Meet the Vitale family, er, make that the Bolen family!
Desperate Housewives’ newest clan on the block was originally supposed to be Italian. But creator
Marc Cherry gave the family an ethnic makeover after casting the blond, blue-eyed
Jeffrey Nordling as Bolen patriarch Nick. “We originally were casting Italian actors. Then Jeffrey came in and blew us off our feet,” says Cherry, who is likely switching Nick’s job from landscaper to “some kind of handyman to connect to Mike’s plumbing.”
With Edie Britt’s death, gay neighbor Lee (
Kevin Rahm) takes over as Wisteria Lane’s new real-estate agent and sells Mary Alice’s old house to the Bolens after they depart New York City. Cherry says the season premiere finds the Bolens getting “caught up in a disastrous thing” involving Susan’s daughter, Julie, “and because of the attention focused on them, they worry that their secret will be exposed. Pretty much everyone in the family is keeping secrets from each other.”
This could have deadly consequences for the Bolens, played by three actors who each signed for just one season and have had plenty of violent screen time. Jeffrey, 47, bit it last year as
24’s FBI agent Larry Moss.
Beau Mirchoff, 20, cast as sullen son Danny, tried to outrun aliens in “Scary Movie 4.” And
Drea de Matteo, 37, who’ll be playing abrasive housewife Angie, was famously shot in the woods as
The Sopranos’ Adriana. “I die everywhere I go,” Drea says. “I wouldn’t hold my new character too dear, because on this show, people get killed.” Jeffrey adds, “Hopefully there’s no bullets flying around Wisteria Lane!”
Though still in the dark about Angie’s secret past, Drea would love to see a
Sopranos shocker, with Angie turning out to be Adriana, who was memorably shot off screen and long-rumored to have secretly entered the Witness Protection Program. “That would be a really funny joke that
Desperate Housewives could definitely get away with,” she says. “Who knows?”
Being the new housewife on Wisteria Lane, Drea already knows her character is not meant to fit in and will likely clash with many of them. “I would see her getting along with Susan, and going after people like Bree, Gaby and Katherine,” says Drea. Unlike her
Sopranos character, Adrianna, Angie is not into fashion. “She’s a little more on the Bohemian side. She’s a pretty liberal Gypsyesque sort of girl. The only similarity to Adrianna is the heavy Brooklyn accent.”
The first scene Drea shot was with all the other Housewives, which she found a bit intimidating. “When I was younger, my parents switched me to an all-girls school in the middle of the year, and that’s what it was like. But I was so excited to do a show with a lot of women, having coming from
The Sopranos and
Sons of Anarchy, which were mostly all men.”
Drea is the real-life mom to 19-month old daughter, Alabama, a name suggested in part by her father. “My dad wanted him named after him and his name’s ‘Al,’” Drea explains. “We already have an Alexandra in the family. I’ve been keeping her in my trailer with me. She’s the greatest thing ever!”
Jeffrey is also a real life dad to twin 13-year-old girls and a 6-year-old daughter. His on-screen marriage to Angie, says Jeffrey, is a happy one. “They do love each other – despite whatever might come up,” says the actor. “But there’s a line like, ‘no one has to know,’ so there’s something secretive going on here.” As for his relationship with son Danny, Jeffrey says, “we were close, but now a wall has come up.”
Relative newcomer Beau grew up playing football, lacrosse and guitar in Victoria, B.C. He describes his college student Danny as “a little sullen and very peculiar – not like normal 19-year-old kids. He had to leave everything he was doing in New York, so now he’s kind of lost. He’s got some issues he’s dealing with but those won’t be discovered until a little later as the series goes on.” His romantic options seem to be Julie (
Andrea Bowen) or Gaby’s niece, Ana (
Maiara Walsh). “There’s definitely a couple options out there,” says a tickled Beau, who is single in real life.