Ben Falk sits down with Desperate Housewife Eva Longoria Parker to talk about playing a woman wracked with jealousy in Over Her Dead Body, as well as her secret to a successful Hollywood marriage and staying beautiful.
Name: Eva Longoria Parker
Age: 33
Significant other: Tony Parker
Career high: With Desperate Housewives, she became an overnight sensation
Career low: She was snubbed at the 2005 Emmy Awards when she was the only member of the Desperate Housewives cast not to be awarded a nomination.
Famous for: Strutting her stuff
Words of wisdom: "I just came into my own sexuality at 30. It don't think it's something you can deeply experience at 18 or any time before that."
A GLAMOROUS French affair splashed across all the glossy magazines - so it's quite strange to hear Eva Longoria Parker say: "My wedding coordinator did everything. I didn't want to call the shots. I don't care about the flowers and the rest of it. I just cared about the actual marriage, the union and the sacrament."
But while she was an easy-going bride in real life, the pocket-sized 32-year-old ‒ who has since added 25-year-old hubby Tony Parker's name to her own ‒ appreciated the chance to be a little more belligerent on screen, in her new film Over Her Dead Body.
"It's always fun to be a Bridezilla in a movie," she admits. "I was probably the opposite of that at my wedding. I was very calm, and didn't really care about any hors d'oeuvres or anything, or whether people ate or not. I just wanted to have my moment with my new husband."
Perhaps her character should take note. In Over Her Dead Body, the overly-bossy Kate suffers the ultimate indignity as she is killed by a falling ice sculpture on her wedding day to Henry (Paul Rudd). When a devastated Henry finally starts moving on in the shape of Ashley (Lake Bell), Kate comes back as a ghost to put a stop to it.
"I was going back and forth between this and Desperate Housewives," says Eva, who was shooting the critically-lauded fourth season of the soapy show.
It's interesting to know whether the subject matter of the film touched a nerve for the star ‒ not in the mortality department, but rather concerning the extra-marital activities depicted. Recently, Eva and Tony have been hit by spurious rumours ‒ furiously denied by the both of them ‒ that Tony cheated on his wife with a French model. Eva ‒ ever the feisty Latina ‒ is not taking it lying down.
"It was the first time we actually had to sue someone," she explains.
"We're suing X17 right now, which is a website. We felt it was important because, specifically with websites, they're so cancerous when it comes to spreading false information and it's so fast.
"I think it's a shame that this celebrity journalism has leaked into mainstream, reputable journalism," she continues.
"To be on the cover of a newspaper is not appropriate, you should be in the entertainment section, under the movie reviews. But to be on the front page because I had a dinner and drank a vanilla latte is really silly."
Dealing with the gossip and the paparazzi has been a constant since the pair began dating.
Previously married to soap star Tyler Christopher (they were divorced in January 2004), Eva's profile exploded when she landed the role of the self-obsessed, vain Gabrielle Solis on Wisteria Lane.
The show became a smash-hit sensation, with audiences lapping up Gaby's affair with her sexy gardener (Jesse Metcalfe) and her volatile relationship to husband Carlos.
By the time Tony had proposed to Eva, they were both enormous stars, buoyed by the fame of Housewives and Tony's position as an NBA basketball heavyweight.
Subsequently, the duo decided to enlist the help of the magazines, going to OK!, who bought exclusive rights to the wedding last July. Eva is unapologetic.
"You have to pick a magazine to put them in, because if not, there's such a bounty for the picture that you have 20 magazines crawling up the wall of the church," she says. "So it was the easiest way to diffuse the situation of the union of Tony and I. It was really quite simple.
"We didn't let OK! come in and take the pictures either," she adds. "We took the pictures and we gave them the ones we liked. They don't come and ambush the wedding!
You just say, 'Here's a nice picture of us' and they get to print it. They also allowed us to donate a good portion of the money to charity."
Now the couple spend most of their time in San Antonio, Texas, where Tony plays with the local team. Eva commutes to Los Angeles for work, but otherwise, she says: "I do wander around, aimlessly." And she prefers the laid-back attitude of America's south (she grew up in the Texan town of Corpus Christi), where people are less enamoured of her star status.
Still, she says: "I love it when fans approach me and I'm very welcoming of that. I'll have pictures and sign autographs and things."
As a happily-married woman the next big question is obviously whether she plans to have children. She rebukes the story that her Desperate Housewives' contract says she's not allowed to get pregnant until the end of the series, revealing: "I'm going to start a family when I want to start a family."
But, by the sounds of things, she can't wait to start nesting. She may be renowned as one of Hollywood's most beautiful women, but she protests that she doesn't worry about her image and says that: "Tony would love it if I gained weight and stayed fat at home."
It's not about being a size zero, it's about staying healthy, according to Eva.
"I work out three times a week with my trainer at my house, but I'm not obsessed," she says. "I don't do it because of expectations, I do it because I want to live a healthy lifestyle.
My degree is in kinesiology, which is the study of the body and healthy living, so it's natural for me to want to be in shape and eat right anyway.
So no, I don't do it because of other people's expectations. It's just for me."
Name: Eva Longoria Parker
Age: 33
Significant other: Tony Parker
Career high: With Desperate Housewives, she became an overnight sensation
Career low: She was snubbed at the 2005 Emmy Awards when she was the only member of the Desperate Housewives cast not to be awarded a nomination.
Famous for: Strutting her stuff
Words of wisdom: "I just came into my own sexuality at 30. It don't think it's something you can deeply experience at 18 or any time before that."
A GLAMOROUS French affair splashed across all the glossy magazines - so it's quite strange to hear Eva Longoria Parker say: "My wedding coordinator did everything. I didn't want to call the shots. I don't care about the flowers and the rest of it. I just cared about the actual marriage, the union and the sacrament."
But while she was an easy-going bride in real life, the pocket-sized 32-year-old ‒ who has since added 25-year-old hubby Tony Parker's name to her own ‒ appreciated the chance to be a little more belligerent on screen, in her new film Over Her Dead Body.
"It's always fun to be a Bridezilla in a movie," she admits. "I was probably the opposite of that at my wedding. I was very calm, and didn't really care about any hors d'oeuvres or anything, or whether people ate or not. I just wanted to have my moment with my new husband."
Perhaps her character should take note. In Over Her Dead Body, the overly-bossy Kate suffers the ultimate indignity as she is killed by a falling ice sculpture on her wedding day to Henry (Paul Rudd). When a devastated Henry finally starts moving on in the shape of Ashley (Lake Bell), Kate comes back as a ghost to put a stop to it.
"I was going back and forth between this and Desperate Housewives," says Eva, who was shooting the critically-lauded fourth season of the soapy show.
It's interesting to know whether the subject matter of the film touched a nerve for the star ‒ not in the mortality department, but rather concerning the extra-marital activities depicted. Recently, Eva and Tony have been hit by spurious rumours ‒ furiously denied by the both of them ‒ that Tony cheated on his wife with a French model. Eva ‒ ever the feisty Latina ‒ is not taking it lying down.
"It was the first time we actually had to sue someone," she explains.
"We're suing X17 right now, which is a website. We felt it was important because, specifically with websites, they're so cancerous when it comes to spreading false information and it's so fast.
"I think it's a shame that this celebrity journalism has leaked into mainstream, reputable journalism," she continues.
"To be on the cover of a newspaper is not appropriate, you should be in the entertainment section, under the movie reviews. But to be on the front page because I had a dinner and drank a vanilla latte is really silly."
Dealing with the gossip and the paparazzi has been a constant since the pair began dating.
Previously married to soap star Tyler Christopher (they were divorced in January 2004), Eva's profile exploded when she landed the role of the self-obsessed, vain Gabrielle Solis on Wisteria Lane.
The show became a smash-hit sensation, with audiences lapping up Gaby's affair with her sexy gardener (Jesse Metcalfe) and her volatile relationship to husband Carlos.
By the time Tony had proposed to Eva, they were both enormous stars, buoyed by the fame of Housewives and Tony's position as an NBA basketball heavyweight.
Subsequently, the duo decided to enlist the help of the magazines, going to OK!, who bought exclusive rights to the wedding last July. Eva is unapologetic.
"You have to pick a magazine to put them in, because if not, there's such a bounty for the picture that you have 20 magazines crawling up the wall of the church," she says. "So it was the easiest way to diffuse the situation of the union of Tony and I. It was really quite simple.
"We didn't let OK! come in and take the pictures either," she adds. "We took the pictures and we gave them the ones we liked. They don't come and ambush the wedding!
You just say, 'Here's a nice picture of us' and they get to print it. They also allowed us to donate a good portion of the money to charity."
Now the couple spend most of their time in San Antonio, Texas, where Tony plays with the local team. Eva commutes to Los Angeles for work, but otherwise, she says: "I do wander around, aimlessly." And she prefers the laid-back attitude of America's south (she grew up in the Texan town of Corpus Christi), where people are less enamoured of her star status.
Still, she says: "I love it when fans approach me and I'm very welcoming of that. I'll have pictures and sign autographs and things."
As a happily-married woman the next big question is obviously whether she plans to have children. She rebukes the story that her Desperate Housewives' contract says she's not allowed to get pregnant until the end of the series, revealing: "I'm going to start a family when I want to start a family."
But, by the sounds of things, she can't wait to start nesting. She may be renowned as one of Hollywood's most beautiful women, but she protests that she doesn't worry about her image and says that: "Tony would love it if I gained weight and stayed fat at home."
It's not about being a size zero, it's about staying healthy, according to Eva.
"I work out three times a week with my trainer at my house, but I'm not obsessed," she says. "I don't do it because of expectations, I do it because I want to live a healthy lifestyle.
My degree is in kinesiology, which is the study of the body and healthy living, so it's natural for me to want to be in shape and eat right anyway.
So no, I don't do it because of other people's expectations. It's just for me."