Ten Things You Never Knew About Teri Hatcher

Teri Hatcher is Hollywood's comeback queen. Eight years after flying high as Superman's squeeze Lois Lane and playing a Bond Girl opposite Pierce Brosnan, the self-confessed "has been" was crying on her kitchen floor fretting about paying her mortgage. Luckily, Desperate Housewives came along in 2004 to pluck her out of the wilderness and catapult her right back to the top of the A-list. Her turn as neurotic Susan Mayer has earned her a cabinet full of awards, a lucrative beauty contract, a hit autobiography and even a TV show based on her life. As Housewives returns for a fourth series tomorrow night, we dish up ten fascinating facts about Wisteria Lane's girl next door.

1. Teri was studying maths and engineering in college when she headed to Hollywood to lend moral support to a pal during an open casting call. She ended up auditioning herself and landed her big break as a singing and dancing mermaid in The Love Boat.

2. Teri had the hots for Lois & Clark co-star Dean Cain when they first met in 1993.

3. A raunchy snap of Teri wearing nothing but Supes's scarlet cape was downloaded from the internet more than 20,000 times in 1995! She said at the time: "It's a great shot. Not so much because it's me. It's just cool-looking."

4. Teri's first marriage to Marcus Leithold lasted just ten months and he later said it was over before they developed the wedding photos. Ouch! Her second attempt with actor Jon Tenney fared slightly better - it survived nine years and produced daughter Emersen Rose, but was almost completely celibate.

5. Teri collects salt and pepper shakers and received a couple of particularly large specimens as a gift on Ellen's chatshow in 2006. Each to his own, we suppose!

6. Teri finally spoke out about being sexually abused by her uncle when she heard a 14-year-old girl had killed herself after suffering at his hands. She explains: "This is something I’ve tried to hide my whole life. Any day of the week I could feel that sort of pain. I haven’t tried to kill myself, but I’ve certainly thought about it.” Her testimony helped send Richard Hayes Stone to jail for 14 years.

7. Teri earned $70,000 per episode for the first season of Desperate Housewives - by the second season, it had jumped to a whopping $285,000. Way to go, Teri!

8. Teri just loves her nipples but she isn't so keen on her posterior. She says: "It hangs a little too long. God forbid what it will look like when I'm older. It will probably be dragging along on the ground behind me!"

9. Teri sued the Daily Sport in 2005 after a story called “Telly Teri’s Romps in Van” alleged that she was getting down and dirty in a VW camper van outside her house.

10. Teri's home was invaded by killer bees after thousands of the critters moved into a sofa outside. She recalls: "I have a vintage 60s couch on the deck by my back door and 20,000 of them had made their home in it." Yikes!