Sheridan's attorney expects tough fight from ABC

Nicollette Sheridan's attorney says he expected "Desperate Housewives" creator Marc Cherry and ABC to respond defensively to the actress' lawsuit alleging assault and battery, gender violence and wrongful termination - and that appears to have already begun.

"We expect the case to be hard-fought, and it will not be a surprise if ABC and Mr. Cherry try to depict Nicollette to be something other than a team player and long-standing industry professional," attorney Mark Baute told People magazine Tuesday.

At roughly the same time, TMZ.com wrote "a half-dozen" anonymous crew members with whom the Web site spoke denied their employer had done anything wrong. One acknowledged "verbal tiffs" between Cherry and the stars, but never saw Cherry strike an actress "with his hand across her face and head" in February 2009, as the $20 million lawsuit alleges.

Baute said Sheridan, 46, who played real-estate agent provocateur Edie Britt, "was a model employee." The lawsuit claims Britt was written off the show, four months after Cherry allegedly hit her. Sheridan says he visited her trailer to "beg forgiveness" after she reported him to ABC executives, whom Sheridan says turned down her request for protection.

ABC Studios said in a statement, "While we have yet to see the actual complaint, we investigated similar claims made by Ms. Sheridan last year and found them to be without merit."