Press tour: Still ‘Desperate'

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Here's what we know about the fifth season of ABC's "Desperate Housewives," which will be set five years into the future from last season just as the end of the season finale suggested.

-- Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) will remain frumpy for at least half the season, which suits Longoria just fine. "I love it because I come into hair and makeup and it's 10 minutes instead of two hours," Longoria said. She's sporting a shorter hairstyle she got for the role.

-- Susan (Teri Hatcher) is with a new man (Gale Harold) but she's less desperate for love. "Susan was a person who was always like, ‘Please love me.' Now for many reasons that will be revealed, she is probably a person who's more closed off to love and not so searching and needy," Hatcher said. Series creator Marc Cherry said Hatcher had the idea for Susan's first scene after the opening credits in the season premiere, which will air Sept. 28. The new season will also reveal what became of Mike Delfino (James Denton).

-- Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) is still blind "for a while," Cherry said, suggesting perhaps that his sight will be restored.

-- Gay neighbors Bob (Tuc Watkins) and Lee (Kevin Rahm) still live on Wisteria Lane and they now have a four-year-old daughter. Cherry said adding them to the show was "just my commentary on how a gay couple moves in and nothing much happens."

-- Bree (Marcia Cross) will get out of the house more but she'll still be surrounded by muffins as a Martha Stewart-like entrepreneur. Her son Andrew (Shawn Pyfrom) works as her assistant and he may get a relationship in the second half of the season. Cherry said making Andrew a gay character was an opportunity to steal a scene from his own life in the first season. "The only ugly moment with my mother is when I came out and she was concerned that she wouldn't see me in heaven," Cherry said. He said he made Andrew act out against Bree when she said that as a way to exorcise his own anger and hurt feelings.

-- Cherry wants to end the show after seven seasons, but ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson shouted, "It's not gonna happen" from the back of the ballroom. "Of course, this could be some sort of clever ruse on my part to get a tremendous amount of money in season eight," Cherry countered.

More on the new season of "Desperate Housewives" in Saturday's Post-Gazette.