Saturday, April 9, 2005
In battle for supremacy, the winner seems to be Hatcher, or maybe Longoria, or ...
By JOE DZIEMIANOWICZ
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Looks like some Housewives are more Desperate than others.
As ABC's dramedy continues to clean up in the ratings, rumors abound that the five stars are willing to get down and dirty in the battle for publicity.
A story in the latest Vanity Fair dishes about a dust-up accompanying a cover shoot with the five "Desperate Housewives." The gals battled over what they'd wear and where they'd stand in the photo. The end result: Teri Hatcher got the coveted crimson bathing suit and Marcia Cross was seeing red. Unfortunately, newstand buyers can't see her -- or Felicity Huffman -- as they are on the second page of the gatefold cover.
There was no such drama for the cover of the May Esquire because the editors decided one housewife was enough -- the 30-year-old Eva Longoria.
Exposure galore
Seems everywhere you look these days you see at least one "Desperate" diva. And why not. They've set out to reap the rewards of being on a hot show -- magazine covers, talk shows, fashion spreads and posh parties.
"Very few stars subscribe to the Garbo philosophy," says Stuart Fischoff, Ph.D., a media psychologist, professor emeritus at Cal State Los Angeles. "More is more, so there's bound to be competition for the limited attention."
Last month, Entertainment Weekly put out five separate covers, each featuring one of the five "Desperate" divas -- and invited readers to "Collect them all!"
There's no way to tell which cover girl was most popular, says a spokesman. But last fall, Sheridan wasn't even included in an EW cover of the other four female stars.
Who's winning the publicity war among the "Desperate Housewives"? It's neck and neck -- or lash and lash -- between Golden Globe winner Hatcher and Longoria, L'Oreal's new $2 million gal. You can just imagine them counting script lines on the set of the show.
Still, the reformed has-been Hatcher might want to heed the words from her youngest costar on the topic of publicity: It becomes "a dance not to overexpose."