Marc Cherry takes the stand in Housewives trial

Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry has listed five things that led to him firing actress Nicollette Sheridan from his show.

Sheridan is suing Cherry and ABC for $6m in a wrongful dismissal and assault case.

Cherry told the court he considered her unprofessional: She was not punctual, she sometimes forgot her lines, he saw her being mean to a prop worker, she questioned him about the script, and she raised issues about her co-stars.

It emerged that a May 2008 meeting Cherry had Mark Pedowitz, who was then head of Touchstone, he wanted to kill off the Edie Britt character at the end of season five. The move would also save producers on salary.

He insisted it was mainly a creative decision to freshen up the show but added, “I did mention the money as a extra benefit in this decision.”

Cherry also said he rarely allows an actor to come into the writers room and be part of the discussion of the story arc for a season, but he admitted he did discuss the scripts with the lead actresses and welcomed their suggestions.

He testified that when he struck Sheridan, he was demonstrating physical humour he wanted her to inject into a scene.

Sheridan’s attorney asked repeatedly if Sheridan had given him permission to demonstrate on her in such a physical manner. “I didn’t think I needed to,” Cherry answered. “Permission was understood.”

Earlier, Sheridan told the court that when she received a letter telling her that human resources department of ABC had found that no action was needed in regards to her complaint about being hit in the head by Cherry, she was unhappy about what she read.

“I thought it was an appalling, outrageous lie,” she said.

But she took no further action and did not complain formally to the network about their decision.

“Quite frankly I was afraid of being retaliated against,” testified Sheridan. “I wasn’t sure what the HR department or what any HR department really was.”

The case continues.

Source: Hollywood Reporter