Desperate Housewives star Nicollette Sheridan is claiming wrongful dismissal from the show
Desperate Housewives at war: How a sensational court case brought by the show's British star has revealed vitriolic battles with her fellow actresses
Every day for the past two weeks, the arrival of the beautiful Desperate Housewives star at the courthouse in downtown Los Angeles was an exercise in crowd control for the LA police department.
The Millfield-educated blonde certainly didn’t disappoint the hordes of fans, photographers and news crews waiting on the pavement outside for her appearance.
For maximum effect, she insisted on having her chauffeur-driven Cadillac pull up in front of the Superior Court building, instead of entering and leaving through the privacy of its underground car park.
This allowed her to model a succession of expensively-cut designer outfits and matching handbags, each paired with killer heels and oversized, movie-star sunglasses.
To be in the best possible shape for her starring role on the witness stand, she is said to have submitted herself to a punishing martial arts workout programme called Barry’s Bootcamp, and there are bizarre rumours — pointedly not rebutted by the actress herself — that she had been further honing her svelte figure by vacuuming naked at her house in the Californian hills.
All in all, she put on something of a show.
Indeed, if her former Desperate Housewives boss, who Sheridan was suing for nearly £4 million, had contrived to make the ailing series half as entertaining as this courtroom drama, it would surely not be about to be dropped by its television network, ABC.
But as the 12-strong jury failed to reach a verdict on Monday, a mistrial has now been declared — and the whole circus has been ordered to reconvene next month.
Miss Sheridan’s lawyer has claimed that the division of the jury — eight to four in favour of the actress, one short of the nine needed to make a decision — amounts to a victory for his client. He also declared her as ‘strong as an ox and as pretty as a princess’, and said she would return and press her claim.
The jury was told of vicious behind catfights between Miss Sheridan, far right, and her female co-stars who include Dana Delany, Eva Longoria Parker, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross and Teri Hatcher
No doubt, but the trial has done little to further her reputation. The jury has heard tales of the vicious behind-the-scenes catfights between the show’s female stars, plus claims of Miss Sheridan’s unspeakable rudeness to junior staff and her inability to show up on time or remember her lines, despite her £240,000-an-episode pay-packet.
Then, there is her claim that during one of her many on-set hissy fits, the show’s creator and producer Marc Cherry ‘walloped’ her on the head in a row over having one of her lines cut (though that allegation was thrown out by the judge).
But win or lose next month, there are already senior figures in Hollywood who claim the fall-out of the bitter legal battle has left the 48-year-old Miss Sheridan an unemployable pariah.
Already, her lawyer says she has been unable to find meaningful work or an agent for two years as she has awaited the hearing into her claim for wrongful dismissal.
And this week, Royal Oakes, one of Hollywood’s most prominent lawyers and a renowned network television legal commentator, told me: ‘The fact is, if you stir up trouble in the rather small, clubby industry of showbusiness, you are seen as damaged goods.’
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