Housewife Hatcher does Double Duty

Desperate Housewives actress Teri Hatcher has signed on to voice two characters in "Coraline," the first feature film from Laika Entertainment, Nike chairman Phil Knight's Portland, Oregon animation studio. The film is due in 2008.

Adapted from the children's novel by Neil Gaiman, "Coraline" tells of a little girl, voiced by child star Dakota Fanning, who discovers a passageway to another world with another set of parents. Hatcher will voice Coraline's mother in the real world, as well as her more sinister mother in the alternative world.

This could be the first film hit for Gaiman, who, though beloved for his sci-fi novels and graphic novels, has not done well with the cinema. His latest, MirrorMask, came and went with little fanfare, and his next project is a big-screen adaptation of Beowulf with Angelina Jolie among the cast.

You can go ahead and make up your own joke about that.