and after seven seasons, it will be a good time to call it quits. I don't want anyone else to run the show and I don't want us to fade away."
Post-"Housewives," Cherry told the trade paper that he plans to pack his bags and head to New York so he can write books for Broadway musicals.
\In related news: Marcia Cross became a mom on Tuesday, welcoming fraternal twin daughters, her rep confirmed to PEOPLE exclusively. The girls, Eden and Savannah, who were born at a Los Angeles hospital, are the first children for the "Desperate Housewives" actress, 44, and her stockbroker husband Tom Mahoney, 49, who married in June 2006. "Mother and babies are all doing well," says Cross's rep, Heidi Slan.
Cross had been on bed rest since January, but producers of her ABC hit brought production to her home for some scenes. Set designers painted Cross's bedroom the same color as her character Bree Van De Kamp's boudoir, and moved in furniture from the set. At the time, show creator Marc Cherry told PEOPLE that Cross was "bored out of her mind (in bed), so she said, 'Bring the camera here – I want to act.' "
She told PEOPLE in December that having babies later in life is "like a miracle ... I didn't think it would happen."