It seems like a bit of drama still surrounds Wisteria Lane.
In May, Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman pleaded guilty and apologised for her involvement in the college admissions scandal.
The actor is due to be sentenced on Friday, and prosecutors are recommending she spend a month in jail in addition to paying a $20,000 fine and serving one year of probation.
NBC News reported on Friday that Huffman’s sentencing memorandum includes 27 letters of support asking the judge for a more lenient sentence.
One of the letters is from the actor herself, another from her husband, Oscar-winning actor William H. Macy, and a particularly juicy one comes from Huffman’s former Desperate Housewives co-star and friend, Eva Longoria.
Longoria wrote that when she began on the hit ABC show in 2004, she was “scared” because she was “new to the business” and that Huffman immediately befriended her. She also said that when an unnamed Housewives co-star started to bully her, Huffman stood up for her.
“I dreaded the days I had to work with that person because it was pure torture,” Longoria said. “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.”
She also described an incident that happened a few years later, when Huffman decided to spearhead a salary negotiation in which four co-stars ― the others were Teri Hatcher and Marcia Cross ― would receive equal pay. Longoria wrote:
“This did not go over too well with the others. But Felicity stood up for me, saying it was fair because the success of the show depended on all of us, not one of us. This fight lasted weeks, but Felicity held strong and convinced everyone this was the right thing to do. And thanks to her, I was bumped up to favoured nations. It wasn’t about the money for me, it was the fact that I was seen as an equal, which is how Felicity had always seen me.”
Longoria also said in her letter that she wanted to use her fame to help highlight charities she supported, and when she needed help, her Housewives co-stars were “usually too busy to help, except Felicity”.
“I can’t tell you how many times she was the only one who would physically show up to help me with the kids with cancer, or children with special needs,” Longoria wrote.
Another letter from Huffman’s sentencing memorandum is from Marc Cherry, the creator of Desperate Housewives.
Cherry wrote that Huffman was typically on the receiving end of a “problematic” co-star’s wrath whom Cherry describes as a “big star with some big behavioral problems”.
Yet despite it all, Huffman always took the higher road, he said.
“Everyone tried their darndest to get along with this woman over the course of the show. It was impossible. And things went from bad to worse,” Cherry wrote.
“Felicity still insisted on saying ‘good morning’ to this actress, even though she knew she wouldn’t get a response. I found out about this and asked Felicity about it. She smiled and said, ‘just because that woman’s determined to be rude, doesn’t mean she can keep me from being polite’.”
It’s unclear which co-star Longoria and Cherry are referring to in their letters. But if an interview Longoria did on Jimmy Fallon last year is any indication, one could make an educated assumption.
In her interview, Longoria said that among her former co-stars “99% of us are still friends”.
She also mentioned that Cross and Huffman came to her ceremony when she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.