Movies

Eva Longoria Parker strides toward an interview suite at a local hotel. A phalanx of publicists and stylists serves as her offensive line, protecting the Desperate Housewives star from unwanted advances and, as it turns out, unwelcome questions.

Housewives is on strike-enforced hiatus, but Ms. Longoria Parker, the 32-year-old Corpus Christi native and much-publicized spouse of Spurs point guard Tony Parker, has a new movie to promote. It's called Over Her Dead Body. She plays Kate, a bossy bride-to-be who gets crushed by an ice angel on her wedding day and spends the rest of the film as a ghost trying to keep her beloved (Paul Rudd) away from a hot psychic caterer (Lake Bell).

Yes, a psychic caterer.

After getting styled, she gamely poses for the accompanying photo – she seems to have done this kind of thing before – and sits down to talk about the movie.

So, Eva, why did you want to play a ghost?

"I had never played a ghost before, and I thought about all of the fun stuff she could do in the movie," she says. "She could levitate. She could float. She could play pranks and sabotage this relationship. I was attracted to it because of that."

She also gets to make flatulence sounds. But we don't get into that.

"I love all the digital effects," she continues. "The scenes where I'm floating over the bed and levitating off the ground. I walk through people. All of that was done in postproduction, so it was kind of interesting to see how that was done and be a part of that."

She's perfectly nice and professional, but this is still one of those slightly awkward celebrity interviews. Her people want her to talk about the movie, and they are happy to hover nearby and remind me to keep the questions on track. ("Do you have any more questions about the movie?" asks the head publicist as questions veer away from the multiple facets of playing a ghost.)

But with Ms. Longoria Parker you want to ask about other subjects. Mr. Parker. The collapse of her beloved Dallas Cowboys. What it's like to have slanderous gossip rags running false pregnancy rumors.

If you're ever in this situation, here's what you do: Ask the questions about the ghost movie, which has been panned left and right, early in the interview. Then ask what you want to ask.

On the pregnancy rumors: "It happens every week. It's kind of normal now. I'm not pregnant."

On the writers strike: "I really do miss the show. It's going to be three months soon that I haven't been to work. I miss the family – our crew, our cast, the studio. I miss everything, and I want to get back to work. I hope the strike gets settled soon. I hear it's not going well, that there's no end in sight."

On the Cowboys, her favorite team since childhood: "I was heartbroken, laying in bed, watching the Boys not pull through at the end. Sports are crazy. Extreme highs and extreme lows. I really expected we were going to go far this year. That's the tough thing about football that I don't like. In basketball you get best out of seven. If you have a bad game you can make it up. In football you're out so fast if you have a bad day."

On the Tony Romo-Jessica Simpson imbroglio: "When I started dating my Tony, I was blamed for the bad games. If he was hurt it was my fault. It took a while for people to accept me, but once you get over that hump they accept you. Especially in Texas, it's really the fans' teams. I can see why people get really territorial, but it's never anybody's fault but the players'. My Tony is never thinking about anything but the game when he's out there, so I doubt Romo is thinking about anything else but winning."

The hovering publicist approaches. "Are we done?" she asks.

Yes. We are. WATCH VIDEO of Chris Vognar's interview with Eva Longoria Parker. GuideLive.com

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