With the drama that's surrounded the college admissions scandal(in which Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin have both been implicated) it's almost like we've been thrown back into an episode of Desperate Housewives.
What was it about that candy-coloured street where regular women faked pregnancies, had affairs with their teenage gardeners and – in one of the more far-fetched story arcs – literally covered up a full blown murder that had us so gripped?
That in mind: could it be that the college admissions scandal (Huffman has admitted to illegally paying $15,000 to rig her daughters SAT scores) is a case of life imitating art? Perhaps. Following a guilty plea, Huffman is now reportedly facing one month of jail time for the role she played in the admissions scandal.
But her co-workers have stepped up with heartfelt statements in her defence. Both Marc Cherry (the desperate housewives creator) and Eva Longoria have written character statements for the actress prior to her sentencing on 13 September.
Interestingly, both Eva and Marc make references to one particular 'member' of the Desperate Housewives cast who was difficult to work with, with Eva explaining that Felicity protected her from 'bullying' on set from the unnamed cast member. In her statement, she writes: 'There was a time I was being bullied at work by a co-worker, I dreaded the days I had to work with that person because it was pure torture. Until one day, Felicity told the bully "enough" and it all stopped. Felicity could feel that I was riddled with anxiety even though I never complained or mentioned the abuse to anyone.'
Meanwhile Marc Cherry wrote, 'We had a problematic cast member on my show. She was a big star with some big behavioral problems … Everyone tried their darnedest to get along with this woman over the course of the show. It was impossible. And things went from bad to worse. At some point during season seven this woman decided she would no longer speak to her fellow cast members …. She would only communicate with the directors who were then forced to pass on her throughs to her co-stars. This was alternately maddening and hilarious.'
So who is this 'problematic cast member'? Although they aren't explicitly named, a lot of people are speculating that it's Teri Hatcher, owing to old rumours surrounding the famed fall outs between the Housewives cast mates. In 2005 there was a famous incident on a Vanity Fair photo shoot, which was captioned 'You wouldn't believe what it took just to get this photo!' when a representative from ABC reportedly instructed the magazine to not allow diva-ish behaviour from Hatcher.
Vanity Fair was apparently asked not to give her first choice of wardrobe or place her in the centre of the shoot, but Teri arrived early to have the first wardrobe choices and ended up in the centre of the shoot, reportedly causing Marcia Cross (who played Bree Larson) to storm off.
In April this year, Eva Longoria also appeared to reference tensions between the cast when speaking with Jimmy Kimmel. When asked whether she was still friends with the show's cast, Eva replied 'No. 99 percent of us are.' (The plot thickens.)
However, it has not been confirmed or denied that Hatcher is indeed the 'bully' or 'problematic cast member' that Marc Cherry and Eva Longoria have made reference to. As for Teri Hatcher herself? She now creates YouTube cooking videos, and even released a new one over the weekend – strangely conspicuous or not? We can't decide.
If you think I'm about to spend an entire evening binge-watching Desperate Housewives and looking for clues about who the 'problematic' cast member was, you'd be absolutely right.