While Nicollette Sheridan plays skimpily clad sexpot Edie Britt on ABC's Desperate Housewives, in real life it's her ears that are underdressed. "My mother wouldn't let me have pierced ears when I was little," says Sheridan, 41. "But when I turned 15, I really wanted them, so I did it myself with a needle. It hurt so much, I couldn't face doing the other one. So now I only have one pierced ear." Not that Sheridan minds. "Sometimes I'll wear clip-ons, but I feel too balanced with two earrings," she says. So do people notice her seemingly lost accessory? "All the time. [Recently, on a talk show] someone in the audience was [gesturing], so during a break I said, 'It's okay, it's okay!'"
Conan's Tough Time with Toys
Since becoming a father Conan O'Brien has struggled with one age-old dad duty: putting together kiddie contraptions. "Being a dad is the greatest, except for assembling things," says the late-night talk show host, 42, whose wife, Liza, gave birth to daughter Neve in October 2003. "I remember my father trying to tighten a bolt and hurting his fingers. That's what I'm doing now—except I break [the toy] before she even gets to play with it." His mechanical shortcomings aren't going unnoticed by his family. Says O'Brien: "Neve has already learned the word 'incompetent.'"
Denis Leary: No Mr. Softee
Denis Leary screams for ice cream—especially when jingle-blaring trucks interfere with the filming of his FX firehouse drama, Rescue Me. "I almost had to beat up a Mister Softee. They drive by the set and turn their music on," says Leary, 47, whose show's second season premieres June 21. "It annoys us, so we give them money and they drive off." Not all vendors get the hint. "One guy did it on purpose. The third time he drove up, he waved the money [we gave him] out the window," says the comic. "Next time, we're going to take him out of the truck along with his ice cream, smear it all over him, add sprinkles and Fed Ex him to L.A."
Heaton: Trial and Error
Patricia Heaton didn't get much rest after finishing her nine-year run on CBS's Everybody Loves Raymond: Shortly after she filmed the final episode, jury duty called. "It was a dispute about a bad construction job, so I spent three weeks looking at pictures of leaking drywall," says Heaton, 47. Even though 33 million viewers tuned in for the finale, Heaton's fame went for naught among jurors. "I assumed my glamor would be distracting," says Heaton, "but the juror next to me looked over and said, 'Were you on Seinfeld?'"
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