The four principal stars of "Desperate Housewives" have been given a special "thank you" gift from bosses of ABC -- $250,000 each in cash.
Teri Hatcher, Marcia Cross, Felicity Huffman and Eva Longoria were reportedly given the payments after helping to make the show a runaway success since its debut last year.
Supporting players Nicolette Sheridan and James Denton were also given significant bonuses, while the rest of the cast received lesser amounts.
It is unclear whether the bonuses will prevent the women -- who have reportedly campaigned for pay rises -- from breaking their contracts.
Considering that less than twelve months ago they were all nobodies and has-beens, really they shoudl be grateful for any raise or bonus they get. I hope they don't let one fabulous sdeason go to their head and end up screwing it all up. If they keep pushing for more money, the TV bosses will just cut the series and they'll all be back to doing guest appearance in other people's shows.
Nah. If the show is pulling in crazy profits, the producers will share some of it with the cast in due time. There's no way around it. Pulling the show means finding another cash cow that the public will accept. It's more reasonable to give in to the demands, raise their salaries sufficiently, and continue to pull in money off the show even with the raises.
Because the show's doing far better than expected, the cast deserves a raise. BUT, so do the writers and producers, directors, etc. It's the WHOLE of the contributions that makes the show what it is, not just the lead actors.
When you think about it though, this show is MONSTROUS. It came out of nowhere (especially for me, because we weren't going to watch it, but there seemed to be nothing else on that night that was interesting...), and now, who doesn't know about it?
02-11-2005 04:31 AM
