CROSSOVER OF THE WEEK!

THE CROSSOVER OF THE WEEK

The intro for this past week's 'Monday Night Football' featured 'Desperate Housewives' star Nicollette Sheridan seducing Philadelphia Eagles star Terrell Owens in the Philly locker room.

Clad only in a white towel, Sheridan provocatively asks Owens to skip the game with the Dallas Cowboys in order to spend time with her. When he asks her what she has on under her towel, the camera pans to the towel dropping around her feet and then pans back up to a naked Sheridan jumping into Owens' arms.

But we know that Sheridan wasn't playing Edie Britt, her character from 'Desperate Housewives' because - and this is where the crossover comes in, - we see that it's all part of a TV show being watched by actual characters from the show: Susan Mayer and Lynette Scavo.

The salacious nature of the intro, plus its "jungle fever" attitude, generated so many complaints from viewers that ABC apologized the following day.

"We have heard from many of our viewers about [the] opening segment and we agree that the placement was inappropriate," ABC said in a statement. "We apologize."

But the Towel Affair sure seemed to get Owens souped up more than Donovan McNabb's mother could with a bowl of Campbells - the wide receiver scored three touchdowns as the Eagles romped to a 49-21 win over the Cowboys.

So who was Nicolette Sheridan supposed to be? Perhaps she was appearing as herself in the promo; it would be the simplest solution. And I'm not sure if any of her past movie characters would be in a position to come on to Owens in such a manner.

And it would have to be one of her movie characters. Remember, ladies, all of her TV characters exist in the same universe as Susan and Lynette of 'Desperate Housewives'. She wouldn't be seen as Paige Mathison ('Knots Landing') in such a tawdry intro to 'Monday Night Football'!

No, I think we're actually seeing Nicollette Sheridan as a fictionalized version of herself as she once did on 'The Larry Sanders Show'.

('Monday Night Football' & 'Desperate Housewives' & 'The Larry Sanders Show')

BCnU!
Tele-Toby