Just when you thought the litigation happy culture of the U S of A could throw up no more surprises, it goes and slaps a lacy undercracker right around your face.

Some of you may be aware of Desperate Housewives (the U.S drama series not the seemingly mythically lustful section of society, of which I have yet to bump into) and if you are, you may well know that the semi central character of Edie Britt and the valiant, yet short, battle she had with a roadside telegraph pole.

The actress in question, Nicollette Sheridan, is bringing an action against the director claiming that her characters death was the result of an argument between the two and not, as the director claimed the fact that "there were only so many husbands [her character] could sleep with".

Now obviously, this raises many heady legal issues of wrongful termination of contract and employment law, but when you hear that the director tried to show that killing a character wasn't out of the ordinary on the show by showing the court a montage of 48 other characters being beaten, stabbed, strangled and drowned, its a little hard to care about the finer legal issues!

The madness continues...