Desperate Housewives creator/writer MARC CHERRY called on his former leading lady Eva Longoria for a crash course on Mexican culture after signing up to create a new Tv show about Latina maids.

Cherry is set to premiere Devious Maids, about the housekeepers who work for the rich and famous, on U.S. network Lifetime on 23 June (13), but the Emmy Award winner confesses he wouldn't have been able to get the project off the ground without help from actress Longoria, who recently received her Master's degree in Chicano studies and agreed to executive produce the series.

He tells the New York Post, "I knew I might raise a few eyebrows by casting an all-Latina cast. I thought that would be kind of ground-breaking. I knew I was going to be writing parts that were about multi-dimensional, fun, interesting, ambitious, somewhat flawed women. And I just thought, 'I know I'll get a little criticism, but I want to do this'.

"I also called my good friend Eva Longoria and said, 'I'm going to need some help learning about this culture - what things I need to stay away from, what things I need to stress.' So Eva came on board immediately."