//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

'Desperate Housewives' Reunites 'Dreams' Team

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 

 

A van hugs the switchbacks as it climbs the hills above Los Angeles. Past Ella Fitzgerald Drive and Muddy Waters Lane on the Universal lot, it stops on TV's most famous suburban street, Wisteria Lane.

Wisteria is stapled to fake trees, and white fences separate manicured lawns. At the cul-de-sac's turnaround, a woman does something generally considered mundane: She washes a car.

But this woman is nothing short of a Hollywood goddess in a suburban slut suit. Outside of men's skin magazines, no women dress like Edie (Nicollette Sheridan) of " Desperate Housewives" to wash cars. Of course, very few women look like her.

On a hot, sunny day as the cast shoots what will be Sunday's episode, launching the fifth season of the ABC hit, Sheridan wears a leopard-print maillot, high-heeled sandals, a lot of gold, a straw hat and bubbles. Did we mention she's washing a Lexus SC430?

Felicity Huffman, as Lynette, is in a cotton blouse and jeans. Teri Hatcher, as Susan, carries off a black mini. Marcia Cross, as Bree, is whippet-thin and elegant in black trousers and heels. And Eva Longoria Parker's Gabby, in machine-washable clothes (gasp!), is frumpy.

Gabby has babies

That last description is not a typo, though any snarkiness detected is intentional. For those who missed the season finale, Gabby is no longer the glamourpuss, poured into designer threads with hair, makeup and nails forever red-carpet-ready. Nope, Gabby looks like most harried moms.

Now a mother of two, she's packed on the pounds - all padding. Lynette's oldest boys have become delinquents, Susan has a new man (try to control the shock!), and Bree and Katherine ( Dana Delany) have forged a successful business as homemaking mavens.

Creator Marc Cherry ended the season with a glimpse five years into the future. The bold ending has viewers anxious for this season opener.

The actresses say they have no idea where the famously secretive Cherry is heading but recognize this clever twist breathes new life into the series. They resume the scene, with Edie stretching over the car.

"Edie, is that really you?" Susan asks.

"You know someone else my age with a body like this?" Edie responds.

"What happened to your tenant?" Bree asks.

"He came into some money and decided to move. I thought, 'What the heck? Let's move back.' Oh, that's right, you don't know," Edie says sweetly, explaining she has a husband.

"Whose?" Gabby asks.

That's why people love this show.

A director tells them to slow down, and the formidable quartet retreats. They stand close, heads lowered, whispers inaudible.

Parker later confides what the four friends were talking about: "Nicollette's butt!" she says. "She took up running and lost a lot of weight."

Parker plops her well-upholstered pads onto a metal folding chair and opens her back-to-work present, a solar-operated charger.

"I think I have the most fun," she says. "Until this year, I didn't have kids. I was very selfish."

The characters have all grown during the five years. Susan seems more in control and put together.

"Susan hasn't had strength and sexuality," Hatcher says. "I've played a lot of vulnerability." Her fake eyelashes and swingy mini reveal a new look.

Parker leaves her tuna on crackers as they're called back on set. They repeat the scene. A little later, wrapped in a fuzzy white robe, Sheridan opens the door to her trailer, which looks as if Laura Ashley went wild.

"Everybody, all summer, was extremely upset," Sheridan says. "The thought she might not be back was devastating. I knew she would be back. People should not be disillusioned. She still has her spark and temerity."

The women's basic personalities haven't changed, but five years puts them in new circumstances. Though not on set this day, Delany later calls. She initially turned down the role of Bree because it was too similar to a role she had just played on "Pasadena." Still, her Katherine is much like Bree.

"Bree is a little more uptight and needs to be in control more, maybe a little more fearful about being proper," Delany says. "Katherine is a little more dangerous in some way."

Single on Wisteria Lane

She is also the anomaly on Wisteria Lane - a single woman.

"I would like to see her find love in her life," she says.

Their business, Mrs. Van De Kamp's Old-Fashioned Cooking, could be vexing. "I have to concede - that's already a problem!" Delany says. "I am doing all of the work, and Bree is getting all the credit."

Cross leaves once shooting wraps to return to her babies. Huffman climbs into a van and starts fussing with her bangs. "I'm going to take off my hair," she says. "Now I'll take off my teeth and my breasts. In reality, Felicity Huffman looks like Don Knotts."

In her trailer, Huffman excuses herself to slip into her own white blouse and jeans. As she drinks a beer, she smoothes cream over her face, removing pancake makeup.

In front of the mirror, under photos of her kids and husband, actor William H. Macy, Huffman comes off as the smart, funny, juggling-it-all mom she is. She knows most women relate to Lynette.

This season is reinvigorating the actresses and will likely have the same effect on viewers.

"The reason people started watching the show is alive and kicking now, more than ever," Huffman says. "It's fun and delicious and naughty. 'Desperate Housewives' is back with a vengeance."

SOURCE/SOURCE/SOURCE