Alfre Woodard (Betty Applewhite) is a busy person, and she was even on two networks at the same time last Sunday. She explained recently that before joining Desperate Housewives she was actually involved with the pilot for the short-lived NBC show Inconceivable.

"[Inconceivable executive producer] Mike Tollin, whom I've worked for before, said, "I've got a project with a little role in it, but it'd be so great if you wanted to do it," she told TV Guide. "I read it and said, 'I think it's a great idea but I don't want to be this character for six years.' He said, 'Well, what if you just came and shot the pilot?' So I did that, and while I was shooting the pilot, I was asked if I wanted to join the cast of Desperate Housewives.

Woodard said she'd not even seen the show before. "I had never seen that show, but after they sent me a bunch of tapes, I said,'Yes, I'd like to do it,' because it broke form, it was a sort of high-wire act, and I like to be in that kind of situation. Meanwhile, Inconceivable got picked up and, well, I guess the network was never told that I was only signed on for the pilot. But that was the truth."

She refused to be drawn on if her character was under utilized, but did say she enjoyed the recent scenes with Marcia Cross (Bree Van De Kamp). "After that hussy turned on me, the liaison between our children gave me a trump card—nd I literally threw it on the poker table!"

Woodard also spoke about her new film, Something New, which was just released in the US. "I don't think there's been anything done like it ever, actually," she said. "[Films like this have] never been about the couple themselves, they've been about people's reactions. So I think it's new in the sense that it's finally about the decision people make to be together, how people choose whom to be with."

The full interview can be found over at TV Guide, and more on the movie can be found at the IMDb.

Discuss this news item at Talk Desperate!
 Add Get Desperate! RSS feed to your news reader or My Yahoo!
Also a CSI: Crime Scene Investigation fan? Then visit CSIFiles.com!