Well what was reported in that story -- and elsewhere -- is that the women that you work with on "Desperate Housewives" cannot get along. Is that true?

No, it's not true. I have to take my hat off to that writer because he made this great thing out of a tempest in a teapot. Actually, we all do get along. People have been waiting for us not to get along from the minute this went on the air. I remember doing press conferences [before the pilot aired] with people saying, "That's a lot of women on the set, there must be a lot of fighting." They've been waiting for the fur to fly and now suddenly they find they've made something up to sink their teeth into.

So the screaming, tearful episode that Vanity Fair reported happening at the photo shoot was an anomaly, not the norm?

You know, I could go into what led up to it, and different points of the story, but I don't even want to give it that much credence because it's not that big a deal, and if I did you'd be like, "Oh, that's nothing!" But to go into it is silly and, to tell you the truth, it's boring.

Why is there an investment in the story that you all don't get along? Do we fetishize the idea of women catfighting?

People like to gossip and it's not fun to gossip about "Isn't she great? She does such nice things for the elderly!" They like to gossip about "She's a bitch. She looked at me this way." That's what's juicy and fun. Why that is, I have no idea. But I experience it too.

The prurient interest is gender-specific. "Oh, five women. How are you going to get along?" But women get along great. Women are really great at creating community.

Is the attention you're getting now different from when you were on "Sports Night," which I remember being a hit show?

Me too, goddamn it! Oddly enough it's at a lower level than "Sports Night" because on "Sports Night" there were two leads and then the first female lead was me. So it was a spotlight on me. Not very many people watched "Sports Night" compared to "Desperate Housewives," but I don't get recognized that much. The other girls are getting chased around and having their garbage gone through and stuff like that. Though, it's just starting in the last week and a half.

What is?

People are starting to recognize me ... I don't know what it is. Maybe I'm showering more.

I do feel the difference a little bit in job security. Now watch -- I'm going to get fired next week. But it's nice to know I have a job next year. At "Sports Night" it was always like, "What are the numbers? Oh, Jesus, is anyone watching? Are we going to get canceled?" And we loved it so much. So that hung over us quite a bit.

You're in "Christmas With the Kranks" and then "Transamerica," two very different films. Do you have a larger career philosophy?

But "Christmas With the Kranks" inspired "Transamerica." No. I'm kidding.

I don't do very many movies, so if they offer it to me I'm like, "OK! Sure!" I have never been at a place in my career where I've been like, "These are the kinds of films or television shows I'd like to do." I'm always more like, "Can I work?" I've been lucky in what I've done. I've done a lot of shit that never made it on TV and I've gotten fired from stuff.

What have you been fired from?

I got fired from a series called "Thunder Alley," and I got fired from a Neil Simon play. So I've been lucky that the things that have actually been seen by people are good. I choose based on the script and if I feel I can do it, and if it interests me. "The wife" has never really interested me. "The Mother" has never really interested me. And here I am playing both the wife and the mother, in a part that does interest me on "Desperate Housewives."

What interests you about her?

That it's not the fucking candy-coated version of motherhood: "Oh honey, I'm so tired and you forgot your lunch!" Which is the only way we're allowed to express the extraordinary difficulties of motherhood. We're not allowed to go, "This is driving me insane and I'd like to kill my children. And I'm a normal mother."

Are you similar to Lynette as a mother?

Lynette is close to me. That's probably why I was cast. I walked in for the audition, it was 6 at night, my kids were in the bath when I left; they were crying; it's raining; I'm exhausted. And I came in and I went: "What?"

I'm not saying that all mothers feel this way. I know there are some that sail through it and god bless them. But yes, I find motherhood incredibly challenging and difficult -- and those words are anemic compared to the experience.

Do you find yourself torn about leaving your kids the way working mothers often are?

I started out a guilty mother because I was sure I was a terrible one. So any instinct I had I was like, "That's a terrible instinct! A good mother would have taken the toy, or made the boundary." So that's kind of where I live, based on the fact that I'm a bad mom.

And I only work two or three days a week. The exceptional week is four days. So you know, no. Work is a piece of cake compared to raising children. Are you kidding? You get to go to the set and people go: "Would you like a breakfast burrito?"

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