“Desperate Housewives” star Eva Longoria is leaving Wisteria Lane for 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
The 37-year-old actress was named a national co-chairman for President Obama’s re-election campaign in February, and she is bidding farewell to her sassy, model-turned-housewife character Gabrielle Solis on the ABC drama’s May 13 finale.
But making the leap from the domestic affairs of the “Housewives” to a national political campaign hasn’t been an easy transition.
“People go, ’Who cares about your opinion, you’re just pretty,’ ” Ms. Longoria said. “And it’s like, ’Why can’t I have an intellectual argument about immigration or health care reform just because I’m pretty?’ “
The Mexican-American actress is also developing a dating reality series titled, “All About Love,” for NBC and is coproducing ABC’s upcoming telenovela-style TV drama “Devious Maids,” about the scandalous lives of the hired help.
Ms. Longoria, who is working on her master’s degree in Mexican-American studies at Cal State University at Northridge, said her biggest accomplishment will be making a difference at the voting booth in November.
“[I’m] doing my civic engagement by mobilizing voters and making sure they’re educated on the issues and operating from the belief that if you want to change something in this country you have the power to do that as a citizen. So those are probably the things I’m most proud of.”
Police: Accused actress sent emails to Alec Baldwin
A Canadian actress accused of stalking Alec Baldwin sent him a string of emails begging him to marry her, according to a police complaint.
Genevieve Sabourin was arraigned on aggravated harassment and stalking charges Monday, a day after her arrest in New York City.
Police said Mr. Baldwin and Ms. Sabourin met a decade ago on a movie set and initially had been friendly, but the relationship apparently took a turn for the bizarre in recent days.
Ms. Sabourin traveled from her home in Quebec to New York City, then began sending Mr. Baldwin desperate emails, according to police.
“Please Alec come and pick me up now,” said one message, according to a court filing. “I am less than 10 min away from you tonight. Say I do to me.” In another, she referred to him as her “husband,” according to court papers.
Then, Ms. Sabourin crashed a film screening Mr. Baldwin was hosting Thursday and had to be thrown out by security guards, a police detective wrote.
Ms. Sabourin’s attorney at the arraignment, Julie Sender, said her client and Mr. Baldwin had a two-year “mutual relationship.” They met on the set of “The Adventures of Pluto Nash,” a film in which he made a cameo and she was a publicist, and then went to dinner together at least once in 2010.
Melissa Gilbert injured on ’Dancing With the Stars’
Melissa Gilbert had what the judges called her best performance of the season during Monday’s “Dancing With the Stars” - but it didn’t go off without a hitch. The 47-year-old actress left the show’s Los Angeles studio for the hospital before the end of the live broadcast.
Host Tom Bergeron acknowledged Ms. Gilbert’s injury at the end of the live taping.
Backstage, fellow competitors helped piece together the events.
In the middle of Ms. Gilbert’s paso doble with Maksim Chmerkovskiy, which earned them a cumulative score of 22, she hit her head on the ballroom floor. And though she didn’t let on during the judges’ commentary, dancer Karina Smirnoff told the Hollywood Reporter and other media reps that Ms. Gilbert started complaining of dizziness and of feeling lightheaded. She was so weakened, singer Gavin DeGraw carried her from the stage’s elevated “red room” and out of the studio.
With about 20 minutes left in the episode, Ms. Gilbert was put on a stretcher and taken, by ambulance, to a hospital. Mr. Chmerkovskiy followed her.
Sarah Palin helps ’Today’ beat ’GMA,’ Katie Couric
Sarah Palin is largely responsible for the “Today” show repelling the Katie Couric challenge.
The Nielsen ratings company said NBC’s morning show beat ABC’s “Good Morning America” by a margin of 210,000 viewers in the ratings last week. That’s one week after the gap between the two shows shrank to 119,000, the smallest in seven years.
The rise of “Good Morning America” this spring has threatened one of television’s longest-running streaks: “Today” has not lost a week in the ratings since December 1995. That’s a major point of pride at NBC and important financially, because millions of dollars in advertising could be at stake if there is a changing of the guard in the morning.
Smelling a victory, ABC brought Ms. Couric, a former “Today” anchor, in as a guest host last week for vacationing Robin Roberts. “Today” countered by bringing in Mrs. Palin, a former Alaska governor and U.S. vice-presidential candidate, as a guest host on Tuesday, and it had host Matt Lauer announce Friday that he was signing a new contract.
Third time slot the charm for NBC’s ’Rock Center’?
Brian Williams’ “Rock Center” newsmagazine moves this week to its third time slot in less than six months.
NBC insists the show is in no danger of cancellation despite low ratings.
“Rock Center” will air at 9 p.m. Wednesdays, an hour earlier than it had been airing. From the show’s Halloween premiere through the end of January, it was shown on Monday nights.
The show got off to a fast start with Bob Costas’ surprise interview with former Penn State football assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, who denied child sexual-abuse allegations against him.
But in six of its past 10 airings, it failed to reach even 3 million viewers.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.