Actress Sela Ward said recently that she regrets not auditioning for the role of Susan Mayer.

"I was sent the script... it was the Teri Hatcher role," she told People Magazine (via newKerala.com. But the star of ABC's Once and Again didn't pursue the role. "I just couldn't sign a six-year contract. I had just finished Once and Again, and my mother had died. It was a very difficult time." But Ward is now sorry that she's not on the show. "I regret not being on a show that successful."

Whether coincidence or not, the cast of Desperate Housewives seems to have drawn upon previous ABC shows. Teri Hatcher (Susan Mayer) starred in Lois and Clark, and Felicity Huffman (Lynette Scavo) was the lead in Sports Night. Ward would have been another high profile ABC actress if she had landed the role. Once and Again ran for three years on ABC before being canceled in 2002. In it Ward played Lily Manning a divorcee who finds love again with Billy Campbell's Rick Sammler. She was twice nominated for an Emmy for her role and won it once. She was also thrice-nominated for a Golde Globe, and again won once.

Ward isn't the first person to link herself to Desperate Housewives. Heathler Locklear, Pamela Anderson and Geri Halliwell are just some of the celebrities who have claimed to have been in the running for a role. Diane Farr recently claimed to have turned down the role of Gabrielle Solis.

Ward, whose film roles include Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights and The Day After Tomorrow, also turned down a role on CSI: Miami back in 2002. But she is now making a return to television. After starring in the last two episodes of season one of Fox's House, she will have a recurring role in season two starting this fall.

Once and Again meanwhile is finally getting its second season DVD release, almost three years after the first season was released. It is currrently available to pre-order from Amazon.com and is released this month.

The original article can be found here at newKerala.com.

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!