War Not Abating

The legal battle between the gay creator of ABC's Desperate Housewives, Marc Cherry, and one of its former stars, Nicollette Sheridan, has a new twist.

Sheridan is suing Cherry and ABC, claiming she was smacked by Cherry and then fired after she complained about it. Cherry has said the plan to fire Sheridan by killing off her character was made months before the alleged altercation in September 2008. But now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, a producer has corroborated Sheridan's time line of events. Lori Kirkland Baker, an Emmy-winning producer who worked on Housewives between 2007 and 2009, says she wasn't aware of the plan to kill off Sheridan's character of Edie Britt until the fall of 2008. Cherry and ABC counter that Baker was intentionally kept out of the loop.

There will be a key summary judgment hearing in the case May 3 in Los Angeles -- if ABC doesn't manage to get the suit thrown out, it will go to trial, beginning June 8.