'DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES' STAR CLAIMS UNFAIR DISMISSAL

A former "desperate housewives" actress took her ex-employer to court, claiming unfair dismissal from the hit tv series about lust and scandal in wisteria lane.

Nicolette Sheridan claims she was fired for complaining that the show's creator, marc cherry, slapped her on the head during rehearsals for a scene in September 2008.

The 48-year-old actress featured in five seasons of the abc series, before her character Edie Britt was written out of it a few months after the slapping incident -- she claims in retaliation for her complaint.

Cherry's lawyer claim he had already decided to drop her character in may 2008, four months before the incident -- but Sheridan says she was assured in 2007 that her character would continue for the duration of the show.

"we know Edie’s character is one we definitely won't be killing off," cherry said, according to Sheridan, the first witness to take the stand in the trial Thursday.

Sheridan filed a lawsuit in April 2010, alleging battery and wrongful terminal of employment against cherry and touchstone television productions, which makes the show.

The actress told the Los Angeles superior court that she wanted a funny line to remain in the script, but cherry resisted because it included part of a Beatles song, for which the studio would have to pay royalties.

While discussing the line, cherry shouted: "what is it that you want?," said Sheridan, who at times struggled to maintain her composure.

When she tried to respond, "Mr. Cherry stepped toward me and he took his right hand and he hit me upside the head," she said, her voice breaking. "it was a nice wallop."

Defense attorney Adam Levin said cherry simply tapped Sheridan on the head, trying to give her directions for the next scene. But Sheridan denied this, and re-enacted the scene with her lawyer Patrick Maloney in court.

"I was stunned, I could not believe he just hit me in the head. I could tell he was stunned," she said. "i told him, 'you just hit me in the head, that is not ok'."

"it was shocking, it was humiliating, it was demeaning. It was unfathomable that i had just been hit by my boss,"

She retired to her trailer, and after some time cherry came to apologize, she said, quoting him as telling her: "I am on bended knee begging your forgiveness."

Several of her former cast mates, including Eva Longoria, Marcia Cross, James Denton and Felicity Huffman, are expected to appear as witnesses to defend cherry at the trial.

"desperate housewives," about lust, gossip, and foul play in a pampered American suburb, is to take its final bow at the end of its current eighth season.

The show, watched by 12 million people last season less than half the first season peak, helped turn around abc's flagging fortunes and boosted the international market for us series with complex plots and one-hour episodes.

Maryland gay marriage bill signed into law

Two Mothers of openly gay sons greet Gov. O'Malley. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley signed the state's gay marriage bill into law Thursday evening, capping off a month of big state-level wins for the gay rights movement around the country.
"We're in a much more pro-active place," Michael Cole-Schwartz of the Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest LGBT advocacy and lobbying outfit, tells Yahoo News. "We've been able to achieve marriage equality in more places, and at the same time we've seen the public support go up and up."
In February, legislators in Maryland, Washington and New Jersey voted to allow gay couples to marry, though Gov. Chris Christie vetoed the New Jersey bill. The wins follow June's New York same-sex marriage law, the first such bill to pass a Republican-controlled chamber.
The win in New York was partly due to a different gay marriage strategy: identifying vulnerable lawmakers who are anti-gay marriage and then supporting their opponents in small-fry state races. Denver-area philanthropist Tim Gill used the Gill Action Fund to pump nearly $800,000 into a group called "Fight Back New York" to defeat four lawmakers who voted against gay marriage in 2009 and were shown to be the most vulnerable in polling. It worked. In October, the four Republican New York senators who broke with their party to vote for gay marriage in June were rewarded with a $1 million fundraiser, attended by Gill and Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
But, gay marriage opponents have a plan to counter these victories, which may put the movement back on the defensive. Efforts are already underway to reverse the same-sex marriage laws in Maryland and Washington through a November ballot referendum. In Minnesota and North Carolina, the Human Rights Campaign and other groups are busy fending off gay marriage ballot bans, set for November and May, respectively.
Republican strategists pushed the idea of putting gay marriage on state ballots in 2004 and 2006, to stoke voter enthusiasm among the party's base. So far, voters in all 31 states have rejected gay marriage when it was put up to a vote. Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, Washington and Iowa--which have all legalized gay marriage--did so through the legislature or the courts.
"These are not real victories," anti-gay marriage National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown says. "In fact, these are going to lead to even more defeats for same-sex marriage [through ballot initiatives]." But in both Maryland and Washington, recent polls show about half of voters support same-sex marriage, suggesting a ballot vote could be very close. Gradually rising support for gay marriage means ballot initiatives might no longer be the secret weapon of the anti-gay marriage camp.
Same-sex marriage supporters in Maine are willing to test out that theory. They're trying to get same-sex marriage on the November ballot, becoming the first pro-gay marriage group to seek a ballot initiative on the issue. "The track record has not been good for the question," says Dave Farmer, communications coordinator at the Dirigo Family Political Action Committee, which is funding the Maine ballot campaign. "I believe the number is 0 in 31." Farmer says the group's polling shows that about 53 percent of voters would vote for the ballot measure to let same-sex couples marry. In 2009, Maine voters vetoed the legislature's gay marriage bill, dealing a crushing blow to gay rights advocates in the state.
In Maine, gay marriage advocates also don't have much to lose. Gay marriage is already not allowed in Maine, and both houses of the legislature flipped to majority Republican in 2010, when the state also voted in a Republican governor who opposes same-sex marriage.
Gay rights supporters have slammed ballot initiatives in the past as placing a basic right up to popular vote. But Farmer says it's not the means that matter. "The bottom line is same-sex couples want to get married for the same reasons other couples do. Whether the means of making that possible are through a legislative, representative process or through a direct initiative, the goal is the same."