A chat w/James Denton...

James Denton may be best-known for his role as Mike the plumber on ABC's "Desperate Housewives," but lately he's also been plenty busy making music.

The actor is a member of The Band from TV which has attracted enough of a following to release a new CD/DVD called "Hoggin' All the Covers." Other band members are Greg Grunberg ("Heroes"), Hugh Laurie ("House"), Bonnie Sommerville ("Cashmere Mafia") and Bob Guiney ("The Bachelor").

"It's been such a huge charity endeavor that's raised almost $1.5 million," Denton told me this week. "It all started when we got together to do one little event two years ago so it's been amazing."

All proceeds from "Covers" are being donated to charities including "Epilepsy Foundation" and "Save The Children."
Denton also recently teamed with his wife, Erin O'Brien, for a five-week run of the play "How Cissy Grew" at the El Portal Theater in North Hollywood.

"That's my background, I never thought I'd be in front of a camera," he said. "People are always curious when they see that a TV guy is doing theater, like I'm trying to legitimize myself a little bit. But I'm actually more at home there."

"It's just so fun, getting to tell the entire story every night and your performance isn't being subjected to editing and all those things," he added. "If you're good you can be proud and if you suck, it's your fault."

He's still loving his day job on "Desperate Housewives" though with the show taping its 100th episode this week. But he's not working as much with Teri Hatcher these days since their characters divorced during five-year leap in time the storyline took at the start of the season.

"It's a little frustrating in that I like Teri so much and we have such fun working together," Denton said. "But, you know, I love Dana Delaney and we've gotten to be really good friends and I now get to work with her for a little while. I think the story of Mike and Susan requires that they be kept apart so they found another way to do that and I think the five-year jump was so great for the other storylines."