A Darker "Desprete Housewives"

Next season's "Desperate Housewives" will have darker storylines and some dastardly deeds by a new neighbor says show creator, Marc Cherry who is still "thrilled, thrilled, thrilled!" from the show's 15 Emmy nominations, tying "Will & Grace" as the year's top-nominated series. Cherry promises next year will bring "more surprises, twists and turns."

"We're going darker with some of the storylines, and Alfre Woodard's (new neighbor) character (whose name is Betty Applewhite) is just up to no good on that street," he said. Besides being featured in this season's "Housewives", Woodard has been in movies such as, "Beauty Shop", "The Forgotten", and "Radio."

Cherry along with series star Marcia Cross, who plays "Housewives'" uptight heroine Bree Van de Camp, attended part of Outfest 2005: The 23rd Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. They carefully dropped second-season tidbits Saturday at a panel discussion dubbed "Queer is Just a Frame of Mind on Wisteria Lane". "I think any time you get four or five really strong women doing desperate, dastardly things, I think gay men get a big kick out of it," Cherry told AP Television News. "The moment you put a woman in an evening gown mowing the lawn, it's just gay." Cherry is gay, as are some of the writers and fans of the show.

At midpoint in season one, Bree's son Andrew played by Shawn Pyfrom was caught making out with the new gardener, Justin (Ryan Carnes), but the two actors said they don't expect their characters' pool embrace to develop into anything more. "I don't think he's gay or straight. I think he's just Andrew," Pyfrom said about his character on the show.