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| Teri Hatcher: One of five |
Everyone?s talking about them. Oprah Winfrey interviewed them and the US President?s wife watches them. It?s official: Desperate Housewives is a hit. The show premiered on the ABC channel in the US only this January. And already, first lady Laura Bush calls herself not just a fan, but a desperate housewife! And the queen of talk shows not only invited the five women from Wisteria Lane on her stage, but she even expressed the wish to take a trip to Wisteria Lane.
Desperate Housewives is all set to make its debut soon on the Indian small screen, on STAR World. Set in a typical American suburb, it follows the lives of five women. The dark comedy has created plenty of controversy, but the viewership figures, ratings and the fact that it?s always in the news speak for its popularity.
The script starts off with Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong) committing suicide. Thereafter she?s the narrator, watching from her heavenly abode the goings on of her friends and family with a sardonic yet sympathetic twist.
The stars of the show are Teri Hatcher who plays frazzled single mom Susan Mayer looking for love, Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman) the ex-career woman now a mother of four unruly kids, Marcia Cross the perfect Bree Van De Kamp whose perfection is the cause for her family?s discontent, former model Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria) the trophy wife who has everything she wants but is having an affair, and Nicollette Sheridan as Edi Brit whose love life is everyone?s favourite topic of gossip.
There are many more cast members, from the husbands to neighbours and kids. Homosexuality, smoking pot, a housewife seducing a 17-year-old, a mom working as a high-class call-girl ? this show has it all. Everyone in Wisteria Lane is imperfect, very few one would want as neighbours. But watching their antics on TV is guaranteed entertainment.
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After Las Vegas and Miami, the action shifts to New York. The Big Apple is the setting for the latest spin-off of the CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) series. Since the premiere on June 15, all three CSI series are now on AXN. Backed by one of Hollywood?s hottest producers, Jerry Bruckheimer, the CSI shows are multiple-award winners.
?True to our campaign tagline (3 Cities, 3 CSI Teams, 1 Channel ? AXN: The Home of CSI), viewers can expect a big treat to catch the franchise twice a week on Wednesday and Thursday at 10 pm. The CSI franchise has a huge fan base of about 25 million viewers on AXN across Asia. We expect CSI: NY to increase our fan base,? says Ricky Ow, general manager of SPE Networks, Asia.
Gary Sinise, Academy Award nominee for Best Actor in a Supporting Role as Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump, leads in the new series playing detective Mack ?Mac? Taylor, an ex-Marine who lost his wife in the 9/11 disaster.
Starring opposite him as his partner is Melina Kanakaredes as workaholic detective Stella Bonasera. The team includes Danny Messe (Carmine Giovinazzo), a Brooklyn-born investigator with a colourful family history, Dr Sheldon Hawkes (Hill Harper), a reclusive coroner, and Aiden Burn (Vanessa Ferlito), a smart and sexy investigator whose chameleon-like behaviour allows her to adapt to any situation, any time.
Sinise has been signed on for six years with 23 shows every year. The trade-off is having to turn down movies. ?Initially I never thought about doing a television series because of its repetition and then just settling into one character. I decided to exchange that freedom for a steady kind of quality life,? says he.
As for going out to a real crime scene to get a feel of the job: ?Years ago when I was doing a character in Ransom that Ron Howard directed with Mel Gibson, I spent some time with some crime scene investigators. It?s not the kind of work that I would want to do. I have respect for people that can kind of do that.?
If there?s one person the entire film industry missed in Amsterdam, it has to be Akshay Kumar. Busy shooting, Akki couldn?t go to the city on water to collect the IIFA Award for Best Performance in a Comic Role for Mujhse Shaadi Karogi.
The David Dhawan film co-starring Salman Khan and Priyanka Chopra was just another hit in a string of successes that the khiladi Kumar has had in the recent past with blockbusters like Khakee, Aitraaz and now Waqt.
In fact, the actor has completed 100 films in an industry where new heroes turn up every Friday. ?I?m proud of the fact that I have given hits with directors who aren?t considered ?cool? and happening,? he says. ?And even though I have hit a century, I?d like to think the game has just begun.?
