Lois Smith Joins 'Desperate Housewives' This Season

TVGuide.com reports that Lois Smith will be the newest member of Wasteria Lane this upcoming season, playing the role of 'Allison Scavo,' mother to 'Tom (played by Soug Savant). Smith's character will be taking up residence with 'Lynette' (Felicity Huffman) and 'Tom' in order to help him beat a case of postpartum depression. 

Smith will appear in two episodes in the upcoming season for now.  Says Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry of Smith's character: "[She's] a very traditional homemaker whose ideas of what women should be to their husbands really smacks right against Lynette's more modern views of womanhood."

"Desperate Housewives" stars Teri Hatcher as Susan Mayer, Felicity Huffman as Lynette Scavo, Marcia Cross as Bree Van De Kamp, Eva Longoria as Gabrielle Solis, Nicollette Sheridan as Edie Britt, Brenda Strong as Mary Alice Young, James Denton as Mike Delfino, Doug Savant as Tom Scavo, Ricardo Antonio Chavira as Carlos Solis, Andrea Bowen as Julie Mayer, Shawn Pyfrom as Andrew Van De Kamp, Joy Lauren as Danielle Van De Kamp, Rachel Fox as Kayla Huntington, Dana Delany as Katherine Mayfair, Lyndsy Fonseca as Dylan Mayfair, Zane Huett as Parker Scavo and Brent and Shane Kinsman as Porter and Preston Scavo.

Desperate Housewives premieres on ABC September 26, 2010.

A Broadway vet, Smith has appeared on the Great White Way in Buried Child (Tony nom.), The Grapes of Wrath (Tony nom.), The Iceman Cometh, Orpheus Descending, and Time Out for Ginger, among others. She won a Drama Desk Award for Signature Theatre Company's revival of Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.