Block Party

There'll soon be a new housewife on Wisteria Lane. Variety reports that Alfre Woodard will be a regular cast member on the hit series next season. The trade paper describes her character as a seemingly normal mother who moves to the neighborhood with her son. (The boy's father is apparently out of the picture.) The role will mark the four-time Emmy winner's first recurring TV role since she played Dr. Roxanne Turner on St. Elsewhere from 1985 to 1987. Currently on screen as a poetry-spouting hairstylist in Beauty Shop, Woodard will introduce her Housewives character this spring on the season finale.

At the same time, Woodard has signed on to star opposite Antonio Banderas in the film Take the Lead, Variety reports. She'll play a skeptical high school principal who's won over by the unorthodox methods of immigrant instructor Banderas. Any chance she can drag him over to Wisteria Lane?

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