'Housewives' star in transgendered role

Low-buget comedy Transamerica, to be released in America later this month will see the blonde star of Desperate Housewives, Felicity Huffman, play a woman who was once trapped in a man's body.

Huffman plays Bree, a woman who until very recently used to be a man named Stanley. One week before surgery Stanley discovered that he had fathered a son who wants to connect with his father.

Transamerica has critics raving and Oscars being mentioned. Filmmakers hope that the gender-bending film can move beyond the limited gay and arthouse venues to which it is likely to be contained and move into family-orientated middle America at which the film is aimed.