By now you’ve heard all about the backstage tensions between the stars of ABC’s Desperate Houswives and the brouhaha that erupted at a recent Vanity Fair photo shoot. However, there ARE some genuinely neighborly feelings among at least a few of the residents of Wisteria Lane, as evidenced by Marcia Cross and Felicity Huffman‘s recent night out together at a tribute event honoring their co-star Eva Longoria before news of the clashing divas made headlines. Meanwhile, Eva and Nicolette Sheridan turned out to fete Teri Hatcher after the dust-up.
On March 31, a few days before the hissy fits became public news, Armani-clad Eva was feted by Padres Contra el Cancer-an organization dedicated to helping Latin families with children afflicted with cancer-at the group’s 20th Anniversary Gala, El Sueño de Esperanza, at Los Angeles’ Skirball Center. Dozens of families hovered around the red carpet hoping to get a peak at the glamour gals from their favorite Sunday night series (well, okay, the littlest ones may have been more excited to see Dora the Explorer and Tony the Tiger).
“I’m very honored to be a part of Padres Contra el Cancer and the greatest reward is to hear a child tell me today that he’s cancer free,” Eva told Hollywood.com. “Latinos have the highest death rate of children with cancer, and it’s due to a number of simple reasons, like language barriers, economic barriers, social barriers. Padres helps the families find the money, they help them understand the treatment process and the diagnosis. They help them with simple things, like providing a meal to eat or a place to sleep.”
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Eva was presented with the first ever Ruby Oliva Cedillo Award was tickled that her co-stars had come out for her big night. “I’m very excited that Marcia and Felicity support everything I do,” she beamed. Indeed, the actress were trailing right behind her on the red carpet, Marcia with her new beau, Tom Mahoney, and Felicity flying solo without her hubby, William H. Macy.
Eva was escorted by 24 actor Butch Klein–though he kept a discreet distance until the couple went inside for the ceremony. Then, on April 12, after the Vanity Fair debacle hit the news, Eva diplomatically stopped by In Style magazine’s party along with Nicolette, James Denton and producer Mark Cherry at the chic L.A. restaurant Lucques for her co-star Teri (none of Teri‘s colleagues joined her at the April 3 “Comedy for a Cure” benefit for the Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance) before heading over to the hot, hot, hot Details magazine and Nautica bash at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, where I spied Eva canoodling, cooing and kissing with another steady date, pop star J.C. Chasez.
At the Padres event I asked Felicity how she felt her tiny co-star: “You know, when Eva‘s not drunk or lying in the gutter somewhere…” Felicity began devilishly, then grinned and changed course. “No, just in the way Eva says hello, it says volumes about her. She’s a little white light of love and enthusiasm and openness and she just spreads joy around the set. You see it–when she leaves a room everyone’s a little happier than before she came in.” Felicity said the actresses are trying to make a habit of having each other’s backs at causes that mean something to them. “This is the first I’ve done, because we’re all so busy and I’m not involved in anything like this, but supporting each other’s important.”
While they haven’t denied that there was tension during the Vanity Fair photo shoot, the show’s actresses seem to be putting a delicate spin on their occasionally thorny interactions. “I am extremely grateful to be involved in the show,” Teri told People magazine at her In Style fete, “and I imagine that every other Housewife is also, no matter how they’re perceived in that article.” The actress also told the Chicago Tribune she wasn’t concerned with bad publicity. “I don’t really think about it, because I know who I am,” she said. “And I’m a good person.”
“I know you want to hear dirt,” Nicolette told me a few weeks before the Vanity Fair shoot when I asked her about the relationships among the stars on the set. “I know that’s what sells, but I must tell you that we all get along famously, and Marcia, Eva and I have even been spotted shopping together.”
Marcia has yet to make a public statement, but when I spoke to her a few weeks before the photo shoot, she was high on the bonding possibilities among the admittedly eclectic group. “You really get to develop these new relationships with these incredible women. I don’t know how else we would have been thrown together, so I think we feel–For me, that’s one of the greatest parts of it. That and the work.”
