Drea de Matteo To Exit 'Housewives'

Drea de Matteo, 38, who plays Italian-American outlaw housewife Angie Bolen on the current season of Desperate Housewives, will be leaving the show in May, it was announced by ABC Thursday.

Series creator Marc Cherry insists that de Matteo’s contract had run its course. When de Matteo signed up for the DH gig, she only wanted to do one year of the show. Plot-wise, her exit may be explained by the arrival of actor John Barrowman, who will play the man that Bolen has been hiding from on the show.

Another Housewife, Dana Delany, who plays Katherine Mayfair, may be leaving the show as well. Network president Steve McPherson has invited her to star on Body of Evidence, a new pilot for ABC that centers around a female medical examiner who used to work as a neurosurgeon. Busy times on Wisteria Lane indeed! –NATASHA ALLOWAY