Desperate Housewives: November 2007 Archives

Gee, no sign of Tuc Watkins or Kevin Rahm as the gay couple on "Desperate Housewives" and yet we still got to enjoy a pretty gay episode. The previews made it appear that this was the week of the tornado but that apparently is next week.

The whole Gaby-Victor-Carlos-Edie thing is one big BORE because it doesn't feel real at all. But Mike on drugs has all kinds of terrific potential. I was most pleased that the show finally gave the talented Shawn Pyfrom a couple of good scenes with Marcia Cross as Bree and Pyfrom as Andrew. He has been largely ignored after being one of the best characters of the show's first two seasons and went from being out and rebelious to way below the radar. Tonight, we learned a little more about why Andrew has been that way and it was sweet. He told his mom that he's grown up, that he's forgiven her, but that she's been too busy with her new marriage, pretending to be pregnant and now with a new baby to notice.

Bree takes it all very stoically and doesn't cry until Andrew asks her to put a coaster under her drink. That's her boy! Let's hope this writers strike ends this week so the show can finish the season and we can see Andrew get a boyfriend or have some dates now that he's grown up and on his own.

As for Richard Chamberlain, he made his first appearance as the former stepfather of Lynette (Felicity Huffman) and ex-husband of Polly Bergen's character. What I loved about his appearance was that he brought out the little girl in Lynette - you could see it - and we never get to see that. He explained that he had left the family not because her mother had cheated on him - as she had believed - but because he is gay.

Later, when he offers Bergen his "immaculate" guest room, she wonders "How'd I not know he was queer? He always talked that way."

Chamberlain, by the way, looked terrific. Still hot after all these years...

This is cool.

Love that Richard Chamberlain, who I fell in love with in "The Thorn Birds," has been out for several years now and is playing gay roles more often. On Sunday, he will guest on "Desperate Housewives" as Lynette's (Felicity Huffman) stepfather. He tells her why he left her mother (played by the terrific Polly Bergen): he left her because he is gay.

Chamberlian told Entertainment Tonight that he'd love to stick around Wisteria Lane. That would be great, if the writers can resolve their strike against producers. Jann Carl asked Chamberlain if he now makes it a point to play gay characters.

"I played a couple of gay characters since I came out," he said. "I didn't want to come out until I was completely free of fear about it, which finally happened at age 68."

The absolute funniest part of last week's episode of "Desperate Housewives" was when Danielle Van De Kamp (Joy Lauren) showed up to Bob and Lee's Halloween party dressed...as her mother, Bree! Bree (Marcia Cross) is pretending to be pregnant, Danielle really is. So guests assumed it was Danielle with the padded belly...then her water broke! I love the delivery scene with Andrew dressed as Cher and the doctor dressed as Frankenstein.


It was pure comedic genius!

"It was so much fun, it was so much fun," Joy told me when we gabbed a few days ago at the party for the People's Choice Award nominations. "That whole Halloween scene was so big that we shot all week so I was in the red wig and the heels and the pearls and the belly all week and it was really such a blast."

Who knew she had such comic chops? I got her to repeat my favorite line of hers from the episode when someone asks her what the name of her child will be and she answers as Bree: "You're not good enough if it's a boy and you'll always disappoint me if its a girl."

We crack up after she says it again.

Last we saw Dannielle, she was packing her bags and leaving her baby behind for Bree to raise. Will she be back?
"Wisteria Lane has a certain draw, you can't stay away for two long so hopefully I'll be back soon."

What's it really like to work with Marcia Cross?
"She's very different from Bree. She's very warm. I feel like Bree is very cold and straight. Marcia is very warm and fluid, graceful and nice and giving. The only similarities I can see between her and Bree is she's very specific and professional when it comes to acting."

Do you miss the Applewhites?
"I do! But we have really good new characters like Tuc [Watkins]."

Does she ever want Danielle to just get to act together, stand up and fly right?
"It's really fun to play the bad gikrl and a good outlet. I don't get to do that in my everyday life. I don't get to throw plates against walls, I don't get to have babies while I'm dressed as my mom, I get to experience all these things I normally wouldn't. But whle it's really fun to play the bad girl, I think Danielle has been too mean for too long."

The last time I was face-to-face with Tuc Watkins was at El Mirasol restaurant in Palm Springs. My friend James and I were having lunch and noticed Tuc with a group. On our way out, we went over to say hello and James snapped a photo of Tuc and I with his cellphone. I never bothered to download the picture to a file so when the phone broke, the picture of Tuc and I was lost forever. I told him about this when we talked the other night at a party celebrating the People's Choice Award nominations.

Tuc: "I broke your camera?"

Me: "No you didn't. I dropped it later.

Tuc: "You took a picture with me and your camera broke?

We laugh. The very cool people who run the A Socialite's Life blog snapped the photo below of Tuc and I for which I'm very grateful because now, I have a replacement for the lost cellphone snap! Anyway, Tuc's publicist arranged for us to have a chat for a story for my new daily column on page two of the L.A. Daily News. It doesn't hit newstands until tomorrow but Out In Hollywood readers get it first as a thank you for your patience with the problems we had yesterday transitioning to a new system.:

Tuc is the kind of tall, dark and handsome actor who could easily coast on his looks. But what makes this new "Desperate Housewives" cast member stand apart are his comic chops honed for over a decade as the studly and conniving David Vickers on the ABC soap "One Life to Live."

So so far on "Housewives," which casts him and Kevin Rahm as the first gay couple on Wisteria Lane, most of the funnier lines have gone to Kevin Rahm who plays the more domestic, and bitchy, of the two. I mentioned this to Tuc.
"You're right! it's sort of the opposite of David Vickers," he said. "David is usually the one who has the ba-dum, ba-dum ching. The way I think of it as, I'm Andy Griffith and Kevin is Barney Fife. Kevin is always standing a little bit in front of me - I'm usually standing a little behind him and over his shoulder just like Andy and Barney did. We are sort of the yin to each other's yang. I think he and I really work together well. Sometimes he's got the funny line and I'm the guy that sort of rolls my eyes at him.

For the 41-year-old Tuc, the role of Bob Hunter on "Housewives" is a prime-time breakthrough in a career that has included more than a decade, on-and-off, on the soap as well as two seasons on the
acclaimed Showtime series "Beggars and Choosers" which cast him as gay television executive Malcom Laffley.

"It's a lot of fun to join a show that is already running at full steam ahead," Tuc said. "Kevin Rahm and I are lucky that Marc Cherry was interested in bringing on a gay couple and he's brought a gay couple on that's not issue-oriented. We meet a lot of what are considered minority characters through their issues and we're not issue-oriented, we're not stereotypical. There's some sorta gay cliche jokes but then he'll also take what would be considered a stereotype and spin it on its ear like this horrible fountain we had. Not all gay people have great taste it turns out. It's a lot of fun to go on and be a couple on the street and not having to explain who you are and just immediately start mixing and mingling and causing trouble."

I love Tuc on "Housewives" but I wondered if he would ever find another role as good as that of Malcom on "Beggars" which had a stellar cast that also included Brian Kerwin, Charlotte Ross, Beau Bridges, Jim Belushi, and the cutie pie William McNamara who I will never forget from "Doing Time on Maple Drive."

Malcolm had to come out of the closet to clear himself of sexual harassment charges levied against him by a woman. "'Beggars and Choosers' was one of the greatest shows I ever had the opportunity to be on," Tuc said. "I loved that show and I loved playing that character. It was so well-written and I really wish that it had gone on 20 years. Everybody on it was great, we were all huddled together up there in Vancouver and only had each other to lean on. It was a real shame after the second year that the show kind of fell though the cracks."

Tuc has done scores of guest spots on shows ranging from "Six Feet Under" to "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and his film credits include "The Mummy" (pictured, left) and "The Good Shepherd."
But the lying, scheming gold-digging, multi-married (including a trip down the aisle on Friday's show) but very charming David Vickers remains his signature character.

"'One Life to Live has made it possible that I can go back there and be David Vickers (pictured above with Erika Slezick's Vicki Buchanan) from time to time. I'm based out here in Los Angeles now so I can do 'Desperate Housewives' and luckily, the schedules have permitted me to continue to do both and it's great to play such polar opposite characters."

While his "Housewives" character is gay and in a steady relationship, Vickers has had many women in his turbulent life.

"I feel very fortunate that I've gotten to play a lot of gay characters and a lot of straight characters," he said. "Most of the gay characters that I've played haven't been what would be considered stereotypes and so I feel proud about maybe changing people's opinions of what gay people may be...It's great to be able to do both. So if people want to see me as a role model, then I'm thankful for that."

ONLINE EXTRA: The great thing about cyperspace is that there is so much SPACE! Here are some tidbits that didn't make the print version:

On the women of Wisteria Lane: "The women on that show have done such a good job of creating
archtypes that are individual but they work collectively. Dana Delaney had a really tough time this year of coming on and finding a niche in a show that already has a full canvas. She's done an incredible job. She's really funny and she's really scary at the same time."

On Prime-time fame: "Every actor should be so lucky as to have the opportunity to play a character that gets watched. So I feel very lucky. Actors, by what they do, they have an audience. We don't exist in a vacuum, we live in the real world. Sometimes people see you and they see you on their TV in they're living room and they feel like, 'Oh! You're from my living room, I can come and say hi. By and large, people are nice and have nice things to say. It's actually great. You go to the grocery store and you feel like you've got friends."

On my favorite Beggars and Choosers line: I tell Tuc that my all-time favorite line of his from that series was
when a really handsome computer tech comes into Malcom's office to fix something and he says to himself, "Hello, lunch!"
Says Tuc: "The way that was written, I was supposed to say, 'Yummy.' And I said to the director, 'Can I try something? Can I try saying something else and he said, 'OK.' And I said, 'Hello, lunch.'"

On being a passanger on a scary JetBlue flight that was forced to circle over Burbank for hours a few years back: "I'm actually a big fan of JetBlue. It sounds like I'm being a paid spokesman. They really handled that situation as professionally as they could. I've been asked that question a lot about what it was like and to tell you the truth, it wasn't as dramatic or terrifying as I think that it may have been made out to be.The way the crew and the pilot handled it, I felt like everything was going to be fine and it was."

On his "I Think I Do..." and "Beggars and Choosers" co-star Alexis Arquete: "Alexis Arquette is one of the craziest human beings I've ever met in my life and whenever I run into him, I always have a big smile on my
face."

Don't ya just love crabby Mrs. McKlusky on "Desperate Housewives"?
She is, a hoot!
So last week, when I ran into the actress who won and Emmy playing her, I had to have a chat. She's Kathryn Joosten and she didn't become a professional actress until 20 years ago when she was in her early 40s - a recent divorcee with two kids. She started with theater in Chicago and her first full-time job was as a street performer at Disney World. She came to L.A. in 1995 and within her first few weeks, landed a small guest spot on "Family Matters. But she really hit paydirt when she was cast as Mrs. Landingham, secretary to the President (Martin Sheen), on "The West Wing" in 1999.
Here is our conversation:
Greg: You're so funny. I love you on that show.
Kathryn"I love me on that show.
Greg: That line you said to Bree (Marcia Cross) about her husband having his hand on the knob...
Kathryn: "Your son has bolted out of the closet and your husband's reaching for the door knob (laughs).
Greg: I watch every episode and I think this season is terrific.
Kathryn: I think it's really rolling really good and we've got some real surprises coming up, we've been working overtime doing this particular big surprise. It's a two-parter. I'm intergal. Very much so.
Greg: When you started on this, that first episode when you were the neighbor who had the fight with Lynette. Did you think it would turn into this? Wasn't it supposed to be a one-time deal?
Kathryn: I never thought it would grow into the character that it's grown into. I've been very lucky. Frankly, I was replacing another actress who had the part and was having some mobility problems. So I came in and did it. I thought, 'Wouldn't it be great if...' and, it did.
Greg: Was it because you and Felicity Huffman were so good together?
Kathryn: I'd like to think it was because I was so good!
Greg: You two did have such chemistry together and then you won the Emmy. That's always nice.
Kathryn: Yes. It was a nice scene that I had with the boys.
Greg: Where do you keep that Emmy?
Kathryn: I keep my Emmy on a bookshelf. My joke at home is, 'What's an Emmy good for? A door stop. I thought, 'Emmy! I'll get offered parts, i won't have to audition. That didn't happen. I've gotta go down to Manhattan Beach tomorrow at 4 p.m. for an audition for 'Medium." Friday afternoon at 4 o'clock. i might as well take a picnic lunch and stay over."
Greg: This is the life of a working actress as you've been for awhile.
Kathryn: For awhile, yeah. For 22 years now.
Greg: This is your most high-profile role. What's it like to have something like that come along after 20 years?
Kathryn: It's overnight success! (laughs). It's great. It's really great. I enjoy it so much. I get a kick out of it. I got nothing to lose now. I got my pension so anything that happens is just golden.
Greg: I still can't believe that episode last season when we found out you had your dead husband in the freezer! I thought, 'How is she gonna explain her way outa this?'
Kathryn: (laughs) You notice I only spent one night in jail. It wasn't having him in the freezer that was illegal, but I stole his pension for I don't know how long. But we tend to gloss over those little things you know.
Greg: Are you a fan of the show? Do you like to watch it?
Kathryn: Yeah! I do because the episodes I'm not in, I don't know what happens because I'm not at the table read and they don't just send me a script to be nice. So I have to watch it to find out what happened.
Greg: When you're around town, do people say, 'It's Mrs. McKlusky!"
Kathryn: Absolutely. I get a lot of that. Fans are great. They're very nice and it's very satisfying.
Greg: What about the new neighbors, the gay couple played by Tuc Watkins and Kevin Rahm.
Kathryn: Aren't they fun? I said, 'What's my attitude gonna be? and they haven't decided yet."
Greg: What about Dana Delaney?
Kathryn: She's fun to be around. What a character. What a fun character. Everytime you turn around, they throw somebody else into the stew and it's just great fun dealing with. In addition to this great two-parter, how do I phrase this? We're going to have some interesting cast changes. It's gonna be November sweeps.

I. Can't. Wait.

Just look at that picture. That says it all. Danielle, dressed as Bree, goes into labor at Lee and Bob's Halloween party so she gives birth to the baby in costume as Bree (Lil' Bo Peep) and Andrew (Cher) looking on and the doctor is dressed as Frankenstein. I'm not sure who Orsen is supposed to be. Sorry.
I love it!
But what I really loved was how gay the first few minutes of last night's episode of "Desperate Housewives" was. When Bob and Lee decide to start inviting their neighbors to the party, they aren't sure who might come since the debacle with the ungly fountain.
Bob (Tuc Watkins) saud to Lee (Kevin Rahm): "They hate you. I'm the butch one, they can feel more comfortable around me...Let's start with Bree, she has a gay son. She's probably gay friendly."
As the guys talk to Bree, Danielle looks out the window upstairs and the guys want to know who it is. Bree says it's Andrew trying on his Halloween costume - as Cher.
Next scene we see her saying to poor Andrew: "How familiar are you with pop icons from the 70s?"
Fast-forward to the party: Katherine walks in as Marie Antionette and snarky Lee says to her: "You came as a self-important queen who lost all her power. Isn't that right on the nose?"
Ouch!
All that stuff was delish and what I love most about the show right now - the terrific writing and wonderful performances. If anyone needs to be reminded of the importance of writers - who went on strike this morning - shows like this demonstrate it weekly.

First he gave us Andrew Van de Kamp and now "Desperate Housewives" creator Marc Cherry is giving us Bob and Lee, the first gay couple to live on Wisteria Lane during what is the show's best season since its first year oin the air.
"In capturing the gay suburban experience, the joke is they have the same issues as everyone else," Marc says in today's USA Today. "The politically correct thing would have been to have everyone get along with them. But there's a lot of comedy to be played against type."
Marc tells the paper that he named the characters after ABC journalist Bob Woodruff and his wife, Lee, after meeting them at a dinner and that he and his writers are still developing Bob and Lee's story lines.
The story also includes interviews with Tuc Watkins and Kevin Rahm who I think are terrific in their roles.
Said Watkins: "Marc should be applauded for creating gay characters who aren't issue-oriented. A lot of the time, gay characters are known through issues -- coming out or health problems. There are a few cliché gay jokes on Desperate Housewives. But Bob and Lee aren't stereotypical. They have horrible taste. They have a sense of humor. They're a little mean. They're certainly not PC."