Has Nicollette Sheridan gone from 'Desperate Housewives' to just desperate?

I'm not a lawyer. And I don't play one on TV. But I sure would've loved to have been in the room with Nicollette Sheridan and her legal team when they decided to play the gay card as part of the former "Desperate Housewives" actress' bombshell lawsuit against "Housewives" creator Marc Cherry. If it wasn't already bad enough that Sheridan was claiming that she was wrongfully fired from the show in the wake of a physical assault by Cherry, she has also claimed that she got the ax from the hit show because of her sexual orientation.

The key, jaw-dropping contention of the lawsuit contends that Cherry's "treatment of Sheridan, including his physical assault and battery of her, occurred because he is a homosexual man and she is a heterosexual woman."

In a word: Wow! I mean, it's sort of like an "American Idol" contestant who got the ax suing Simon Cowell, charging with him with making witheringly sarcastic remarks because ... he is British.

I guess it's possible to imagine that Sheridan might get away with playing the gay card somewhere deep in the Bible Belt, but not in Hollywood, where being gay is almost as universally accepted as being a tree-hugging environmentalist. The charge implies that a gay guy like Cherry would have some sort of built-in bias against a straight actress, as if Cherry would really have been more comfortable having cast Ellen DeGeneres or Jodie Foster as his leads in "Housewives." Or even worse, that it was Cherry's disdain for heterosexual women that somehow led him to assault Sheridan.

These are charges that you would think would be awfully difficult to prove, much less support with testimony from anyone that might have been on the "Housewives" set when they occurred. According to the Hollywood Reporter's Esq. blog, which has done the best reporting so far on this story, sources close to Cherry say the alleged assault was "actually Cherry prepping Sheridan for a scene involving her getting slapped in the face." That would account for why ABC has said that it investigated Sheridan's claim a year ago and found nothing.

I don't know where the story will go from here, unless Sheridan plays the Oprah card and goes on nationwide TV, using all of her much-vaunted dramatic talent to make the case that Cherry is a man who done her wrong. But Sheridan is gonna need a whole lot more than simple dramatic finger-pointing to make people believe that she got fired from a TV show just because she was straight.

Photo of Nicollette Sheridan. Credit: Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Joan]

Why the bias? Marc Cherry is fairly well known among Hollywood insiders to be a horrible man. Unless you know the full story, this article is potentially filled with victim blaming, if he did indeed abuse her like this.

ABC didn't find her complaint to be legitimate? Shocking. Except not really. Big TV companies are known to willfully ignore abuse complaints as long as the case is flowing in.

[Understand Nicole]

I bet the person who wrote this article is a gay man. I understand where Sheridan is coming from being a fellow, good-looking woman in the biz who is tired of queeny-bitch homosexual men acting like they have the right to be bitchy to us. If we were bitches to you, you would claim we were homophobes or discriminatory toward you - well guess what? The way you treat good-looking women in the biz is disgraceful. Do you deserve to be treated equally? Absolutely, I have many gay friends and support gay rights - key word EQUAL. Just because you are a gay queen bitch doesn't give you the right to not have manners and to not be a professional. Give respect and you'll get respect. Stop running around like an annoying 14 year old spoiled princess and act like a mature, respected professional. Stop giving parts to homosexuals over heterosexuals...it's bullshit. Cast the MOST TALENTED PERSON, not the person you think you'll get the most bed time out of. It's just the same as heterosexual male directors casting "giving" young actresses...it's wrong, discriminatory, and makes for downright bad art. Let's get back to the basics and all be a collaborative team - homosexual, heterosexual, trans-gender, a-sexual whatever you may be - ART is ART let's continue to remember that. I'm glad a female actress finally had the balls to call out a queeny bitch with power on their bad, unprofessional manners. You go Nicole!!

[SofiaSays...]

this was a nasty "article" and worse headline. I'm not in LA, but my sense is that these fellow posters are right. Annd, yesterday I read that Cherry admitted to hitting Nicolette and apologized. Let the courts decide, don't drag her through the mud just because she filed as if she doesn't have a right!

[sophie]

I'm perplexed, Patrick, why it's shocking that someone would accuse a homosexual man of alleged bias. Not saying that it's true in this particular case - that remains to be determined, but are you saying that homosexuals are not capable of bias? I know for a fact that's not true. Also, your British Simon Cowell analogy makes absolutely no sense. Simon Cowell berating and bitching at AI contestants is part of the shtick. What's described in N. Sheridan's lawsuit is pure and simple bias (if true).

[writer]

You do know that gay men can be sexist or racist right?

Anyway that set has been known as being difficult for years. You might want to read The Daily Beast article.

"Though the sources—all of whom were formerly on staff on Desperate Housewives—said that Cherry is not physically abusive and cannot imagine him hitting or slapping someone with an intent to hurt, as Sheridan is claiming that Cherry did, they unanimously say that to work for Cherry, especially if you are a woman, is to be marginalized and demeaned."